Year of Jubilee

“The 2025 Jubilee Year began with the opening of the Holy Door of St Peter’s Basilica on Christmas Eve 2024 and conclude on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, 6th January 2026. During the night, the shepherds of Bethlehem and the Wise Men of the East set out as ‘pilgrims of hope’ journeying towards a newly born child in a humble stable. The ‘night’, in biblical language, is not a chronological phenomenon, it has nothing to do with the colour of the sky or the time of day, it is about our inner confusion, chaos, and sense of disorientation, lack of purpose and meaning, in a word it is about all our fears. During this night someone is born, Jesus Christ, and with him hope is born.

In the Alte Pinakothek, Munich, is a painting by Hans Baldung Grien (1520). Mary and Joseph are kneeling in the ruins of a palace in front of the newborn child who is being looked after by angels. He radiates a surreal light. In the distance, an angel brings the shepherds the Good News. A donkey and an ox are also kneeling down with eyes wide open. While the scene is very familiar there is something quite odd. The structure of the picture is unconventional with a thick pillar which, while obstructing the view, gives the viewer the ‘key’ to interpret the entire nocturnal scene.

The falling down edifice is everything in our life and in the world that is broken, old, beyond repair. Against the background of this crumbling house, ruins and walls, stands a pillar, solid, firm, stable. Hope does not deceive; hope does not disappoint; we can lean on hope, because hope is grounded in the love of God, the Father of that newborn child. When we look again at the painting, we see how this massive pillar looks like an anchor, an image used by the early Christians for hope. To hope is to live on earth anchored in heaven, to have our roots in heaven, to live ‘vertically’ with eyes raised up, to ‘know’ where we come from and where we are going.”

From – Words of Hope: A Pilgrim’s Guide through the Jubilee Year