A leading Church official urged Catholics in Japan to continue walking with the vulnerable beyond the Jubilee Year, saying the Church’s mission of hope does not end with the Holy Year’s conclusion.
Cardinal Isao Kikuchi delivered the message while presiding over the closing Mass of the Jubilee Year of 2025 on Holy Family Sunday at St. Mary’s Cathedral on Dec. 28.
He said the Jubilee theme, “Pilgrims of Hope,” remains an ongoing call in a world marked by violence, displacement, and despair.
“Just because this Jubilee Year has ended does not mean that we will cease being pilgrims bringing hope,” Cardinal Kikuchi said. “The world today needs hope.”
The cardinal reflected on the Holy Year inaugurated by Pope Francis in December 2024.
He recalled the pope’s hope that “the light of Christian hope reach each and every one of us as a message of God’s love addressed to all.” He then challenged the Church to assess its response.
“But have we really been able to bring the light of hope to all people this year?” he asked.
Kikuchi said Pope Francis emphasized that the Church “is called to draw hope from God’s grace.” He added that the Church must also rediscover hope “in the signs of the times.”
During the Jubilee, Kikuchi said, the Church was called to be “a sure sign of hope for the many brothers and sisters living in difficult circumstances,” especially those facing life-threatening crises.
The cardinal pointed to the official Jubilee logo as a visual expression of this call. He said its four figures represent “the solidarity and fraternity that unites all peoples,” while the cross functions as an anchor amid life’s storms. The image, he said, reflects the Church’s synodal vision.
“A synodal Church calls not for each individual to be a beacon of hope,” Kikuchi said, “but for the entire ecclesial community to be pilgrims of hope, traveling together through the world.”
Preaching on Holy Family Sunday, Kikuchi said the Gospel does not present a tranquil Nativity scene. Instead, he said, it reveals danger and displacement as Joseph responds urgently to the angel’s warning to flee to Egypt in order to protect the child Jesus.
“Today’s Gospel does not depict the hopeful and peaceful scene in the stable,” Kikuchi said, “but describes how the father, Joseph, acted desperately to protect his child’s life.”
Kikuchi connected the Holy Family’s flight to the situation of refugees today. He cited the Vatican sculpture Angels Unawares, which depicts people fleeing by boat and includes the Holy Family among them.
The statue serves as a reminder, he said, “that among those who are on a journey in the depths of despair, searching for hope, there are angels and the Holy Family, that is, the Lord Himself.”
The cardinal recalled Pope Francis’ prayer before the sculpture during the 2023 Synod of Bishops. He quoted the pope’s call for Christians to become neighbors to those forced to flee, noting that “the Lord knows each and every one of them and will never forget them.”
Kikuchi reiterated Pope Francis’ call for the Church to “receive, protect, promote and integrate” refugees. He said the Church must be the one to carry out these actions.
“Today, the Holy Family needs someone to walk with,” he said. “The Lord Himself is there, waiting for someone to reach out and extend a hand.”
As the Jubilee Year concludes, Kikuchi said the Church must continue offering hope through concrete human accompaniment.
“We are pilgrims of hope,” he said. “Let us continue to walk as pilgrims of hope.”
