The Jubilee has always been an occasion of spiritual renewal for the Church, because through it every believer is offered the chance to ‘pass through the holy door’ that is Christ the Lord, and to re-centre his or her existence in the One who makes our human being beautiful.

Among the most eagerly awaited events is the Youth Jubilee, which represents a special moment of encounter with God, of growth in the awareness of being Church and above all of witnessing that in them, that is, in young people, there is the seed of Hope. Their life is hope for a present fertilised by the tenderness of the spirit, and the desire to renew the Church, society and relationships according to Vincent de Paul’s dream of charity.

In this context, the Vincentian charism, inspired by St. Vincent de Paul, offers young people in particular a profound key to living the jubilee not only as simple pilgrims, but above all as an opportunity to re-propose the experience of service as an opportunity to give hope to themselves and those around them. This charism fits perfectly with the spirit of the jubilee, it attempts to combine in hope a passionate love for each person, a love that becomes the sign of a “year of grace” for everyone, no one excluded. Therefore, to participate in the Youth Jubilee means not only to live an experience of spirituality, but to give this jubilee a character of agape, that is, of a broader sharing that attests to the presence of the God who is love. The experience of the Jubilee must be for every young person, a time within which they taste the concreteness of being believers, Vincentians, with their gaze turned to Hope, and with their hands outstretched towards those who today live on the margins of society and find it hard to believe in Hope any longer.

We must make our own the faith experience of Vincent de Paul, who stated with profound conviction: ‘I must not consider a poor peasant or a poor woman by their appearance, nor by their apparent mentality; very often they have hardly the physiognomy, nor the intelligence of reasonable people, so rough and material are they. But turn the coin over, and you will see in the light of faith that the Son of God, who wished to be poor, is portrayed to us by these poor”[1] .

Young people are those who, in this historical reality that is so liquid and where one is often branded by prejudices, have the strength to turn the coin over, to give a substantial turn to the human face and glimpse in them that the Son of God is portrayed. Young people, inserted in the Vincentian charism, take on a precise mission to be credible messengers of a new, inclusive humanity, where the logic of efficiency no longer prevails, but that of the uniqueness of the human person as it is expressed and presented in today’s world.

The young Vincentian must be with his whole self a pilgrim of hope, he must make a true inner and outer pilgrimage: from Christ to man and from man to Christ. On this journey he must sow on the soil of history the seeds of that hope which he could only receive in the encounter with Christ. This becomes the only way to give back to those who live in situations of hardship, inner death, failure, human poverty, war and loneliness the true hope that never disappoints. We must give Christ back to the people, he must once again become the true hope of the people, no longer conveyed or veiled by the logic of power, but a Christ of all and for all.  The Youth Jubilee, lived in this perspective, is no longer reduced to a devotional experience, but becomes an authentic opportunity to re-launch a concrete life commitment based on love and solidarity.

I believe that in this time of grace, even more so, young Vincentians must make the Pope’s appeal their own: Let the voices of the poor be heard in this time of preparation for the Jubilee which, according to the biblical command, restores to everyone access to the fruits of the earth: “What the land shall produce during its rest shall be food for you, for your slave, your maidservant, your labourer, and for the guest that shall be with you; also for your cattle and the animals that are in your land shall be food for what it shall produce” (Lev 25:6-7)[2]

It is a time of restitution, of dignity, of freedom, of the beauty of belonging all to the same people, without differences, and young people with their vitality and creativity can – must – be the guarantee of this restitution. The poor, the forgotten, every person living the drama of hopelessness, trust in young people, keep their eyes fixed on them, because they expect from them the concretisation of the beatitude announced by Jesus: Blessed are the pure in heart, for theirs is the kingdom of God (Mt 5:3). Young people with their testimony of life testify that nothing is lost, but through them everything is handed back into the hands of those who are for us “our lords and masters“.  For us Vincentians, and in particular for the Vincentian Fathers, it is a Jubilee within a Jubilee, in fact they are celebrating the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the community, but it is not only their Jubilee, the whole Vincentian family is involved in it and in particular the young people who are the Hope of a presence that awaits with joy their full adherence to Christ and in him to be in every context scattered seed for the rebirth of a world that takes account of God’s dream: “and behold, it was a very beautiful thing” (Gen 1:31)

F. Giuseppe Martinelli, CM

[1] St. Vincent de Paul, Lectures to Priests in the Mission, vol. 10, p. 26

[2] Pope Francis, Letter of the Holy Father to Monsignor Rino Fisichella for the Jubilee 2025, Rome 2024