Pope: Jesus sustains our hope as we journey toward Him in unity

By Christopher Wells

Although everyone faces moments of despair or know people who have lost hope, “the Gospel tells us that Jesus always restores hope,” Pope Francis said Saturday evening at the Basilica of St Paul Outside the Walls. “He continually raises us up from the ashes of death and gives us the strength to go on, to begin anew.”

In his homily for the feast of the Conversion of St Paul – which also marks the conclusion of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity – Pope Francis reflected on the Gospel account of Jesus’ encounter with Martha after the death of her brother, Lazarus. In response to Martha’s profession of faith in the resurrection of the dead at the end of time, Jesus assured her that He Himself is the resurrection and the life, and asks of her, “Do you believe this?”

This Gospel passage provided the theme for this year’s Week of Prayer, and teaches us, the Pope said, “that even in times of deep desolation, we are not alone and we can continue to hope.”

And this is important not just in our own lives, but also “for the life of Christian communities, our churches, and our ecumenical relationships,” the Pope said. If at times we feel overwhelmed or discouraged, Jesus nonetheless comes to us. “Do we believe this?” Pope Francis asked. “Do we believe that He is the resurrection and the life?”

The Holy Father that the Gospel’s message of hope “is at the heart” of the Jubilee Year. This hope, which comes from the Holy Spirit, is likewise the foundation of the ecumenical journey.

Pope Francis noted, too, that 2025 will see the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicea, the first of the great Ecumenical Councils, which produced the Nicene Creed. This creed, the Pope said, “is a common profession of faith that transcends all the divisions that have riven the Body of Christ over the centuries”; and the anniversary of its proclamation, “an opportunity for all Christians who recite the same Creed and believe in the same God.”

“Let us rediscover the common roots of the faith,” the Pope exclaimed. “Let us preserve unity!”

Finally, Pope Francis took the occasion to renew his appeal that Christians might work together “to take a decisive step forward towards unity around a common date for Easter,” as he noted that this year, Easter falls on the same date for both the Julian and Gregorian calendars.

Concluding his reflections, Pope Francis insisted, “In Jesus, hope is always possible,” and it is Jesus “who sustains our hope as we journey towards Him in unity.” Returning to Jesus’ question to Martha, Pope Francis asked, “Do you believe this? Do we believe in communion with one another?”

And he ended his homily with the exhortation, “Dear brothers and sisters, this is the time to confirm our profession of faith in the one God and to find in Christ Jesus the way to unity… let us never grow tired of bearing witness, before all peoples, to the only-begotten Son of God, the source of all our hope.”