We await the blessed hope, the appearance of the glory of our great God and saviour Jesus Christ.” (Titus 2:13) 

Hope seems harder to come by in our world today. With the slower-than-expected recovery of global and local economies, there are growing war cries in different parts of the world, increasingly tense geopolitics, rising of dysfunctional mental health problems, particularly among the younger and elderly populations, depressing relational poverty, devastating zero-sum competitions, and a darkening outlook of the natural ecology. 

Even within these depressive and anxiety-provoking realities, we await once again the promise of joy and hope of Christmas. Those who appreciate the original meaning of Christmas should know that it is not a secular commercial feast. It is a feast of love through the direct intervention of the ever-loving God into our human history by sending God’s only Son to journey with us. Its salvific objective is to show us the compassionate love of God that knows no bounds. 

This love of God brings forgiveness and reconciliation between God and humanity. For those who have come to experience and accept this love can, therefore, face challenges and disappointments in life with definite hope. Not just any hope, but a hope for the unyielding and eternal love of God, both in this life and the life after. Yes, the coming of the Son of God, our Emmanuel, is to give the world this assurance, especially when hope seems ever dimmer. 

The Catholic Church is to celebrate the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025. The Ordinary Jubilee, in fact, occurs once every 25 years. The theme of this Jubilee Year is “Pilgrims of Hope,” for “Hope does not disappoint” (Romans 5:5). We are reminded that everyone is only a sojourner; no one can live forever in this world. It is consoling when we believe that we are on our way to another life, reuniting with our loving Creator in eternity, our beloved ones, and those who loved us. 

Christmas allows us to experience this loving promise of God. Because of that, we can have hope, as fellow pilgrims, to journey together towards eternity with the Source of Life and Love, though at different paces and even in different modes. 

Therefore, with this love and hope in our consciousness, we can help bringing love to our communities. We need to reinforce this hope that does not disappoint those we love, those with whom we have difficulties, and those who are strangers to us, especially those who are struggling in the social margins, feeling unwanted and abandoned. 

We can think of those who are struggling in war zones with seemingly endless torment, displaced persons and refugees looking for a dignified future, prisoners waiting for a new life, married couples who cannot see a sufficiently stable future for childbearing, young people who fail to identify convincing reasons to envisage a hopeful future, the elderly who are lonely and abandoned, and those who are sick and lonely in hospitals. 

The one meaningful tradition of a Jubilee Year is to forgive the debts of those who will never be able to repay or repay fully, so that they can have a chance to restart their lives anew. We believe all of us share many resources of our Common Home, which means we need to learn to live justly and inter-dependently in order to enhance the overall quality of life or our mutual survival at the least. This “we” must include other life forms constituting this Common Home. 

It is in our best interest, and that of future generations, when we can help the weaker parties to become stronger so that together we can have a better present and a hope-filled future. Justice is better not sought through vengeance but through empathy so that all the parties concerned can co-construct a new reality hand-in-hand. Is this not too naïve and unrealistic? No, it is not, but a must for our collective future.

We certainly need to have hope in the economy, both locally and globally, in relationships, especially for those suffering from relational poverty, in political stability and harmony, and in the health of the ecology. For those of us living in Hong Kong, which we call our home, it definitely needs our utmost support. Together with loving kindness to each other, especially towards young people, the elderly, migrants, and visitors, Hong Kong will shine as a vibrant city filled with hope, love, and life! 

Finally, Christmas and the New Year are a time for hope, love, peace, and dreams! Without hope and dreams, there will be no better future. Especially for our young people, we need to walk alongside them and empower their creative hopes and dreams.

A joyous Christmas and a hope-filled 2025 to you all and our Common Home! 

+ Cardinal Stephen Chow, S.J.
Bishop of Hong Kong