Cardinal Tobin: Our Lenten journey, a pilgrimage of hope

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Vol. 6. No.14 

My dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

The theme for Jubilee Year 2025 is “Pilgrims of Hope.” Pilgrimages are as old as Judaism and Christianity (and many other religious traditions). St. Luke tells us that the Holy Family (Jesus, Mary and Joseph) made an annual pilgrimage from Nazareth to Jerusalem in observance of the Feast of the Passover.

Pope Benedict XVI writes in Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives that the deeper meaning of these annual pilgrimages for the Jewish people was the powerful affirmation that Israel was “God’s pilgrim people, always journeying toward its God and receiving its identity and unity from the encounter with God in the one Temple. The Holy Family takes its place within this great pilgrim community on its way to the Temple and to God.”

In his Bull of Indiction for the 2025 Jubilee Year, titled Spes non confundit (Hope does not disappoint), Pope Francis addresses the virtue of Hope in some detail.

The pope centers on the theme of hope as a core message of his papacy. (His recently published autobiography is titled “Hope.”) Pope Francis urges believers to use this Holy Year as a moment to renew their hope in God amidst global challenges, particularly highlighting the need for peace and addressing suffering through diplomacy and social action. The Holy Father calls for all of us to be “Pilgrims of Hope” who actively work towards a better future by engaging with the signs of hope present in the world, even in difficult times. 

We all know what hope means in our lives. Even when it is absent, we long for it because we know intuitively that without hope all is lost. In the heart of every person, hope reveals itself as the desire and expectation of good things to come, despite our not knowing what the future may bring. We cannot know for certain what will happen, but we always have hope—even in the direst circumstances.

According to Pope Francis:

Uncertainty about the future may at times give rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt. When we come across people who are consistently discouraged, pessimistic and cynical about the future, we wonder if anything at all can bring them happiness. Hope is the virtue that shatters despair and makes it possible for us to believe in God’s ability to transform darkness into light.

We Christians carry on the tradition of pilgrimage in a profoundly hopeful spirit, and we recognize that our destination is not a building like the Temple, or any earthly place no matter how holy. Our pilgrimage is a spiritual journey that makes it possible for us to follow Jesus on the Way of the Cross. In this pilgrimage, there are many stops along the way, and sometimes many detours, but our final destination is the joy of heaven—our true homeland where we will be united with God and all his family for eternity.

We who are disciples of the Divine Redeemer believe that hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced Heart of Jesus upon the Cross. The Holy Spirit illumines all believers with the light of hope. He keeps that light burning, like an ever-burning lamp, to sustain and invigorate our lives. Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love.

The six weeks of Lent are a time when we have the opportunity to get ready, to prepare ourselves, for the special joy that comes with the Easter Triduum, the passion, death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. The light of hope leads us as we pilgrims follow in the footsteps of Jesus. And the Holy Spirit binds us together as fellow travelers, preventing us from becoming lost or discouraged on our pilgrim journey.

During this Jubilee Year, and especially in Lent, let’s be confident Pilgrims of Hope who walk with Jesus and one another in good times and in hard times. May the Holy Spirit accompany us and bring us all to the joy of Easter.

Sincerely yours in Christ the Redeemer, 
Cardinal Joseph W. Tobin, C.Ss.R. 
Archbishop of Newark  

A Message from Pope Francis: Words of Challenge and Hope

Let us journey together in hope

Dear brothers and sisters,

We begin our annual pilgrimage of Lent in faith and hope with the penitential rite of the imposition of ashes. The Church, our mother and teacher, invites us to open our hearts to God’s grace, so that we can celebrate with great joy the paschal victory of Christ the Lord over sin and death, which led Saint Paul to exclaim: “Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ( 1 Cor 15:54-55). Indeed, Jesus Christ, crucified and risen, is the heart of our faith and the pledge of our hope in the Father’s great promise, already fulfilled in his beloved Son: life eternal (cf. Jn 10:28; 17:3). 

This Lent, as we share in the grace of the Jubilee Year, I would like to propose a few reflections on what it means to journey together in hope, and on the summons to conversion that God in his mercy addresses to all of us, as individuals and as a community.

First of all, to journey. The Jubilee motto, “Pilgrims of Hope”, evokes the lengthy journey of the people of Israel to the Promised Land, as recounted in the Book of Exodus. This arduous path from slavery to freedom was willed and guided by the Lord, who loves his people and remains ever faithful to them. It is hard to think of the biblical exodus without also thinking of those of our brothers and sisters who in our own day are fleeing situations of misery and violence in search of a better life for themselves and their loved ones. A first call to conversion thus comes from the realization that all of us are pilgrims in this life; each of us is invited to stop and ask how our lives reflect this fact. Am I really on a journey, or am I standing still, not moving, either immobilized by fear and hopelessness or reluctant to move out of my comfort zone? Am I seeking ways to leave behind the occasions of sin and situations that degrade my dignity? It would be a good Lenten exercise for us to compare our daily life with that of some migrant or foreigner, to learn how to sympathize with their experiences and in this way discover what God is asking of us so that we can better advance on our journey to the house of the Father. This would be a good “examination of conscience” for all of us wayfarers.

Second, to journey together. The Church is called to walk together, to be synodal. Christians are called to walk at the side of others, and never as lone travelers. The Holy Spirit impels us not to remain self-absorbed, but to leave ourselves behind and keep walking towards God and our brothers and sisters. Journeying together means consolidating the unity grounded in our common dignity as children of God (cf. Gal 3:26-28). It means walking side-by-side, without shoving or stepping on others, without envy or hypocrisy, without letting anyone be left behind or excluded. Let us all walk in the same direction, tending towards the same goal, attentive to one another in love and patience.

This Lent, God is asking us to examine whether in our lives, in our families, in the places where we work and spend our time, we are capable of walking together with others, listening to them, resisting the temptation to become self-absorbed and to think only of our own needs. 

Let us ask ourselves in the presence of the Lord whether, as bishops, priests, consecrated persons and laity in the service of the Kingdom of God, we cooperate with others. Whether we show ourselves welcoming, with concrete gestures, to those both near and far. Whether we make others feel a part of the community or keep them at a distance. This, then, is a second call to conversion: a summons to synodality.

Third, let us journey together in hope, for we have been given a promise. May the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5), the central message of the Jubilee, be the focus of our Lenten journey towards the victory of Easter. As Pope Benedict XVI taught us in the Encyclical Spe Salvi, “the human being needs unconditional love.  He needs the certainty which makes him say: ‘neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord’ ( Rom 8:38-39)”. Christ, my hope, has risen! He lives and reigns in glory. Death has been transformed into triumph, and the faith and great hope of Christians rests in this: the resurrection of Christ!

This, then, is the third call to conversion: a call to hope, to trust in God and his great promise of eternal life. Let us ask ourselves: Am I convinced that the Lord forgives my sins? Or do I act as if I can save myself? Do I long for salvation and call upon God’s help to attain it? Do I concretely experience the hope that enables me to interpret the events of history and inspires in me a commitment to justice and fraternity, to care for our common home and in such a way that no one feels excluded?

Sisters and brothers, thanks to God’s love in Jesus Christ, we are sustained in the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5). Hope is the “sure and steadfast anchor of the soul”. It moves the Church to pray for “everyone to be saved” ( 1 Tim 2:4) and to look forward to her being united with Christ, her bridegroom, in the glory of heaven. This was the prayer of Saint Teresa of Avila: “Hope, O my soul, hope. You know neither the day nor the hour. Watch carefully, for everything passes quickly, even though your impatience makes doubtful what is certain, and turns a very short time into a long one” (The Exclamations of the Soul to God, 15:3). 

May the Virgin Mary, Mother of Hope, intercede for us and accompany us on our Lenten journey.

Fuente: Message of the Holy Father Francis for Lent 2025 

My Prayer for You  

Let us pray together:

During this holy season of Lent, create a clean heart in us, Lord. Help us to prepare for the joy of Easter by meditating on the Lord’s Prayer and by always adding to our prayers of petition “your will, not mine, be done.” May our faith in You sustain us through all the hardships we must endure in this time of pandemic, social unrest and economic difficulties. Help us to cast all our anxieties onto You, Lord. We know that you will care for us and that you will protect us from every harm.  Amen.