Readings (Year C):
Isaiah 42:1-4, 6-7
Psalm 29:1-2, 3-4, 3, 9-10
Titus 2:11-14; 3:4-7
Luke 3:15-16, 21-22
Reflection: Hope does not disappoint
There’s a curious tension in Catholic imagination regarding the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River by John the Baptist. In the rosary, the baptism in the Jordan is the first of the luminous mysteries—the still somewhat nouveau mysteries of Jesus’ public ministry, which were popularized by Pope St. John Paul II. In the liturgical calendar, though, the Solemnity of the Baptism of the Lord is less a beginning than an ending: the last day of the Christmas season, followed by, but not belonging to, the first days of Ordinary Time.
There’s always something a little melancholy about taking down the Christmas tree and putting away the lights and decorations, but perhaps especially in a year like 2025, a Jubilee Year—in fact, the first regular Jubilee Year of the third Christian millennium. You may have heard about Pope Francis opening the holy door at St. Peter’s Basilica in Vatican City on Christmas Eve for the Jubilee. A practice reaching back to the Middle Ages, Jubilee Years are normally held in the years divisible by 25: special anniversary-year reminders that human history is divided by, and reckoned from, the event that we celebrate in the Christmas season: the great miracle of the incarnation, the uniting of God’s divine nature with our humanity in the person of Jesus.
Invoking the words of St. Paul in Romans 5 that “Hope does not disappoint,” Pope Francis has declared 2025 a “Jubilee of Hope” and calls us to journey this year as “Pilgrims of Hope.” As the second reading option from Titus reminds us, our hope is profoundly connected to Jesus’ incarnation and baptism.
Of course, there are any number of reasons why people might not be feeling particularly hopeful right now. For me, it’s helpful to bear in mind that we aren’t called to be residents or settlers or homesteaders of hope, but pilgrims—people on a journey to someplace very different. Our home is not here; our treasure is not here.
Obviously, this doesn’t mean we’re indifferent to problems around us. After all, in Luke’s Gospel, which we read this year, the baptism of Jesus follows on John the Baptist’s call for social justice: Those with more must look to the needs of those with less, and those with power must not abuse it. This message resonates with the first reading option from Isaiah 42: “He shall bring forth justice on the earth … A bruised reed he shall not break, and a smoldering wick he shall not quench, until he establishes justice on the earth.”
The pilgrimage is long. The arc of the moral universe is long. But hope, St. Paul says, does not disappoint. Canonically, the Christmas season is ending, but the joy and hope of the season should always endure. For this Jubilee Year, I think we won’t put away all our Christmas decorations.
Add comment