We publish a reflection on the occasion of the conclusion of the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025, a time of grace that invited the whole Church to rediscover the merciful face of God and to put hope that does not disappoint back at the center of Christian life. Although it has come to an end in its chronological unfolding, the Jubilee continues to question hearts, especially those of young people, who are called to cherish and bear witness to the spiritual fruits they have received in their daily lives. The image of the sunflower, which turns toward the light in order to live and grow, thus becomes a symbolic key to a journey of faith that looks to Christ as the only source of life, meaning, and future.
When we look at a sunflower, you, I, and everyone else can certainly find in it a joy that spreads, a new expectation, a new hope that comes from above. The light and rays of the sun, pouring down on the stem and flower, give them positive energy that allows them to exist, grow, and develop. We thus recognize a law of nature: only when it turns toward the sunlight can the sunflower soar upward, becoming ever more resplendent and beautiful.
Through this symbolic image, I would like to offer you, young people—the source of vitality and the future of the Church and of today’s society—a brief reflection on the grace of the Jubilee Year of Hope that God has given to all of us with great generosity and infinite mercy. This grace did not end in 2025, but accompanies us throughout our pilgrimage on this earth. God’s love is as vast as the blue sky: He is our strength and our source of daily life. Hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:5). Yes, that’s right!
Faced with the chaos of a picture of life made up of many mixed colors, with shadows and dark corners, we often feel shaken and lost in the face of a reality that does not correspond to our expectations. Life suddenly seems fragile and uncertain. Happiness: everyone desires it, everyone seeks it, but it is easy to look for it in the wrong place, at the wrong time, or in the wrong person. If the meaning and value of life are limited solely to material, ephemeral, and fleeting goods, man will never be able to reach the ultimate goal of his existence: the happiness of the Kingdom of Heaven.
If, according to natural law, the sunflower needs light and sun to live and grow, then we too are called to touch the spiritual law, the law of Christian faith. We are called to look up, that is, to orient ourselves towards Christ, because He is the way, the truth, and the life (Jn 14:6).
The Jubilee Year of Hope was a sign of God’s love and mercy for humanity, for you and for me. Amidst the many events and storms of the human condition, God is always here, always present and sharing in our pain. Let us allow ourselves to be gently shaped by the Holy Spirit, so that He may make our hearts more tender, capable of allowing God to enter and touch our deepest and most profound loneliness. From a temporal point of view, the Jubilee Year has ended; but from a spiritual point of view, it represents a new beginning for you, for me, and for everyone.
We are truly happy and fortunate to be children of God, to have true hope in Him. We can run to Him at any moment to find consolation and refreshment, according to His promise:
“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Mt 11:28).
Let us hope, then, and hope without growing weary, because God never grows weary when we need Him, when we allow Him to walk with us on our pilgrimage of hope toward the Father’s House.
As young people, we are called to live wholeheartedly for God and to give ourselves completely to our neighbors. St. James says: “Faith without works is dead” (James 2:17). Living hope, therefore, does not mean possessing it as a guarantee for a secure lifestyle, free from risks and friction in relationships. Set out, with your steps and with your heart, toward the peripheries, toward lives marked by suffering, toward wounded people who need to be healed both in body and spirit. Slowing down, thinking differently, and loving more will help you and me to bear witness to hope in daily life, whatever we are, whatever we do, wherever we are. Let us follow the example of Saint Jeanne Antide Thouret, a life entirely given to God and to the poor, the Lord’s beloved friends. Following her example, let us live a full and total hope in God, certain that the present and the future are entirely preserved in the mysterious design of his holy will.
Let us live with the grateful heart of children, giving thanks to God because He loves us for who we are, more than for what we possess. Let us thank the Lord because He does not leave us alone, He does not abandon us in the disappointment of our human frailty, but opens us to a new hope that no one can take away: hope in Christ. With Him, we have everything. Believe it!”
Thank you very much!
