As you know your Summer festival is taking place at a very, very special time. A Jubilee Year. A year when God has promised to renew, revive, restore and release His people. A year when we are all encouraged to be pilgrims of Hope. The Jubilee is God’s great reset – a grace to be lived not an event to be planned and ticked off the calendar. Jubilee never comes to an end, because God’s intense desire to meet us and anoint us is an open invitation.
In July over a million young people joined Pope Leo in Rome for a Jubilee pilgrimage of Youth. Maybe some of you were there but then again maybe you were not. Nice as it would have been perhaps to have experienced that pilgrimage with the Holy Father, this morning I have some extraordinarily good news indeed. The Pope is not able to be here this morning, but the good news is that Jesus is here, and He never ever fails to turn up.
Entering this Abbey Church this morning and gathering together to celebrate this Mass you have already received an amazing gift. The Abbey Church has been designated an official pilgrim Church during this Jubilee Year, and so by entering this Church with faith and in prayer you are offered a special indulgence. God’s heart of mercy is wide open to shower you, with a tsunami of grace which is flowing, it is flowing through this place, I hope you can feel it?
Through your repentance in the sacrament of reconciliation, your willingness to pray for the holy Father and your reception of Jesus in Blessed Sacrament. You are cleansed from sin and made new in Christ. My friends, what an amazing gift.
Just before the Jubilee of Youth in Rome Pope Leo met with some young people from Peru. He said these words to them, which have meaning for each of you:
“Dear young people, I would like you to cherish everything you experience during these days, but not to keep it just for yourselves. This is very important: what you experience here should not be just for yourselves. We must learn to share. Please, let all this not remain just a memory, just a few nice photos, just something from the past. I would like you, once you return…to flood those lands with the joy and strength of the Gospel, with the Good News of Jesus Christ. May all the people you meet see in you the face of Christ who loves and gives of himself, who continues to be present in every baptized person…be missionaries wherever you go, be a reflection of the Lord's presence.”
During your time here this weekend you have heard many words, and I do not intend to add too many more, but what I want to share comes straight from the heart of the Father, from the Word of God. What did Isaiah remind us in the first reading today? He said that this is the time to gather all the nations together to unite in a single purpose, to focus on where our hope is to be found. This is the time. God has given us this time.
Therefore, the second reading from Hebrews told us: “lift up your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees” Why? Because this is the time of your healing, the time of your liberation, the time when God wants to anoint you to be a sign of His loving presence, His kingdom. This is the time when Jesus the liberator is going to set you free and invite you to set others free.
But the Gospel presents a frightening truth. What if we imagine that we can simply live how we want, do what we want, pay little attention to our faith in the choices we make and then come knocking on the door and Jesus will automatically open and say welcome in. What if we have failed to live with integrity our faith and, in the end, Jesus says: “I do not know you.” What a frightening thought.
My friends, are you ready today to encounter the living presence of Jesus, not in theory but in fact? Are you hungry for Him? Do you want more of what God is wanting to pour out? Because God is ready to give what you never thought possible.
The kingdom is here right now in this place and when the kingdom is present the King himself shows up and when Jesus our Lord and king appears nothing, no one remains the same. It is why I have three simple pieces of encouragement for you this morning. Phrases I would like you to take, ponder and apply.
- Look to Jesus.
- Listen to Jesus
- And then walk/live with Jesus.
You and I cannot be a pilgrim of hope, and you and I will never find the hope that gives us purpose unless we look to Jesus. He’s all around us. Simply waiting to be discovered. In the Blessed Sacrament procession that will conclude this Mass we walk with Jesus and determine to live with Him, and we look at Jesus so that we can listen to His voice. Why is this important? Because there is a nation that needs evangelisation – a nation hungry for God, the neighbourhoods in which you live need to be transformed and the Catholic Church in our lands needs to be woken up – a sleeping beauty – there is a Lord to be proclaimed.
In March this year the Bible Society released the summary of an extensive survey that revealed that there was an increase in the number of young people between the ages of 18 and 24 returning to worship on a Sunday. There is a shift in the spiritual landscape of our nation that is taking place, a shift that many of us are encountering from personal experience. A quiet revival, a hunger for God.
Only yesterday while minding my own business at Kings Cross Station waiting for the train home, a young man approached me. I will be honest I was at first suspicious and internally I was wondering what he was going ask me for and how I would get out of giving anything. In fact, I wondered if he was high on drugs or drink, but instinctively I smiled and said hello. Then he completely took me by surprise he said: “I’ve been watching you for some time. Then I got the courage to come and speak. Can you tell me about Jesus?” How long have you got, I thought, but what I said was: “Why do you want to know about Jesus?” His response was so enlightening, he said: I think my generation live without hope and without a sense of purpose, I think I might find both if I knew who Jesus was.”
Friends, you know people are looking for Jesus. They are looking for the one who makes sense of life, the one who points us to our identity, dignity and our destination. I hadn’t much time yesterday, but I gave the young guy the little I had. I gave him a flavour of the Jesus I have found and loved, the one who has changed my life. I gave him a little new testament that I carry and a rosary. I told him what I have shared with you. Look for Jesus and you will find him, listen to Him in his Word and He will open up life to you, walk with Him and speak to him and through prayer and encounter you will find hope and purpose.
A quiet revival. There are now over two million more young people making their way to places of worship each Sunday more than there were six years ago. What if this is but the beginning of something bigger? The start and sign of something more of what God is wanting to pour out. The young man at King’s Cross may be like the loaves and fishes, but God can multiply. Are we ready for a great revival? Are we ready to turn the volume up on this quiet revival? Have we the ability, the capacity to meet those seeking the face of Jesus? Will you, your generation, will you step up as Pope Leo asked to be missionaries of hope, bringing the Lord’s presence to your generation.
This is not a summer festival, an event, it is a life’s commission. Will you step up? Look to Him, Listen to Him and walk and live with Him?
Abbot Robert Igo, OSB
Ampleforth Abbey
