Pope Francis on the Jubilee Year of Hope Pope Francis highlights the Jubilee as a time for a new beginning, rooted in the transformative power of God’s Kingdom, drawing on the example of John the Baptist, a “great prophet of hope.” Hope, is not merely “a  habit or a character trait”, but a “strength to be asked for” and also a gift of God that spurs Christians “to start again on the journey of life.” As the Gospel of Luke tells us, it requires a recognition of our human smallness in the face of  God’s greatness. “It does not depend on us, but on the Kingdom of God,” where even the “least” become great, the Pope said. Pope Francis also addressed the struggles of faith, drawing on John the Baptist’s  moments of doubt during his imprisonment. These doubts, the Pope noted, resonate with the challenges faced by Christians  today navigating a world where  “many Herods” still “oppose the  Kingdom of God.” Yet, he stressed, the Gospel provides an antidote to this despair through its transformative teachings, particularly the Beatitudes, which chart a new path of hope. Pope Francis concluded with a call to embrace hope and renewal through service and fraternity, particularly towards the least, and through responsibility for our “common home” the Earth “so often  abused and wounded.”