How can we celebrate Christmas this year without thinking of the splendor of Notre-Dame rediscovered? The quality and speed of the restoration of this cathedral so dear to the hearts of the French and so many other people around the world, the courage of the firefighters and the enthusiasm of the workers, the mysterious communion in wonder and pride of “those who believe in heaven and those who do not” demonstrated the possible victory of the flame of the Spirit over the fire that destroys.
How can we celebrate Christmas this year without also thinking of the fervor of the Corsicans welcoming the successor of Saint Peter to their island of Beauty and piety? Extending the song of the Magnificat under the vaults of Notre-Dame, the Corsican and Marian anthem of God save you Reginaspringing from the depths of hearts and ages, resounded powerfully under the celestial vault ablaze with the setting sun of Ajaccio. The Pope had come there to encourage simple and ardent piety, accessible to all, which can, despite the sneers of those who imagine themselves learned, open a true path to the depths of the faith.
The 2025 jubilee is an invitation to become “pilgrims of hope”
But how can we celebrate Christmas this year without also thinking of the clamor of the inhabitants of Mayotte, tested like never before, and of so many other countries crossed by violence and war: the Holy Land, Ukraine, Lebanon, Syria , Armenia, Burma, Sudan and so many African regions. The birth of Jesus, in occupied Bethlehem, reverberates from age to age through the celebration of the Nativity in communities and in hard-pressed lands where the Child in the manger shines like a spark of peace in an ocean of conflicts.
This is undoubtedly why Pope Francis wanted the Great Jubilee of the year 2025 to be placed under the sign of hope. It is a centuries-old tradition to solemnize the anniversaries of the Christian era with a holy year every quarter of a century. The Jubilee of 1950 put thousands of pilgrims back on the roads, heading towards Rome, for something other than the exodus or the fighting of the Second World War. The Jubilee of 1975 launched a refocusing on the heart of the faith among believers disoriented by the tornado of 1968. The Great Jubilee of the year 2000, identified by John Paul II as a milestone for his pontificate upon his election in 1978 , promoted the entry of humanity into a new millennium.
The Jubilee of 2025 therefore constitutes an invitation to become “pilgrims of hope”. The difficulty of the times cannot in fact justify the immobility of discouragement but must on the contrary provoke this rebound which is authentic hope: “Despair overcome”as Georges Bernanos wrote, who knew, in his novels as in his life or his combat writings, discouragement, but also the victory of the humble light of grace over the apparent omnipotence of darkness. Hope is not synonymous with cheap optimism. On the contrary, it constitutes a fight, the good fight based on the reception of luminous signs, sometimes imperceptible to supposedly strong minds, and turned towards embodied commitment, in service or testimony to the truth.
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The Great Jubilee of 2025 will coincide with the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, in 325, the first council in Christian history, which allowed a unified expression of faith with a view in particular to promoting peace in the empire and the city. This anniversary is rich in ecumenical promises. The common celebration of Easter for all Christians, Western and Eastern, on April 20, 2025 – which currently only happens a few times per century due to the distortion between the Julian and Gregorian calendars – constitutes a beautiful sign of hope for a reunified Christianity which could better contribute to peace, in Central Europe as in the Middle East.
The lesson of Notre-Dame
All this may seem far removed from the economic and political crisis, apparently without a short-term solution, that our country is going through. Ideological postures and petty ambitions seem to conspire so that the real problems of our society are not addressed with the seriousness, modesty, creativity and perseverance that circumstances require. Perhaps the crisis we are going through is above all a spiritual crisis, a crisis of deep respect for human dignity, a crisis of the relationship to the long term, a crisis of discernment between the essential and the accessory, in short, a crisis of true hope.
A five-year period of shared effort toward a magnificent goal can accomplish miracles
Ah, if only the lesson of Notre-Dame could have lasting effect! A five-year period of shared effort toward a clear and magnificent goal can accomplish miracles, in the broad sense of the term. Couldn't what was carried out for the cathedral also be carried out for national education, the world of health, the reintegration of people in great precariousness or the renewal of international institutions? Our country is full of hidden talents, firefighters capable of putting out the fires of society, fellow builders capable of building more fraternity. It is still necessary that direction, mission and means be given to them.
Christmas is the birth of a hope that continues to be reborn from year to year. Notre-Dame or the Casone have echoed it and invite you to enter. “Enter into hope! » The apostrophe of John Paul II, years ago, remains more relevant than ever in these times of collapse, so that human and social vaults welcoming to all may be built and rebuilt, as at Notre-Dame. because they soar towards the sky.
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