By the time you read this, I will be on pilgrimage for the Jubilee Year, with Rome as the first stop. So I would like to reflect on the Jubilee and its motto “Pilgrims of Hope.”
What is the significance of a pilgrimage? Besides the obvious significance of visiting a holy place or places, we can say that a pilgrimage is a metaphor for the journey of life. As a pilgrimage is a journey through various places, so we journey through the various stages of our lives.
We are not wandering aimlessly. As a pilgrimage has a destination, so in life we hope to reach a destination – God’s Kingdom. When we start out on any journey and during our time on that journey, we have hope that we will reach our destination. If we did not have hope that we would ever reach the destination, it would make no sense to make the journey. Just so the virtue of hope sustains us on the journey of life.
Life is not like just taking a stroll to nowhere in particular, walking around with no direction in mind. Our faith tells us we have a goal in life: the heavenly kingdom. Our hope tells us that we can reach this goal. We can arrive at this destination. It is hope that keeps us going on the journey, so going on pilgrimage reminds us that our life is going somewhere and is a journey, so we should try to go forward, make progress on this journey.
What is hope? According the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal happiness, placing our trust in Christ promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit” (CCC#1817).
Hope is one of the “big three” theological virtues — Faith, Hope, and Charity. They are called theological because “they have the one and triune God for their origin, motive, and object” (CCC#1812). They come from God. We need His grace to implant them in our soul.
Hope, like the other theological virtues, not only comes from God, it leads to God. God is its “object.” It is hope that keeps us going on our journey of life. It is hope that keeps us from discouragement, especially when things get rough. We need the light of hope today when the world can seem so dark and discouraging. The wars and division, the violence and injustice, cannot put that light of hope out, since it comes from God. Neither can any darkness in our personal lives put it out.
However, hope does not make us forget this world with its often discouraging darkness, nor does it cause us to focus exclusively on the next world. We hope for the Kingdom of God. This means on the journey of life through this world, we try and build up that Kingdom to prepare for its perfect manifestation when Christ comes in His glory and fulfills all our hopes.
In this life then, we are “Pilgrims of Hope.” This Jubilee Year offers us food for thought, whether we go on an actual pilgrimage or not. Let us reflect on hope in this Jubilee Year. Let us pray that God gives us an increase in hope. Let us remember that we are pilgrims, that we are on the move. The ultimate meaning of our life is that it is a journey toward the fulfillment of all our hopes in God’s Kingdom.
By Monsignor William Baker, Assistant Pastor of St. Peter the Apostle, Reading.
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