The Jubilee year acclaims that the source of all hope is God’s mercy, says Bishop Iffert

Laura Keener

Editor

As instructed by Pope Francis and together with archdioceses and dioceses around the world, Bishop John Iffert and over 300 faithful of the Diocese of Covington celebrated Mass and the opening of the Jubilee Year 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” Dec. 29, at the Cathedral Basilica of the Assumption, Covington. The Jubilee Year officially began on Christmas Eve with Pope Francis opening the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.

In accordance with ancient tradition, the Church celebrates an ordinary Jubilee — a year to forgive sins, debts and extend universal pardon — every 25 years so that every generation may experience that moment of grace and mercy in their life. In the Bull of Indiction, “Spes Non Confundit” (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”), Pope Francis said that “Hope is also the central message of the coming Jubilee … For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Tim 1:1).” Pope Francis will close the Holy Door and the Jubilee Year will end Jan. 6, 2026, the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.

At the Cathedral’s opening Mass, representatives from each parish of the diocese processed through the Cathedral carrying their parish banner as a sign of the journey of hope of the pilgrim people. To begin the procession, near the threshold of the Cathedral, Bishop Iffert elevated the designated Jubilee Cross three times with the congregation proclaiming, “We adore your Cross, O Lord, we praise and glorify your holy Resurrection, for behold, because of the wood of a tree, joy has come to the whole world.”

During the opening procession, which included many priests of the Diocese, Bishop Iffert sprinkled the congregation with Holy Water, “a living remembrance of Baptism which is the gate of entry in the journey of sacramental initiation and into the Church.” (The Rite of the Opening of the Jubilee Year) The procession ended with the Jubilee Cross being placed in a stand to the altar’s left and will remain there during the entire Jubilee year.

Focusing on the Jubilee theme “Pilgrims of Hope,” Bishop Iffert began his homily saying, “Hope, we know, is the theological virtue, that supernatural virtue, by which we desire and expect from God both eternal life and the grace we need to obtain eternal life … the theological virtue of hope protects us both from despair and from the sin of presumption,” the sin of expecting salvation without making the necessary effort to obtain it.

There are two “kinds of knowledge” that are needed to “really engage with and live in this virtue of hope,” said Bishop Iffert. The first is the knowledge that the goal is attainable. “We have to know that eternal life with God is obtainable. That God has made this possible through His death on the cross for our salvation … If we don’t know that our goals are obtainable, we won’t have any reason to work for them.”

“Our goal is obtainable because God’s mercy is indulgent,” Bishop Iffert said. “Our goal of eternal life, and our hope even for life in this world, is obtainable only because we know that God is reliable. We know that God is trustworthy. We know that God is merciful.”

The second knowledge, Bishop Iffert said, is “to know that we might fail, in fact, the sinfulness of our lives, the sinfulness of our human nature, our tendency towards sin inclines us towards failure. It is only through God’s grace — that solid place — where we can expect success in our endeavor.”

The message of the Jubilee, Bishop Iffert said, is “God’s mercy is indulgent. God’s mercy is abundant. God’s mercy is prodigious. This Jubilee year is a reminder to all of us that God is eager to pour that mercy out on us. That mercy alone, that grace of God, that action of God, on our part, is the fulcrum where the lever of faith can be applied, the steady place, the source of all our hope.”