Hope Does Not Disappoint

By Fr. Christopher Foeckler, MJ • Phoenix, AZ

Pope Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year with the theme of Hope. A Jubilee Year is a year of special grace — including many opportunities for plenary indulgences — for the members of the Church to be blessed and strengthened in their endeavors to be conformed to Christ more and more. 

The Papal Bull by which Pope Francis officially declared the theme of the Jubilee Year is entitled Spes Non Confundit – “Hope does not disappoint”. They are the inspiring words of St. Paul to the Romans:

“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access [by faith] to this grace in which we stand, and we boast in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we even boast of our afflictions, knowing that affliction produces endurance, and endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope, and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.” (Rm 5:1-5) 

This is a wonderful theme for a special year of grace. Listen to the Holy Father’s commentary, “Hope is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the Cross: ‘For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more surely, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life.’ (Rm 5:19) That life becomes manifest in our own life of faith, which begins with Baptism, develops in openness to God’s grace and is enlivened by a hope constantly renewed and confirmed by the working of the Holy Spirit.” (Spes N. 3) 

Pope Francis comments on Mary: “Hope finds its supreme witness in the Mother of God. In the Blessed Virgin, we see that hope is not naïve optimism but a gift of grace amid the realities of life. Like every mother, whenever Mary looked at her Son, she thought of His future. Surely she kept pondering in her heart the words spoken to her in the Temple by the elderly Simeon: ‘This child is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed, so that the inner thought of many will be revealed, and a sword will pierce your own soul too”. (Lk 2:34) … I am confident that everyone, especially the suffering and those most in need, will come to know the closeness of Mary, the most affectionate of mothers, who never abandons her children and who, for the holy people of God, is ‘a sign of certain hope and comfort’. (Spes N.24)

Let’s unite in prayer with the Holy Father and the Universal Church asking our Lord and His Mother for the grace of Hope – a hope that does not disappoint!