Hope does not Disappoint

This year we are celebrating a special year, the Jubilee of 2025.

Pope Francis chose Pilgrims of Hope as the slogan because in this life we are all pilgrims.

Pilgrims in this world walking toward the encounter with Christ who is our hope.

He is our hope because all our life is directed to Him.

He has promised us salvation, so we go on a pilgrimage to Him.

We put our hope in Him and in His promise.

The bull of indiction of the Jubilee is called Spes non confundit.

Hope does not disappoint.

Jesus is the hope that never disappoints because He is the way,

the truth and the life, and we are pilgrims holding Mary's hands.

Today we are celebrating the solemnity of the Assumption.

We are celebrating what the Church declared as dogma in 1950,

the Blessed Virgin Mary, after her earthly life, was raised in body and soul to heavenly glory.

Mary was the first pilgrim of hope because she could go to heaven to meet her

son without seeing corruption.

The book of Revelation presents a vision that the church has seen as a reference

to Mary, a red sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun,

with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars.

The Virgin Mary is that woman crowned with twelve stars because she is the queen

in heaven, the queen over the twelve tribes of Israel, the queen over all the world.

Mary was chosen by God to be his mother, to be the Savior's mother.

That's why God preserved her from her conception, and she was conceived immaculate.

If she was selected by God to that important role in the history of salvation,

if she was conceived without original sin,

if she gave us our savor, so it was fitting that God preserved her for corruption

as she was raised in body and soul.

Mary shows us the way to heaven.

She goes before us in that way that we hope to go through one day.

We are pilgrims of hope going to Christ, our hope.

If we want to be in heaven, we can look at the example of Mary.

Today's Gospel shows us some aspects of her. The first one is concern about others.

Mary, who was pregnant, doesn't think about herself, but she is worried about

her relative Elizabeth.

She travels to the hill country in haste. She goes in haste because she wants to help her relatives.

Mary shows us the importance of service in our lives and how we have to think

of others and not in ourselves.

In today's society where we focus on personal enjoyment, Mary teaches us that

what is important is to serve others with experience from love for God.

Another aspect that Mary shows us is humility.

My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord.

After Elizabeth's words, Mary doesn't feel superior because she's going to be

the mother of the Lord, but she

expresses that it is the Lord who works in her, and she is her servant.

In today's society, where we have to be popular, to be important,

to be superior to others, Mary teaches us that what is important is not us, but God who works in us.

Our society teaches us that we have to be widely followed on social media,

that we have to be important in our works, that we have to be relevant in this world.

But Mary teaches what is important is to serve the Lord.

Serving the Lord by serving others. serving the Lord, caring about others,

serving the Lord, being their instruments to build a better world.

Mary teaches us how to be a good building of hope, a building of hope that must

walk looking for holiness in our way to meeting with the Lord,

a building of hope that goes to the Eucharist, where Christ nourishes our body

and soul with His body and blood.

A pilgrimage of hope that discerns what decisions to choose aligning His life with God's Word.

A pilgrimage of hope that knows clearly that Jesus is the way and the goal, that He is our hope.

Brothers and sisters, Mary shows us the way to the meeting with our hope.

Let's follow her steps, being God's servants, so that one day we may be in heaven

where Christ opened the doors and His mother showed us that we can also be there for all eternity.