Grace, reconciliation, mercy and hope stand apart among the many virtues, as they have the honor of being the themes of the last four quarter-century jubilee years. Pope Pius XII called for a Year of Grace in 1950, Pope St. Paul VI proclaimed a Year of Reconciliation and Renewal in 1975, Pope St. John Paul II called for a Year of Mercy in 2000 and, of course, Pope Francis called for this year’s Year of Hope.

Calling a jubilee is part of salvation history. In the Book of Leviticus (28:10), God instructs the Israelites to treat every 50th year as sacred, a jubilee when all wrongs would be made right: properties restored, freedoms granted, loans forgiven, etc. Through this, cycles of oppression and poverty were broken.

This tradition pulls us back to the center; it gives us an opportunity to reset our values, calling us to contemplate grace, mercy, reconciliation and now hope. While the papal declaration might be a formal decree containing hundreds of words, these single words are powerful enough to stand on their own.

Imagine, just a few years after the end of the horrors of World War II, Pope Pius XII asked for grace upon grace to be poured on a world where tens of millions of people had been exterminated. Only God’s grace could redeem such pain, hurt and anguish.

Unfortunately, humans are such creatures of habit that we continue to need reconciliation and renewal. Pope Paul VI asked this of us during the Cold War while also leading the renewal within the Church, fulfilling Pope St. John XXIII’s vision of the Second Vatican Council.

Pope John Paul II’s choice for a Jubilee Year of Mercy was prophetic. Less than a year after the 2000 Jubilee Year, our nation needed to embrace mercy in the face of the 9/11 tragedy. Unfortunately, our response was more violent than merciful. The human condition wins once again. Yet hope springs eternal that one day the human condition will give way to the image of God within us.

Invited to embrace hope

Pope Francis invites us to embrace the hope that we will truly be a “light to the nations” (Is 49:6). Hope is possible because God has faith in us to accomplish what he calls us to be. Imagine life without hope. How could we ever dream, wonder, push ourselves to be something more than we imagined, to be that which God sees in us?

The hope we are invited to embrace is far more than the casual hope we often express in conversation — “I hope the job interview goes well” — or the hope that St. Anthony will find our lost cell phone. The hope given to us goes much deeper. It is a faith-filled hope that what God has in store for us will come to fulfillment.

It is the kind of hope that pushed the Israelites through “water as a wall to their right and to their left” (Ex 14:22) and sustained them as they waited 40 years for what had been promised. It is the hope in the promises of Christ that pulls us through the death of a parent, a spouse and even a child. It is the hope Mary had that the lowly will be lifted up and the hungry will be filled with good things (Lk 1:52-53). It is the hope Christ gave the multitudes, that the meek will inherit the land and that comfort will be given to those who mourn (Mt 5:4-5).

It is also the hope that the two disciples on their way to Emmaus articulated, saying to their unexpected travel companion, “we were hoping that he would be the one to redeem Israel” (Lk 24:21). It is the hope that was restored when their travel companion broke bread and their eyes were opened (24:30-31).

The Church is presently in the midst of the Lent and Easter seasons, which are full of familiar stories of denials, betrayal and despair, all being redeemed by the death of Christ, who gives truth, grace and hope to us again and again. 

FATHER PATRICK CARRION is pastor of five parishes in East Baltimore, Maryland, and director of the Office of Cemetery Management for the Archdiocese of Baltimore.