Pilgrims from every corner of the Diocese traveled to Allentown on Dec. 28 to share in a historic moment for the Universal Church – the opening of the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Bishop Alfred Schlert was the principal celebrant of the Mass. It began when people representing diocesan parishes and schools entered the Cathedral of St. Catharine of Siena, Allentown, in a procession led by a beautiful and historic crucifix that will serve as the symbol of the Jubilee Year in our Diocese.
“We gather this evening at a momentous time, as the Church embarks on the Jubilee Year of Hope, a year of grace, mercy, and renewal,” Bishop Schlert told the priests, deacons, consecrated religious, and lay faithful who packed the Cathedral.
The Liturgy included passages from the Papal Bull of Indiction, the document read by Pope Francis to announce the Jubilee Year.
The Pope’s words contain “a powerful call to prayer, to charity, and to justice,” the Bishop said in his Homily, “because true hope is not passive. It acts. It heals. It builds. It transforms.”
The Jubilee Year is not just a time of celebration, the Bishop said, but also “a sacred moment in which we are invited to experience God’s transformative grace.” In addition to its call to healing, reconciliation, and renewal, the Jubilee Year also is “an invitation to reclaim the profound hope we have in Christ, who is the source of all our joy,” the Bishop said.
“In a world often marked by division, suffering, and uncertainty,” he said, “hope is the light that dispels the darkness.” He said the Jubilee Year encourages us to “look beyond the temporary but real struggles of life and remember the eternal promises of God,” and to extend hope to one another by seeking reconciliation with those we have hurt, or have hurt us.
“As we begin this Jubilee Year of Hope,” this Bishop said, “we ask ourselves, ‘Where in my life do I need to allow God’s hope to break through? Where have I allowed despair to cloud my vision? Where have I been led away from the light of God’s love? This is a time to return to the Father, to reawaken to gifts of hope, and to share that hope with the world around us.”
Those attending the Vigil Liturgy on a rainy and foggy late-December evening joined in spiritual solidarity with Catholics around the world, as Masses to inaugurate the Jubilee Year of Hope were celebrated on the same weekend in every cathedral across the globe.
The eye-catching crucifix at the head of the procession made its debut at the Opening Mass in a dramatic way as it was raised to its full height of fourteen feet on a tall staff at the rear of the church. It features reliefs of the Four Evangelists – Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John – and its gold color is set off by sections of magenta and accents of green.
The Catholic Church celebrates a Jubilee every 25 years (and occasionally more often, such as with the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy declared by Pope Francis for 2016). This Jubilee will mark the 2,025th anniversary of the Incarnation of our Lord, when God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ.
Pope Francis said he selected hope as the theme because the world is suffering the ongoing effects of war, the lingering effects of Covid, and a climate crisis. In Rome, the Pope launched the Jubilee Year by opening the main doors of St. Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve.
Bishop Schlert concluded the Jubilee Year liturgy in Allentown with his own hope for everyone in the Diocese: “I wish you not just a happy and holy New Year, but a holy Jubilee Year, a year when we truly understand and feel the hope that our Lord offers us through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection, and through the motherly embrace of our Catholic Church, and of our Blessed Mother.
“So together, as pilgrims on this earth and also as pilgrims throughout this year of grace,” he said, “we ask the Lord to be with us and to help us grow in strength as one Roman Catholic Family of Faith.”
By Paul Wirth
