Cardinal Louis Raphael Sako
The motto of Hope
“For you have been my hope, Sovereign Lord, my confidence since my youth” Psalm 71:5. This verse from Psalms powerfully expresses the motto chosen by Pope Francis for the Holy Jubilee Year 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” which will begin in a few weeks.
Hope is a deep explanation of the Jubilee. Hope does not come from outside, but from the Lord, and it brings us consolation. Hope moves everything forward, so we must keep its flame burning within us, and carry its light into the darkness of a divided and wounded world.
We should not confuse hope, with an emotional feeling of optimism for positive results in the face of life’s difficulties, with hope, which is a great theological virtue and a faith-based attitude for living with confidence and stability.
The basic question posed to us in the Jubilee Year is: How do we firm hope in people? And how do we carry it to a world that seems to have withdrawn from it?
Reconciliation is at the heart of the Jubilee
The Jubilee is a long-standing tradition, with great spiritual value. The Catholic Church has lived it throughout its long history, making it a sacred time for believers. The Jubilee is a time of faith and spirituality, rooted in the Bible, aimed at purifying oneself and restoring one’s relationship with God, with others with whom we live, and with creation. This is what the Pope’s letter (we are all brothers – Fratelli tutti) calls for, and to be responsible for our common home (be praised – Laudato si’). The word “Jubilee” refers to the celebration of the joy of reconciliation and forgiveness that we receive from God and from others.
This change cannot be achieved without strengthening our trust in God and our obedience to Him, through prayer and listening to the Holy Spirit who guides us in times of sin, crises and fatigue, as the Synod of the Synodality of October 2024 confirmed.
We pastors are called first and foremost to examine ourselves and our fidelity to the mission entrusted to us as witnesses who listen to the Holy Spirit to guide our people to what God wants. We are pastors to bring the joy of the Gospel, the love of God, His mercy and forgiveness, and not to manage the affairs of the Church as businessmen!
I also invite the faithful to read carefully the Encyclical Letter “He loved us- Dilexit nos” of Pope Francis, which has a spiritual value for this Jubilee. It helps us to reflect on the theme of the Jubilee and to have the hope that leads us on an “inner spiritual pilgrimage and sharing love (God’s love for us) with others. This love frees us from self-aggrandizement, selfishness, corruption and the spirit of revenge.
Courageous reconciliation is the first step of the Jubilee
The Jubilee is an opportunity to begin a new phase that the Bible calls repentance, to get rid of the painful past and start better to live in peace, joy and happiness. The first step we take to awaken our truth is reconciliation and change through examining our conscience: events, self-truth, and relationships in a confused society.
The great change involves the way of living the faith and living relationships at all levels in society and the Church, with special attention to the dimension of behavioral change.
Reconciliation lies in addressing hostility, resentment, and the spirit of revenge through clear admission of wrongdoing, deep inner regret for what we have done wrong, the courage to ask for forgiveness, and the attempt to change our behavior so that we may live in peace and harmony. Just as God opens the door of mercy, grace, and forgiveness to those who truly repent, we too must forgive those who have wronged us and ask forgiveness for those whom we have wronged. Is it not to this repentance that the official opening of the doors of the major churches at the beginning of the Jubilee indicates?
Admitting mistakes and asking for forgiveness are essential steps to healing wounded memories. This is what Jesus Christ taught in Our father’s Prayer: “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us” (Matthew 6:12). “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:15).
Thanks to this mercy that we receive from God and accept, we can forgive others for their wrongdoings against us and transform “forgiveness and reconciliation” into joy.
The Jubilee is a unique opportunity to reach out to others, towards mutual review and fraternal disclosure under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. For the courage of mutual reconciliation, and the joy that flows from it, is incomparable to that of unchristian disputes and alignments.
The Church has an educational and pedagogical mission, which was emphasized by the Synod of Synodality. The sinodal-conciliar Church is a living Church with a mission. Here I think about the importance of Christian Formation according to the orientations proposed by the catechism documents decades ago, which I believe we Easterners have not benefited from! This is because the correct formation becomes a formation-transformation. Here I mention the issue of reviewing the role of language, terminology and style in transferring the faith, communicating with the needs and expecting’s of believers, and the necessity of training preachers and teachers of “catechism” on sustainable developments.
The Jubilee and Human Tragedies are an Opportunity for a More Honest Humanity
How can we nurture hope for peace in the face of the families of those who lost their lives in conflicts, wars and terrorism, or people who lost their homes, properties and jobs and live in camps dominated by fear, poverty and need for everything?
The future of a better world requires abandoning the manufacture of advanced and deadly weapons and focusing on eliminating the causes of destructive conflicts and tragedies of injustice, greed, corruption and carelessness, and creating balances, stable harmony and security between peoples and countries.
As Christian, Muslim and Jewish believers, we must realize that God is for all and wants good for all. The injustice that is happening in our world is completely contrary to the will of God, who created man and loves him and created the universe: “God saw that it was good ” (Genesis 1:12) and sustains it.
The Church (and other religious authorities) has a great commitment to raise its prophetic voice loudly in support of tangible solutions, in changing the way of living fraternal relations, in peace, stability and equality, in freedom, dignity and respect.
This approach to current issues is based on Christ’s announcement of his Jubilee program in the Nazareth Council, based on the text of the Prophet Isaiah (61/1-2): “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty the oppressed, to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4/18-19).
Yes, the Church needs a new strategy to link these humanitarian and social issues with faith. The Church can draw on all people of good will, and there are many who want to do something for peace and stability. Pope Francis said: “I hope that the Jubilee will be an opportunity for a ceasefire in all the ongoing conflicts” (in his introduction to the book entitled “The Jubilee of Hope, December 4, 2024”). This is hope.
Activities
On the common level:
The Patriarchate and the dioceses inside and outside the country will certainly organize various activities, including:
Organizing a spiritual and liturgical service for the Jubilee: common prayers and special masses, meditation sessions on the Word of God and common penitential services.
Volunteer generously in the service of charity: serving the poor, the sick and the disabled. Pope Francis says that every act of mercy is a sign of hope (Sunday Mass homily 11/17/2024 on the Day of the Poor).
It is preferable for each diocese to organize a group or more for pilgrimage to the holy places, with the number limited to 30-40 to continue throughout the year. This organization ensures the continuity of our church’s presence in these church gatherings of high spiritual value.
Visiting four churches in the diocese, and the global shrines in Rome, Assisi, Cascia and Lourdes in France, and Our Lady of Fatima in Portugal or the Basilica of Saint Theresa in Cairo where the statue of Our Lady of Fatima stands. I also emphasize pilgrimage to our roots in Iraq and the ancient monasteries and churches: the Monastery of Rabban Hormizd, Mar Oraha, the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Mosul, Mar Isaiah and Miskanta, and the Church of Kokhi and Our Lady of Sorrows in Baghdad and the new Church of Abraham al-Khalil in Ur al-Nasiriyah.
In Baghdad, we have formed a committee to organize the pilgrimage inside and outside Iraq.
The faithful lesson of the Jubilee and of Christmas, which is approaching: to learn from the experience of Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and the Magi: to deepen our faith and trust amid many changes and difficult challenges, and to listen to the Word of God through events-signs, and deep contemplation. When we let His voice speak to our hearts, then we will clearly find everything that God wants to say to us, so that we can embody it with joy and pass it on with hope to others.
Let us place this journey under the protection of our Mother Mary, so that she may accompany us in the Jubilee Year and in our entire journey of faith, as she accompanied her Son Jesus.
A Holy Jubilee Year for All
