Welcome to a New Year which offers a threshold to cross over into new possibilities. The doorway threshold is significant for the Church in this Year of Jubilee as holy doors are blessed and opened for all to pass through. We might ponder what threshold moments we have had in our lives and what they have taught us? The Irish refer to such times as trasna – a crossing over - into another phase of living. For those of us who have lived our years in religious institutes, we know full well the meaning of crossing over, for we have had to do this many times. It requires a lot from us at times where we are unsure and uncertain of where it might lead, what will be asked of us in this new and different space. Crossing thresholds can raise apprehensions about our own ability to manage this new space being opened up for us. Think of the sisters and brothers we have accompanied in their ageing. From being totally independent and self-assured to having to accept home-help and home-assistance and then the inevitable movement into aged care living. For some, it is the first time they have had to live outside the homely cloister of community security and the place they knew as ‘home’. These trasna moments require resilience and courage. They rely on hope.

Pope Francis chose to open the second Holy Door for the Jubilee Year 2025 on December 26, 2024, at the Rebibbia prison in the northeast of Greater Rome. He chose this deliberately to emphasise that all people need to hold on to hope no matter their circumstances. In his opening remarks at this special doorway to the prison dedicated for the Holy Year, he prayed : “May the opening of this Holy Door be for all of us an invitation to look to the future with hope,” before proceeding with the rite of opening the door.

“I wanted this second Holy Door to be here, in a prison. I wanted each of us, all of us who are here, inside and outside, to have the possibility of opening the doors of our hearts and understanding that hope does not disappoint,” he insisted.

Interestingly, St Ignatius of Loyola reflected in his Spiritual Exercises on the steadfastness of hope in our spiritual life. The dark spirit of deception first dislodges hope from within us to destabilise and unsettle us. It’s as if we have lost the anchor on which to hold our innate inner strength. It does not take long for this to deteriorate into a loss of the virtues of faith and lastly love.

I think of those we know who seemingly have lost a sense of hope in their lives through their isolation, sadness, depression and life-changing events. Life has its ebbs and flows and we are all caught in them at times. It is precisely in these moments of desolation that hope can subtly appear: in the kindness of another, a sister or brother who understands and notices without words; a gesture of connection; a look of compassion. All are like shards of light breaking through the darkness opening our hearts just a little, like a crack in the Holy Door of our hearts. Can we notice it?

In his recent book of reflections Consolations II – The Solace, nourishment and Underlying Meaning of Everyday Words David Whtye, philosopher and poet, writes about Unhappiness :

Unhappiness asks not to flee its presence but to pay a very sharp attention to all its various forms and the way they come to live in our bodies and our lives…

Unhappiness takes me down, because down is where I need to go, to the ground of a new understanding, to the place underneath al the surface discontent, where I will understand exactly why I am not happy; exactly what I am missing in my life and what particular forms of courage I will need in my wish to live a better, happier life.” (pp283-4)

Stange, you may say, that moments of desolation are reflected upon at the start of a New Year. Well, perhaps the words of Pope Francis might answer that :

“I like to think of hope as the anchor that is on the shore and we with the rope stay there, secure, because our hope is like the anchor on dry land (cf. Heb 6:17-20). Do not lose hope. This is the message I want to give you; to everyone, to all of us. Myself first. Everyone.”

May we be, in our communities wherever we are placed, beacons of hope and, when needed, offer an anchor of hope to our sisters and brothers.

Gerard Brady CFC,

CRA President.