The Bishop, Catholic Diocese of Osogbo, Most Rev John Oyejola, has urged Catholics to heed the admonition of Pope Francis on the need to become “tangible signs of hope for their brothers and sisters experiencing hardships of any kind.”
Bishop Oyejola made this appeal on Saturday in his message to Catholics in the diocese, for the inauguration of the 2025 Jubilee of Hope which begins in Osogbo diocese on Sunday, December 29, 2024.
The prelate’s message entitled: “We Are Pilgrims of Hope,” reminded Christians that hope does not disappoint, and disclosed that the Jubilee will end on December 28, 2025.
Declaring open the Jubilee of Hope in the diocese, Oyejola on the faithful to extend loving kindness to the prisoners, the sick, the poor and needy, the young in their various categories, the migrants, the elderly, especially grandparents, as well as other categories of people who are vulnerable in any way and may possibly suffer indignity and loss of hope.
His message read in full: “Hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (Rom 5:5).
With gratitude to God, the giver of life and sustainer of our hope, I welcome every faithful in the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo to the Year of Jubilee 2025. In a letter of February 11, 2022, the Holy Father, Pope Francis, already expressed his desire to proclaim the Jubilee Year of Hope in 2025. In a dramatic and captivating way, the door of that Jubilee was opened at the St. Peter Basilica, on the eve of Christmas, December 24, 2024. This singular ritual sets the Jubilee of Hope on course. According to the Papal directives, all diocesan Bishops shall inaugurate the Jubilee in their respective dioceses on Sunday, December 29. 2024.
Following that directive, I hereby declare open the 2025 Jubilee of Hope in the Catholic Diocese of Osogbo. By the grace of God, we shall be alive to conclude it at the diocesan level on Sunday, December 28, 2025, before the Jubilee is finally concluded with the closing of the Holy Door at the St. Peter’s Basilica on January 6, 2026.
In his Bull of Indiction, which clearly gives the path to follow in the year, His Holiness situates the focus of the Jubilee in the encouraging words of St. Paul, in his letter to the Romans 5:5:”Hope does not disappoint…”(spes non confundil). His desire is expressed in his prayer for everyone that the Jubilee be “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the “door” (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as “our hope” (1 Tim 1:1)”. Indeed, Jesus Christ is our hope and as we cope with various challenges in our individual and communal lives, we shall continue to focus on him and lift our eyes unto him from whom our lasting help can come (Ps. 121:1-2).
According to the Holy Father, “Christian hope does not deceive or disappoint because it is grounded in the certainty that nothing and no one may ever separate us from God’s love: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Hardship, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril or the sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 8:35.37-39). Here we see the reason why this hope perseveres in the midst of trials: founded on faith and nurtured by charity, it enables us to press forward in life”. For this hope to be sustained, we are challenged to grow in the virtue of patience which as “one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit, sustains our hope and
strengthens it as a virtue and a way of life”. Let us continue in the spirit of the synod on Synodality. continue to journey together in patience to jointly overcome our various challenges.
No doubt, the Universal Church has opened for us, so many avenues of grace and renewal during this Jubilee. I have asked the Jubilee Committee in our Diocese as well as all Pastors of souls, to see to it that everyone is properly informed about those spiritual programmes and are appropriately supported to benefit immensely from them. Some of these activities, like the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Oke Maria, the Deepening the Faith initiative, the Doctrinal Forum for our youths, Marriage Encounter, and other evangelization programmes, shall have to be celebrated in the spirit of the Jubilee of Hope. It is, however, incumbent on every faithful to avail themselves of these programmes and activities at all levels of our diocese and be greatly strengthened in faith, hope and charity. In union with the Holy Father, Pope Francis, I pray that “during the Holy Year, may the light of Christian hope illumine every man and woman, as a message of God’s love addressed to all! And may the Church bear faithful witness to this message in every part of the world!”
Beloved people of God, more than ever before, during this holy year, we are called to be Pilgrims of Hope. Let us heed the passionate appeal of the Holy Father calling everyone of us to become “tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind.” In concrete terms, we are called to extend our loving kindness to the prisoners, the sick, the poor and needy, the young in their various categories, the migrants, the elderly, especially grandparents, as well as other categories of people who are vulnerable in any way and may possibly suffer indignity and loss of hope. Let this act of generosity as signs of hope be manifested in our families, communities, Parishes, and indeed, everywhere the grace of God takes us.
As Pilgrims of Hope, the Holy Father admonishes us as follows: “Surely we need to “abound in hope” (cf. Rom 15:13), so that we may bear credible and attractive witness to the faith and love that dwell in our hearts; that our faith may be joyful and our charity enthusiastic; and that each of us may be able to offer a smile, a small gesture of friendship, a kind look, a ready ear, a good deed, in the knowledge that, in the Spirit of Jesus, these can become, for those who receive them, rich seeds of hope.” Indeed, if at the end of the Jubilee Year we have grown better in fraternal love and sincere compassion, and our hearts have become Christlike, then we have truly celebrated a Holy Year.
Finally, dear people of God, considering the hopeless situations within which majority of us daily struggle for survival in our country, Nigeria, let us jointly entrust our efforts and plans in this Jubilee Year of Hope to the maternal care of our Mother Mary, the Mother of Hope. In the words of the Holy Father, “it is not by chance that popular piety continues to invoke the Blessed Virgin as Stella Maris, a title that bespeaks the sure hope that, amid the tempests of this life, the Mother of God comes to our aid, sustains us and encourages us to persevere in hope and trust.” Let us constantly pray, therefore, for her care and support, so that like her, we may nurture our gift of hope and become better children of God.”