Episode Transcript
[00:00:10] Speaker A: A very happy new Year to you, Bishop.
[00:00:12] Speaker B: And likewise, Father Christopher. What a great time of the year. And there's something about the new year that fresh and exciting, right?
[00:00:18] Speaker A: It's true. Get a new page and new experiences that are to come. And the blessings we pray for our diocese, for our local parishes, and for our families, those who we serve. Bishop, we're recording this podcast and this will be another special edition podcast where we celebrate the close of this Jubilee Year.
[00:00:36] Speaker B: Exactly. So locally, we close the Jubilee Year just like we opened it last year on the Feast of the Holy Family. And our Holy Father, Pope Leo, will close it solemnly on the Feast of the Epiphany. So, as you know, we generally have the gathering of college students at the Focus Seek Conference. And this year it's in my old stomping grounds in Columbus. We're already underway as this is being released. And I'm going to ask you to pray for us and for the students from our various colleges who are with us and hope that this event, like a brand new year, is something that rejuvenates us and gives us hope. But, boy, we're still celebrating that great mystery of Christmas. So please listen in on this homily from the Feast of the Holy Family, which closes the Jubilee Year.
[00:01:30] Speaker C: Good morning and once again, Merry Christmas.
[00:01:34] Speaker B: You know, last year on the Feast.
[00:01:36] Speaker C: Of the Holy Family, which we celebrate today, the local church here in Brooklyn and Queens gathered in this cathedral basilica to open solemnly the Jubilee Year, the holy year 2025.
We did so in union with dioceses throughout the whole world.
Today, in a like manner, we gather solemnly to close the Jubilee Year.
Pope Leo will do the same for the Universal Church on the Feast of the Epiphany.
Now, the late Pope Francis gave us the theme, Pilgrims of Hope.
We're called to be Pilgrims of hope.
You may remember that our opening of the Holy Year last year, the Pilgrim Year, was set in the context of the annual pilgrimage that Mary and Joseph would make to the Temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, to be with family and remember how Jesus stayed behind.
Often, pilgrimages are free choices made for religious purposes.
But today in the Gospel, we see Mary and Joseph making a very different kind of pilgrimage.
They're running for their lives, or more precisely, they're running for the life of their child.
Refugees seeking escape from an egotistical, power hungry, insecure, Herod, Herod, the Tetrarch.
Mary and Joseph are true pilgrims of hope.
They are the first pilgrims of hope.
They're not denying reality. Far from it, Far from it.
But they are Living with hope, all is not well.
I often think Joseph must have been.
[00:04:12] Speaker B: Afraid to go to sleep at night.
[00:04:14] Speaker C: He kept getting these messages and dreams.
But they are carrying Christ. Not in a symbolic way, but they are carrying Christ, the only hope that does not disappoint with Christ.
They are facing reality with a strength, strength provided by God.
That's what pilgrims of hope are like.
So concluding this Holy Year, we give thanks to God for the many graces that we experienced in our own lives, in the life of this church of Brooklyn and Queens. During the Jubilee.
I ask you to consider the fruits of the Jubilee. In light of today's feast.
May I offer three First, Holy family, Jesus, Mary and Joseph. They teach us to stand in solidarity with the poor and the vulnerable, with the refugee, with those who suffer persecution, especially those persecuted for their faith, and for those who live under conditions of war and violence.
In his letter on love for the poor, Pope Leo writes, the Gospel shows us that poverty marked every aspect of Jesus life.
From the moment he entered the world, Jesus knew the bitter experience of rejection. Evangelist Luke tells us how Joseph and Mary, who were about to give birth, arrived in Bethlehem.
And then he adds poignantly that there were no places for them in the inn.
Jesus was born in humble surroundings and laid in a manger.
And then, as we heard today, to save him from being killed, they fled to Egypt.
At the dawn of his public ministry, after announcing this in the Synagogue of Nazareth, that year of grace, which would bring joy to the poor poor, that it was fulfilled in him, he was driven out of town.
He died as an outcast, led out of Jerusalem to be crucified.
Yes, Jesus presented himself to the world not only as a poor Messiah, but as a Messiah for the poor.
The Lord calls us to that same kind of solidarity with those who suffer.
Second, as individual families and as a family of families, the church, we need one another, don't we?
Sometimes it's not that easy, but we need to work things out.
In the second reading today, St. Paul writes, Put on as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, heartfelt compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience, bearing with one another and forgiving one another.
One has a grievance against another. As the Lord has forgiven you, so you must also do over all these virtues, put on love.
That is the bond of perfection.
You see, pilgrims of hope bring hope to each other on the journey.
And thirdly, the third fruit, and very important.
We need God.
We can't go it alone.
The world needs God.
We need God.
I need God.
I need God in the sacraments, in the Eucharist.
Well, thank God for that awakening.
We need God.
[00:08:58] Speaker B: Friends.
[00:08:59] Speaker C: The Holy Year 2025 concludes, but the pilgrimage of life continues.
Not just symbolically, but in reality.
We are pilgrims of hope.
We walk with God, and God walks with us.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: That was very beautiful, Bishop, and thank you for your remarks and your thoughts on this close of this wonderful jubilee year that we've all experienced. It's been a. A blessing for us. It's been a blessing for the church, and we pray for more blessings in the year to come.
Again, a happy New Year to you, to your family, to all of our listeners, and thanks to all who continue to join us each and every week. Bishop Pra, you could end with a prayer.
Sure.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Actually, the blessing I often give comes from the Book of Numbers and was yesterday's first reading. The reading. On New Year's Day, Moses is told how to bless the people.
[00:09:57] Speaker C: So the Lord be with you and with your spirit.
[00:10:00] Speaker B: May the Lord bless you and keep you. May his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May he look upon you with kindness and grant you his peace. And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit descend upon you and remain with you forever and ever.
[00:10:14] Speaker A: Amen. Beautiful, Bishop. Thank you all and God bless you. We'll hope you join us again next week.
