In his first Saturday Jubilee Audience on 11 January, 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, as the Pope elaborated, is not merely “a habit or a character trait”, but a “strength (“virtus” in Latin) to be asked for”, 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 de-pend 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 own moments of doubt during his imprisonment. These doubts, the Pope noted, resonate with the challeng-es faced by Christians today navigating a world where  ”many Herods” still “oppose the Kingdom of God.” “Welcoming the Kingdom of God leads us to a new order of greatness. Our world, all of us need this!”