The start of the 2025 Jubilee brings with it the image of a Pontiff who is now elderly and in a crippled condition, faced with what, in all likelihood, will be the last great commitment of his pontificate.
With around 25 thousand faithful arriving in St Peter's Square, braving an unusual Roman cold, and another 6000 people waiting for him inside, Pope Francis appeared in his wheelchair in front of the Holy Door of the Vatican basilica around 7pm.
Return to traditional canonsJubilee 2025 officially began at 7.17pm on December 24, 2024. We thus return to the traditional canons, which prescribe the opening of the Holy Year on Christmas night and its closing on the Epiphany of the following year (6 January 2026).
For Francis, this is the second Holy Year, after the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which, subverting all conventions, was inaugurated in Bangui (capital of the Central African Republic, then at the center of a bloody civil war), on 29 November 2015.
Yesterday evening, as usual for ordinary Jubilees, the opening of the Holy Door was intertwined with the liturgy of the Nativity. “The infinitely large has become small; the divine light has shone amidst the darkness of the world; the glory of heaven has appeared on earth“: this happened “in the smallness of a Child. And if God comes, even when our heart resembles a poor manger, then we can say: hope is not dead, hope is alive, and envelops our lives forever! Hope does not disappoint“, said the Holy Father.
Thanks to the opening of the Holy Door, “each of us can enter into the mystery of this announcement of grace. This is the night when the door of hope opened onto the world; this is the night in which God says to each one: there is hope for you too!“, added the Pontiff, recalling that “God forgives everything, God always forgives“.
The amazement of the shepherds who arrived “without delay” to the Bethlehem cave is “the indication to rediscover lost hope, renew it within us, sow it in the desolations of our time and our world“: in this regard Bergoglio cited the “guerre“, i “machine-gunned children“, the “bombs on schools and hospitals“. In light of this, he urged: “Don't delay, don't slow down, but let yourself be attracted by the good news“.
Not to “false prudence” and “quiet living”
The “Christian hope“, continued the Pope “it is not a happy ending to be passively waited for, it is not thehappy end of a film: it is the promise of the Lord to be welcomed here, now, in this land that suffers and groans. It therefore asks us not to delay, to not to drag ourselves into habits, not to remain in mediocrity and laziness; it asks us – as Saint Augustine would say – to be indignant at the things that are wrong and to have the courage to change them; asks us to become pilgrims in search of the truth, dreamers who are never tired, 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“.
The hope expressed by the shepherds “does not accept the false prudence of those who do not go out of their way for fear of compromising themselves and the calculation of those who think only of themselves“. Hope is “incompatible with the quiet life of those who do not raise their voices against evil and injustices committed against the poorest. On the contrary, Christian hope, while inviting us to patiently wait for the Kingdom“.
The Jubilee itself, Francis underlined, is “the time of hope“, which invites us to “rediscovering the joy of the encounter with the Lord calls us to spiritual renewal and commits us to the transformation of the world, because this it truly becomes a jubilee time“, he urged, “for our mother Earth, disfigured by the logic of profit; you become one for the poorest countriesburdened by unjust debts; you become one for all those who are prisoners of old and new slavery“.
Finally, an exhortation: “bring hope where it has been lost: where life is wounded, in betrayed expectations, in broken dreams, in failures that shatter the heart; in the tiredness of those who can no longer take it, in the bitter loneliness of those who feel defeated, in the suffering that digs into the soul; in the long and empty days of prisoners, in the narrow and cold rooms of the poor, in places desecrated by war and violence. Bringing hope theresow hope there“.
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The Door of God's heart is always open
This morning, during the Urbi et Orbi message, the Holy Father, visibly tired, once again focused on the beginning of the Jubilee. “The door to the Heart of God is always open“, he said. “Let us return to Him, let us return to the heart that loves us and forgives us. Let us allow ourselves to be forgiven by Him, let us be reconciled with Him. God always forgives, God forgives everything, let us allow ourselves to be forgiven by Him“. The Holy Door opened last night in St. Peter's, therefore, “represents Jesus, Door of salvation open for all“.
“You don't need to knock on the door: it's open. come on“, continued the Pope, “let us allow ourselves to be reconciled with God and then we will be reconciled with ourselves and we will be able to reconcile with each other, even with our enemies. God's mercy can do everything, unties every knot, breaks down every wall of division. God's mercy dissolves hatred and the spirit of revenge. Come! Jesus is the door of peace. Often we stop only on the threshold. We don't have the courage to go beyond it, because it calls us into question“.
As usual, a mention and a prayer for all the peoples at war. Per “the tormented Ukraine, let us have the audacity to open the door to negotiation and gestures of dialogue, of meeting, to arrive at a just and lasting peace“. Then, for “the Middle East with its eyes fixed on the cradle of Bethlehem“: the Pontiff addressed “a thought for the Christian communities in Palestine, in Israel and in particular for the dear community of Gaza where the humanitarian situation is very serious“.
Closeness was expressed by the Pope “to the Christian community in Lebanon, especially in the South and in Syria“. And also Africa, in particular the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Mozambique, Sudan. Other countries in the heart of the Holy Father, scattered between Asia and Latin America: Myanmar, Haiti, Venezuela, Colombia, Nicaragua, Cyprus.
“Every life is sacred“he later recalled. “And to recover the founding values of the human family, He awaits us on the threshold, awaits each of us, especially the most fragile“, he added, mentioning children (especially those victims of wars), the elderly, those who have lost or cannot find a job, prisoners who, “despite everything, they remain children of God“, beyond “those who are persecuted for their faith“.
