Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:10] Speaker B: Welcome back to another edition of our diocesan podcast, Big City Catholics, with Bishop Robert Brennan, the Diocesan Bishop of Brooklyn, and myself, Father Christopher Henney, the rector of the Co Cathedral of St Joseph. A very blessed new year to you all. This week's podcast is a special edition as we listen in to Bishop Brennan's homily at the opening of our 2025 Jubilee year. Pilgrims of Hope, Good morning and a.
[00:00:34] Speaker A: Very warm welcome to all of you. Thank you to the cathedral parish of the Basilica of St. James. Thank you to all of the parishes that join us, particularly in this deanery. In the north end of the deanery, parishes of St. John Charles, of Assumption and of St. Boniface. I'm thrilled to be joined by Bishop Tomasio and Bishop Cisneros, and we extend that warm welcome to all of you.
Father Mark and Father Anthony from the oratory parishes join us as well. It's a day of great solemnity. Thank you to all of those parishes that adjusted your schedule so that we could make this one solemn Mass. Thrilled for the presence of the Knights of Columbus, the Knights of the Holy Sepulchre, and again, all of our regular ministers here at Mass, our servers, our ushers, our lectures, our musicians. This really is a great blessing. We are really putting our best foot forward.
Years ago, I learned a chant from my friend Bishop Murphy, which we would use when we would lead pilgrimages, especially on World Youth Day.
He would start off by saying to the crowd, this is a pilgrimage, not a vacation. And when we are on pilgrimage, we never complain about anything because this is a pilgrimage, not a.
And then he would have them repeated over and over. We keep jumping in on those key words. I could hear you chuckle, and you know it. Pilgrimages can be tough experiences. One needs to sacrifice not only time, but a certain amount of comfort. The weather does not always cooperate. Although I'm glad for what we have today, I'll take it.
And of course, well, there are the other pilgrims. Some tend to be late, some are in a rush, and then there's always that one in the group who gets lost. Indeed, pilgrimages can be difficult enough, and yet at the same time, they can be tremendously rewarding experiences. They can be quite pleasant, even fun.
Generally, one meets good people, interesting people who share common interests.
One sees and learns new and interesting things.
And of course, in the experience of pilgrimage, above all, one touches the sacred.
One meets Jesus Christ, and that in the end, it's what it is all about.
The Holy Family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph, whom we celebrate today on this Sunday, between Christmas and the New Year within the octave here.
They themselves had the custom of pilgrimage. The Gospel tells us today. Each year, Jesus parents went to Jerusalem for the feast of the Passover. And when he was 12 years old, they went up according to festival custom.
Now we know the rest of the story. You tell me what happened. Jesus got left behind.
The teenage Jesus, see, he was truly human. He gave his parents a little bit of ajita. He was good, but he was even a teenager in those days.
You see, what would happen is the men would travel together in one group, the women in another group, and the children sort of gathered in little groups, playing games and jumping back between the two groups. And it just seems that everybody was looking after everybody. But of course, when everybody's got a job, nobody's got the job. And so Jesus was lost. Imagine the surprise when at the end of the day, they stopped and they said, oh, where's Jesus? Mary and Joseph had to go back, back to find Jesus. Keep that in mind. They had to go back to find Jesus. And then when they did see him, when they did find him, they saw him in a new way, with new eyes.
There he was, sitting in the midst of the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions, astounding them with his understanding and his answers. Oh, boy. Imagine that. Their little boy, Jesus, astounding the teachers in the temple. Friends, that's our task as well.
We find ourselves constantly having to go back to find Jesus and to see him with eyes anew.
That is part of the pilgrimage experience. But you know what? That's part of this Holy Year experience, this Jubilee Year experience. Every once in a while, we have to stop in our tracks, go back, find Jesus in our lives, and see him in new ways.
We begin today in Brooklyn and Queens, the Holy Year, part of the custom of the church. Every 25 years, having opened the Holy Year on Christmas Eve, Pope Francis, our Holy Father, asks all the bishops around the world to begin the Holy Year today on the Feast of the Holy Family.
How appropriate that we celebrate on the Feast of the Holy Family.
The theme of this year is Pilgrimage of Hope. We are pilgrims of hope.
You might say that life itself is a pilgrimage, isn't it?
We're on a pilgrimage, making our way to the reign of God, to heaven. Along the way, we walk together with one another, listening to one another, caring, looking out for one another, united in faith, encouraging each other on the way. Pilgrims of hope.
You can see where the Holy Father came up with this theme.
We walk together toward the destination, eternal life, seeking to encounter Jesus, to know him, to love him, and like Mary and Joseph, to see him with new eyes.
And like Mary and Joseph, not only do we strive to know Jesus ourselves, but also to share him with one another.
That experience of encounter with Jesus, in the end, it's all about about the encounter with Jesus. Now, this isn't true simply for a pilgrimage or a holy year.
More importantly, it's the very mission of the Church.
We speak along with Pope Francis of the Church on the move La Glacia in Salida. The Church is not a museum, but a living reality.
We are a communion of communions, or as I like to say, a family of families Parish is a family of families diocese, a family of parishes, the Universal Church, a family of dioceses of parishes of families.
So then, at the inauguration of the Jubilee year 2025, let me extend to each and every Catholic here gathered and in the Church throughout Brooklyn and Queens this invitation.
Friends, go forth and begin your journey as a joyful missionary disciple of Jesus, giving witness to the tenderness and nearness of God's own love.
[00:09:52] Speaker B: This certainly is quite an exciting time for our Church Universal. I hope that you have a blessed Jubilee Year 2025, reminding ourselves that we truly are pilgrims of home. Hope God bless you and we'll see you again next weekend.
