Cardinal Felipe Arizmendi, bishop emeritus of San Cristóbal de Las Casas and head of the Doctrine of Faith at the Mexican Episcopal Conference (CEM), offers readers of Exaudi his weekly article.
FACTS
Hope moves the world. From parents who eagerly await the arrival of a much-wanted child, to those who die peacefully with the hope of eternal life. Hoping gives meaning to life, to struggle, to effort, to joy and strength in the face of adversity.
Those who study long to obtain a degree that will open the way for a successful profession and satisfactory income. Even if they have to stay up late to do their homework and abstain from parties when exams come, they do so convinced that these sacrifices will bear good fruit.
Migrants expose themselves to many limitations and dangers in order to reach a place where they can obtain a better life. Prisoners count the days and hours until they are free. Farmers work hard, exposed to the sun and inclement weather, hoping to earn their daily bread for themselves and their families. Good leaders sacrifice their time and rest to be available to the needs of the community, because they hope for public recognition or re-election. The sick endure injections, operations and fasting in order to recover their health. And so we could list many other situations in which hope keeps us standing. When a government changes its term, we hope that the mistakes of the previous one will be corrected.
On the contrary, suicides of those who have lost hope increase. It seems that they see no way out of their economic, family, work or emotional problems. The same happens to alcoholics and drug addicts, who only momentarily forget their problems, complexes, failures and uncertainties when they lose consciousness. Instead of condemning them, we must understand them and help them to regain hope.
ENLIGHTENMENT
On the occasion of the 2025th anniversary of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God the Father, in Christ, Pope Francis has called us to a Holy Year or Jubilee, not so much for celebrations and obtaining economic income, but to open doors and for many people to approach God, the source of hope. The motto for this year says it all: Pilgrims of Hope. The basic biblical quote is: “Hope does not disappoint” (Rom 5:5).
When he opened the Holy Door in St. Peter’s Basilica, on the evening of December 24, thus beginning the Jubilee, he invited us to a hope that is not passive, but active, drawing closer to the Lord, to find strength in Him and help Him to remedy the evils of our world:
“There are so a good deal of desolation in our time! Let us think of wars, of children who are machine-gunned, of bombs on schools and hospitals. This is the Jubilee, this is the time of hope. It invites us to rediscover the joy of the encounter with the Lord, it calls us to spiritual renewal, and it commits us to the transformation of the world, so that this truly becomes a Jubilee time. May it become a Jubilee time for our Mother Earth, disfigured by the logic of profit; may it become a Jubilee time for the poorest countries, burdened by unjust debts; may it become a Jubilee time for all those who are prisoners of old and new forms of slavery.
We all have the gift and the task of bringing hope where it is lost; where life is wounded: in betrayed expectations, in broken dreams, in failures that break the heart; in the weariness of those who can no longer bear it, in the bitter loneliness of those who feel defeated, in the suffering that devastates the soul. In the long, empty days of prisoners, in the narrow, cold rooms of the poor, in places desecrated by war and violence. To bring hope there, to sow hope there.
Christian hope is not a happy ending to be passively awaited, it is not the happy ending of a film; it is the promise of the Lord that we must accept here and now, in this suffering and groaning land. This hope asks us not to delay, not to let ourselves be carried away by routine, not to dwell on mediocrity and laziness; it asks us—Saint Augustine would say—to be indignant at things that are not right and to have the courage to change them; it asks us to become pilgrims in search of the truth, tireless dreamers, women and men who allow themselves to be disturbed by the dream of God; which is the dream of a new world, where peace and justice reign.
Hope does not tolerate the indolence of the sedentary, nor the laziness of those who are content with their own well-being; hope does not tolerate the false prudence of those who do not take risks for fear of being compromised, nor the calculation of those who think only of themselves; it is incompatible with the peaceful life of those who do not raise their voice against evil or against the injustices committed against the skin of the poorest. On the contrary, Christian hope demands of us audacity, our responsibility and our compassion. We must not remain still. Let us not forget that stagnant water is the first to be corrupted.
The Jubilee opens so that everyone may be given hope, the hope of the Gospel, the hope of love, the hope of forgiveness. With Him joy blossoms, with Him life changes, with Him hope does not disappoint. We, disciples of the Lord, are asked, in fact, to find in Him our greatest hope, and then to bring it without delay as pilgrims of light into the darkness of the world. Being able to bring hope to the situations of our lives. And this is our task, to translate hope into the different situations of life” (24-XII-2024).
ACTIONS
Do you want to have hope and bring it to others? Come closer to Jesus, receive his forgiveness, find in Him the strength and the audacity to fight against the evils of this world. Let us start the year with this spirit.
