September 8, 2024 Essay: A Pilgrimage of Hope
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines pilgrimage as the journey of a pilgrim. Its secondary meaning is the course of life on earth. A pilgrim is defined as one who journeys in foreign lands or who travels to a shrine or holy place. Hope is defined as a desire accompanied by the expectation of or belief in fulfillment. A Christian’s understanding of hope is that it is a virtue that comes from God and leads people back to God. It is the desire for eternal life and the kingdom of God as a source of happiness and joy.
As you may recall from an announcement I made In the Spring, Pope Francis has proclaimed the Jubilee Year 2025 as a Year of Hope. By tradition a Jubilee Year is a time for pilgrims to journey to Rome and visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and walk through the doors of the four major basilicas of Rome (St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, St. Mary Major, and St. John Lateran), thereby meriting an abundance of blessings.
Let’s face it. Not all of us will be able to make a pilgrimage to Rome next year. That is not to say that we cannot participate in a pilgrimage of hope during the Holy Year. In fact, are we not already on that pilgrimage? Recall the definitions of pilgrimage, pilgrim, and hope. A pilgrimage is the journey of life to what we hold sacred. It is hope that points us in the right direction and guides our steps. As God’s gift to us, hope will never fail because what we desire has already been fulfilled. It is our faith in Jesus Christ that allows us to journey with a strong stride to our walk and a joyful spirit in our hearts. The challenge that we face is to have the willingness to open our hearts and minds to the reality of God’s presence in the world and in our lives.
As pilgrims, we will invariably journey through a foreign land, and sometimes it is at our very doorstep. The terrain will seem like the highest mountain or the darkest valley. Those encountered along the way will seem to us like barbarians, heathens who threaten our very existence. Personal hardships or tragedies, like massive blocks of granite blocking the path, may dampen our spirits and attempt to extinguish our fervor. It is at times such as these that we take refuge in our faith and are buoyed by hope, for we know that God is true to God’s word. We will recognize God’s kingdom in our daily lives amidst the din and the clamor and the rough edges of our world. We will have arrived at the destination of our pilgrimage, the world in which we live.
St. Ignatius Loyola exhorts us to see God in all things. All of creation reflects God’s presence in the world. God’s kingdom is here, not in some galactic realm of wispy clouds and ethereal bodies. Jesus Christ fearlessly proclaimed the kingdom of God in the here and now. He challenged those who would listen to him to a conversion of heart so they could experience that kingdom and, in turn, proclaim his message to everyone. Like those first joyful disciples, we are confronted by the same skeptics who would deny that reality and sow the seeds of fear and division. Our pilgrimage of hope in a world that often seems bent on self-destruction, however, is firmly rooted in the belief that the world, that all God’s creation, is sacred and reflects the image of God.
In his apostolic exhortation, Evangelii Gaudium, Pope Francis exhorted the Church and all who believe in Jesus Christ to proclaim in word and deed “the joy of the Gospel.” As a community of disciples of Jesus Christ, we are on a pilgrimage of hope, bound together by our faith and our commitment to bring into our daily lives and to the world the joy of the Gospel. Nurtured by hope, we, as a parish, are now on the threshold of implementing the goals of the parish’s Vision Statement. With God’s help, our aspirations will be actualized through a large dose of grit and determination. What we desire to accomplish is within our reach if we but open our minds and hearts to the goodness and joy that abounds among us. Our task is to join the mission of Jesus Christ in establishing in our world that kingdom of happiness and joy, of peace and justice, that God intended from the moment of creation. Please join in this communal pilgrimage of hope.
As we rev up the engine to begin a “new year” in the life of the parish, let us pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit and for one another that we may be joyful companions in our pilgrimage of hope, this year and always. And may all that we do be for the greater glory of God and the salvation of all!
– Rev. Dennis J. Yesalonia, S.J., Pastor