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Homily given on 5 January 2025 at Our Lady of Willesden for the Opening of the Jubilee Year.

It is a great joy to be able to announce the Holy Year here at Our Lady of Willesden, which the Cardinal has designated a Jubilee Church. During this holy year, at this holy shrine, we can focus on being ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ who bear the light of Jesus Christ into the dark places of our world. We will come here on pilgrimage and walk in the footsteps of St. Thomas More, St Josemaría Escriva and Blessed Alvaro de Portillo as well as countless men and women who have found refuge in Our Lady’s protection. 

Dating from 1300, the tradition of a Holy Year has continued every twenty-five years. Today the fifth Holy Door in Rome at the Basilica of St Paul’s Outside the Walls was opened. Many will pray there at the tomb of St. Paul, who finds his hope in the mercy of Jesus Christ. This basilica is often the meeting place for prayer with other Christians, both Orthodox and Reformed. It reminds us that we share this Jubilee with all other Christians who also ‘have the opportunity to fling open the doors to their hearts and to understand that hope never disappoints’ (Pope Francis, opening of the Holy Door at Rebibbia Prison). Christ freely bestowing God’s merciful love, especially in the sacrament of reconciliation, frees us from all that all that imprisons us. As ‘pilgrims of hope’, we are invited to deepen our desire to follow Jesus and to know him more clearly, love him more dearly, and follow him more nearly, day by day (Prayer of St. Richard of Chichester).

He promises to stay close to us and tells his disciples at the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel, ‘behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age’ (Mt 28:20). Christ speaks into our hearts in the words of St. John, ‘I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.’ (John 14:18). We are invited to trust and treasure these words in our hearts. 

The image of the Risen Christ walking with us is very consoling, but Jesus enters much more deeply into our lives. In baptism he transforms us and comes to dwell in the depths of our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit. We are anointed to be temples of the Holy Spirit who are transformed into his image, share more fully his nature and are heirs to eternal life. Sometimes we know dramatic change like the conversion of St. Paul on the road to Damascus; more frequently the process is much slower like rainwater dripping into the earth. The theological virtues of faith, hope and charity are planted within us so that we might live in him, through him and for him (C.f. 2 Pet 1:3-4). We read in the Catechism, ‘Hope is the theological virtue by which we desire the kingdom of heaven and eternal life as our happiness, placing our trust in Christ's promises and relying not on our own strength, but on the help of the grace of the Holy Spirit.’ (CCC 1817). Hope changes our perspective.  

Hope is revealed today in the star of Bethlehem which leads the wise men from the distant lands of the east to the Christ-Child, Mary and Joseph. They, like us, come as ‘pilgrims of hope’ who find their life in Jesus. When they see him, they bow down, worship and offer their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. We too are invited to bow down before Christ in the Blessed Sacrament, to worship him and offer our lives to him. As we bow down this afternoon, we take the place of the shepherds at the crib and the wise men before the Child Jesus. We give thanks and worship the Living God: O Sacrament most Holy, O Sacrament Divine, all praise and all thanksgiving be every moment Thine.

Hope as the desire for heaven must lead each one of us beyond and out of our self-contained worlds. Hope prompts us to love our neighbour. St John writes, ‘If anyone says, “I love God”, and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.’ (1 John 4:20). Jesus gives a new commandment, ‘love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.’ (John 13:34)

Pope Francis said recently on Thought for the Day, ‘“I hope that during this Jubilee, we practice kindness as a form of love to connect with others”. We recognise the gift of kindness when people go the extra mile for one another, in the tender care of a person who is sick, in a word of forgiveness that breaks down hostility and rebuilds a relationship.  Small acts of kindness make the world a better place and are desperately needed today. 

Today at our beautiful shrine, we ask the intercession of Our Blessed Lady, the Mother of Hope (a favourite title of Pope Francis). We recognise the power of hope when Mary accepts the call of the angel Gabriel to become the Mother of God. She lives in hope of God’s promises when Simeon tells her that a sword will pierce her heart. She has hope in the power of Christ at the wedding feast of Cana. She hopes in the fulfilment of God’s promise when she stands at the foot of the cross. She prays with the fragile group of disciples who gather in the Upper Room and await the coming of the Holy Spirit. She is there at the birth of the Church. “Let us entrust our lives and our time to the Mother of God, so that she may lead us to Jesus: the fullness of time, of all time, of the time of each of us.” (Pope Francis, Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year, Spes non confundit)

Our Lady of Willesden, Mother of Hope, pray for us.