As the Jubilee Year closes, Pope Leo XIV urges believers to remain “pilgrims of hope,” embodying life, mercy, and renewal in a divided world.
Newsroom (20/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) As the Jubilee Year draws to a close, Pope Leo XIV has reminded the faithful that its deepest grace—the courage to hope—does not expire with the calendar. Hope, he told pilgrims gathered for the final Saturday Jubilee Audience of the Holy Year, continues to move the Church forward, calling Christians to remain “pilgrims of hope” who generate life amid the world’s weariness.
“The Jubilee is drawing to a close,” the Pope said, “but the hope that this Year has given us does not end: we will remain pilgrims of hope.”
His address unfolded as the Church prepared to enter the Christmas season, reflecting on what he described as the heart of Christian hope: not fear, but the living nearness of God revealed in Jesus Christ. Without Christ, the assurance that “the Lord is near,” he warned, might sound like a threat. But in the mystery of the Incarnation, divine closeness becomes a promise—of mercy, not menace.
“In Him there is no threat, but forgiveness,” the Pope said, describing Christ’s birth as the definitive sign of a God who gives life and renews it ceaselessly.
The Power of Hope
Quoting Saint Paul’s words to the Romans—“For in hope we were saved”—Pope Leo spoke of hope not as an abstraction or sentiment but as a living force. “Without hope, we are dead; with hope, we come into the light,” he said, calling it a theological virtue, “a power of God” that brings new life into being. True strength, he added, does not reside in violence or fear.
“What threatens and kills is not strength,” the Pope said. “It is arrogance, aggressive fear—evil that generates nothing. God’s strength gives birth, and for this reason, to hope is to generate.”
Listening to the Cry of the Earth and the Poor
Turning to the cry of creation described by Saint Paul, the Pope urged Christians to be attentive to the suffering of both “the earth and the poor,” warning that economic and social systems increasingly trap resources in the hands of a few. God, he reminded the faithful, intended the goods of creation for all.
“Our task is to generate, not to steal,” he said, condemning the culture of exploitation and calling for a renewed sense of global solidarity rooted in hope.
Co-Creators in God’s Work
Hope, Pope Leo continued, reshapes even the meaning of suffering. In faith, pain becomes “the suffering of childbirth,” not the end of life but the beginning of something new. “God continues to create,” he said, “and human beings, sustained by hope, are called to cooperate in that creative work. History is in the hands of God and of those who hope in Him.”
Drawing the faithful’s gaze toward Mary of Nazareth, the Pope described her as “the living image of hope that gives life.” In her, he said, believers see one who “gave face, body, and voice to the Word of God.” Her faith, he suggested, models the generative courage that the modern world—fragmented, fearful, and often sterile—most needs.
“Jesus wants to be born again,” Pope Leo concluded. “We can give Him body and voice. This is the childbirth for which creation waits. To hope is to see this world become the world of God.”
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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