Jubilee Year of Hope Homily

St. Gerard Majella Church, Hollis, New York, June 19, 2025

Given at St. Gerard Majella Church In Hollis, New York on June 19, 2025

The Catholic Church has officially inaugurated the Jubilee Year of Hope. This year is a special year of grace, pilgrimage, and spiritual renewal. A Jubilee Year, traditionally celebrated every 25 years, offers the faithful an opportunity to deepen their relationship with God, experience reconciliation, and to participate in acts of charity and mercy. Pope Francis initiated the Jubilee Year and Pope Leo has continued to implement the program as Pope Francis has wanted. The Jubilee year has a theme: “Pilgrims of Hope.” What does this mean in practical language? It means that the Catholic Church is calling all people to journey with faith, with courage, and with solidarity in a world often marked by fear, division and suffering.

Some of the key elements of the jubilee year include the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, as a symbolic act inviting pilgrims to enter into God’s mercy and grace. The year of jubilee calls for exactly what we have done this evening in the Hollis/Queens Village section of our diocese: “pilgrims traveling to Rome”- or to one of the specially designated Jubilee churches can be granted a plenary indulgence.” With Confession, Eucharist, prayer for the Pope’s intention and a detachment from sin, we can have the remission of our sins. What a great blessing for us! The Jubilee Year also focuses on our own spiritual renewal. We are encouraged to renew our own faith and hope by deeper prayer, the use of the sacrament of Reconciliation, acts of charity, and deeds of mercy. Finally, the Jubilee Year, according to the vision of Pope Francis, was to include an outreach to the poor, the sick, to prisoners, and to migrants. Why? To show to the world the continuing signs of the church, hope in the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Please allow me to quote our beloved deceased Holy Father Pope Francis, who, in preparation for the Jubilee Year, wrote this “We are pilgrims of hope, working together toward a better future, not alone, but with Christ who lights our path. May this Holy Year be a time to rekindle faith, heal wounds, and open hearts to the transforming power of God’s love.”

Local parishes have been encouraged to host events, liturgies, and pilgrimage routes to give God’s people some opportunities to enter into the Jubilee spirit. Your pastor, Fr. Gannon, in his desire to make the Jubilee Year a reality for you, without traveling to Rome, has invited you to participate in this procession and Holy Mass this evening. The date that was selected is by no means irrelevant. Although the feast of Corpus Christi is celebrated this coming Sunday in all our Catholic Churches – it was originally celebrated on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday. Corpus Christi has been significantly celebrated in the Catholic Church since the 13^th Century. Our church celebrates our belief that Jesus Christ is truly present in the monstrance we carried in procession, and the altar when the words of consecration are spoken by the celebrant, and when exposed on the altar for adoration or reserved in our tabernacles for visits to the Blessed Sacrament, to bring the Eucharist to the sick and homebound. Corpus Christi celebrations are a powerful reminder that:

• Christ is truly present among us in the Eucharist
• We, the followers of Christ, are called to witness publicly to this belief.
• The Eucharist is the source and summit of the Christian life.

During the Jubilee Year, Corpus Christi takes on a heightened significance as the Eucharist becomes a central focus of mercy, unity, and hope.

Yes, there is a real connection between Corpus Christi and the Jubilee Year of Hope! Our world is filled with division, loneliness, uncertainty, wars, the threat of war, and suffering. Many hearts are wounded by despair. Truly, the Eucharist shines as a beacon of hope! The Eucharist reminds us that we are not alone. Christ is with us, walking beside us, nourishing us, and uniting us as one today. In the Eucharist, we meet our Risen Lord, who offered himself for our salvation and who continues to give himself to us in every Mass. His presence is not symbolic or distant- it is real, intimate, and it can transform our lives. This is our hope: God is with us- truly present in the Eucharist. How blessed we are to have Him so close- living in us- dwelling in us- walking with us- leading us to our heavenly inheritance. In this Jubilee Year, the Church invites us to open wide the doors of hope to others – especially the forgotten, the brokenhearted, and those whom society ignores.

The Eucharist is not only a gift we receive, but it is also a mission we receive. “Go in peace, glorify the Lord by your lives.” Having been nourished by Christ, we are sent out to be hope for others. Let us not be afraid to show the world that we believe in the Real Presence of Jesus in the Eucharist, As we have done in procession, let us be bold in loving others, serving others, and praying for others. For each time we receive the Eucharist, we become what we receive: we become Christ for the world, a world that needs hope- we are the beacons of hope! St. Paul reminds us: Hope will not leave us disappointed! Our world is thirsting for peace. We have the source of peace and of hope right here in our midst! O Sacrament most Holy O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment thine!