HOMILY FOR THE INAUGURATION OF JUBILEE 2025 IN THE DIOCESE OF ARGYLL AND THE ISLES

Nine years ago yesterday, I set out from Holy Family Parish, Port Glasgow and travelled to St Columba’s Cathedral, Oban on the day it was announced that Pope Francis had appointed me as your bishop. I met with some clergy and one asked me if I had sea legs! A practical consideration for a diocese like Argyll and the Isles. I am not very technological, but I was grateful for being immediately introduced to two crucial Apps for my phone - XC Weather and Cal Mac!

We all know life can be hard. It’s comforting that the Jubilee Logo depicts us as sometimes travelling on stormy waters, reminding us that we cannot be strangers to the Cross and yet that the Cross of Christ reaches out to us in love and is the anchor which brings hope.

The theme of the Holy Year is ‘pilgrims of hope’.

Today we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Family. Throughout Advent and Christmas we see that both Mary and Joseph faced their challenges with trust and therefore hope and so were strengthened from within.

Today’s Gospel is a powerful example. Every year the Holy Family journeyed in pilgrimage to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, where hope in present day deliverance by God was rooted in their knowledge that God had previously delivered the Hebrews from slavery in Egypt. They had hope in God’s fidelity. However, when Jesus was lost Mary and Joseph were overcome by anxiety, and when they found him in the Temple they did not understand his reaction but nevertheless they still pondered in their hearts, trusting. The reality, which could only be dis-covered after the Resurrection, was that Jesus had always been present and that he was not only fulfilling God’s promises of old but surpassing all human expectations.

Our Holy Year encourages us to become pilgrims of hope. We don’t always understand or like the challenges we face or God’s perceived response or even lack of response and so it is helpful for us to appreciate that even the most faithful like Mary and Joseph failed to under-stand but still hoped! However, our hope is not wishful thinking, delusional but certain because it is rooted in God’s love revealed at Christ-mas through the birth of Christ, through his ministry where (in our first Gospel today) Jesus revealed that he alone is the Way, the Truth and the Life towards perfect union forever with God and each other, and that this was made possible by the reconciliation though his perfect love by his death on the Cross and his glorious Resurrection. Our hope is sure because we depend on God and not ourselves.

God’s love transforms from within. Water brings life. Through the waters of Baptism we began our journey of discipleship, a new life and the hope which springs from it. That is why we gathered around the font and were sprinkled with Holy Water. It reminded us that we have received the Holy Spirit, the presence of the divine within us, which breathes life into us, transforming from within.

Pope Francis will be opening several Holy Doors in Rome. However, these Holy Doors are symbolic because wherever we live, we are invited to recognise Christ as the unique doorway through whom we enter full of hope, allowing God to transform us from within. This is a Year of Grace with many wonderful opportunities for us including diocesan, deanery and parish events although ultimately our response needs to be personal and rooted in the experiences of our daily lives. Christ calls to our hearts so let us respond and enter into Christ. He will do the rest and gift us with more than we could imagine. Let us be pilgrims of hope, willing also to share our hope with others!

“May the Holy Spirit, who today begins this work both in us and with us, bring it to completion in the day of Christ Jesus”.