Bishop Christian Carlassare of Bentiu in South Sudan shares four key ways to get involved in the Jubilee from wherever you are.
Pilgrimage is a journey – The first keyword about the Jubilee Year is a pilgrimage. Pilgrimage is a journey. Not merely a physical journey, but most of all a spiritual journey to encounter the Lord. Many people travel but it doesn’t mean that they are on pilgrimage.
The first way to be a pilgrim, therefore, is prayer, and especially contemplation. That means being able to see God who is everywhere and to listen to His message in the life events that we experience. We can be in our homes yet set off on a journey because we are journeying with the Lord and with the signs of times and the call that the Lord has for each one of us.
Protect the dignity of life in all its stages – The second keyword that is specific to the Catholic Church’s 2025 Jubilee Year is hope. Hope is a theological virtue. It is a gift from God. But it is also an attitude we must learn to practice by strengthening our faith and love because hope is rooted in faith, and is nurtured in love.
We belong to God, and we are part of a greater plan of salvation. How do we look at the world? Sometimes we may live without aim, without hope. We also may be afraid and confused but hope tells us that we should not be afraid to live our vocations wherever we are.
The second way to be a pilgrim of hope is to offer our unique contribution to the world. We can do this when we answer to the call of God. When we are deeply the person we have been created to be with our specific gifts, with our values, with our dreams and desires, and when we are not afraid to express ourselves.
Also, when we are going against the grain of a society that dehumanizes people; a society that would not recognize the dignity and the gifts of the very person. The second way to be part of this pilgrimage, therefore, is by living our vocations and protecting the dignity of life in all its stages.
Every life is unique, and nobody can perform in place of the other what hasn’t been designed for them to do. This Jubilee is a time of renewal for each person, a time for personal conversion for each person, and a time of personal ‘Yes’ to the Lord and to the situations in which we are living.
Mending broken relationships – The third keyword that we must explain is the Holy Door. We know that the Holy Father has opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Cathedral, and later on in the other Basilicas.
The Holy Door represents a passage that allows us to enter the Church from the towns and villages where we live. This represents a passage to new life, a passage to the life of faith, the life of the Christian community.
The third way to be a pilgrim of hope, therefore, is conversion which is experienced in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. During this year, therefore, we can approach this Sacrament and live it deeply as a time of personal conversion.
When we experience the merciful love of God, then our lives are changed. We reconcile with God, we reconcile also with ourselves, with who we are, with our past mistakes, and we look at the future with new hope. But we also reconcile with our brothers and sisters, especially those with whom we have broken relationships, or relationships that still need healing.
Community activities… Make the environment more liveable – The fourth keyword is community. Every pilgrimage is communitarian. I never heard of pilgrimages where a single person did it. It is usually a movement of a group of people united by faith. A communitarian pilgrimage urges us to rediscover the community, and the beauty of journeying together; the community where we live.
Thus, the fourth way to be a pilgrim of hope is to commit ourselves to our local communities so that we don’t journey alone. We must advance together with the communitarian commitment. This is important in our parishes, in our chapels, in our small Christian communities, and our neighbourhoods.
We can also think about the commitment to the integrity of creation. In a society where we see environmental degradation, we should improve our surroundings and make them more livable.
