To tell the Christmas story, one must speak about journeys, many journeys.
The Virgin Mary, after the annunciation, went with joyful haste through the hill country of Judea to be with her cousin, Elizabeth. The two women celebrated together God’s unimaginable favor to them: One would be the mother of John the Baptist, the other the mother of the Savior. (Lk 1: 39-56)
As the young woman of Nazareth was preparing to give birth, she and her husband, Joseph, traveled to Bethlehem following the orders of the Roman edict. There, in a stable, Mary gave birth to a son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger. (Lk. 2:1-7)
Shepherds keeping night watch over their flocks were startled by a heavenly choir telling them to seek out the newborn king. While it was still night, they walked through the hills until they found him in the arms of his mother. (Lk 2:8-20)
Soon afterward, on one of many trips to Jerusalem they would take, Mary and Joseph were surprised by Simeon who had long awaited them. He took the child into his arms with a heartfelt sigh. (Lk 2:2-35)
Magi from the East, trusting in the movement of a brilliant star, abandoned their homes to search for the nascent light of the world. (Mt 2:1-12)
Prompted by an angel in a dream, Joseph gathered his young family and fled to Egypt fleeing the wrath of a jealous tyrant. After hearing of Herod’s death, they made the long journey home to Nazareth in Galilee. (Mt 2:13-23)
From the moment of his conception, Jesus was a pilgrim. He had learned the pilgrim way from his parents. He learned from them the psalms and prayers of pilgrims. From their pious example he grew to deeply love the Holy Temple of Jerusalem. With his disciples, Jesus regularly traveled to the temple, stood with the multitude to pray during the daily sacrifices, and taught under the shade of its many porticoes. On the night before his gruesome death on Calvary, Jesus prayed with tears in the Garden of Olives looking down upon the temple precinct from across the Kidron Valley. (Lk 22:39-46)
Mary and Joseph would have instructed the young Jesus that their pilgrim customs were not unusual. Their Jewish identity was forged in the crucible of pilgrimage: the Exodus journey from the slavery of Egypt to the freedom of the Promised Land. After the humiliation of the Babylonian exile, Jewish pilgrims returned to rebuild Jerusalem and her Holy Temple. These ancient, often-told narratives gave a greater purpose to every journey made by the Holy Family. Those vivid memories were seared on the heart of the itinerant preacher and healer who with a band of disciples went on pilgrimage from village to village. He learned to look “forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and maker is God.” (Hb 11:10)
In the eloquent discourse of chapter six in the Gospel according to John, Jesus identified himself with the “manna,” the bread from heaven that nourished the chosen people on their desert pilgrimage from slavery to the land promised to their forebears. Jesus was leading the people on a new exodus from death to life, a pilgrimage from the slavery of sin to the freedom of God’s grace. He declared, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.” (Jn 6:35)
In every Sacrifice of the Mass, Jesus is the way that leads us to the Father. He is living bread that nourishes on our journey to the Father’s house. Mary already pointed to this mystery as she laid her tender child in a manger, a vessel for food, on that first chilly Christmas Eve, waiting for the pilgrim shepherds to come adore him.
This Christmas Eve, Pope Francis will push open the Holy Doors at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to inaugurate the Jubilee Year, calling on all the disciples of Jesus to be “Pilgrims of Hope.” I will inaugurate the Jubilee for the Diocese of Sacramento on the feast of the Holy Family on Sunday, Dec. 29. (See special report, pages 6-7).
I hope my reflections help us recognize Joseph, Mary and her child Jesus as the first pilgrims of hope. May our families join with Jesus, Mary, and Joseph on a journey of hope believing that “here we have no lasting city, but we seek the one that is to come.” (Hb 13:14)
Such a religious aspiration does not make us indifferent to the world as it is. The many journeys of the Holy Family give us the freedom to live with the wider horizon of faith and to keep our eyes on the horizon of heaven. The care we provide our families; the help we provide our neighbors; the lessons we teach to our children and the fervor of our prayers are imbued with a greater purpose with the common hope given to us by Jesus, the Good Shepherd. He leads us through the dark valleys and perilous peaks of each day to the still waters of his mercy. He feeds us in the holy Eucharist with himself, the Bread of Life, the bread come down from heaven. In His company, we are given the wisdom and patience to make each choice, each word, and every work a step closer to the gates of the new and eternal Jerusalem.
During this Jubilee Year, there will be many opportunities to make holy pilgrimages. Some may travel to Rome, Lourdes, the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe, or countless other holy sites. I encourage you to also make family pilgrimages to local sites in the Diocese of Sacramento: the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament, one of the local monasteries, and other designated churches in each deanery. Consider visiting a homeless shelter, a local charity, offering an hour of prayer to end the practice of abortion in front of an abortion center, accompanying the sick, the elderly, or the imprisoned. By all these journeys we will be in the company of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, learning from them how to be pilgrims of hope.