Opening Our Hearts to Jesus
By Archbishop Joseph Naumann
In 1999, Pope John Paul came to St. Louis for a pastoral visit and, as was his custom, he wanted to meet with young people, so we held a gathering in the hockey stadium. The theme of his talk that night to the young people was to challenge them: “Be light as only young people can be light.” The Lord has this particular love for the young to be his instruments of grace in the world.
Consider Jeremiah, who talks about how the Lord formed him in the womb and who protested that he was too young. God told him, “Say not that you are too young. I will put my words in your mouth.” Or think of St. John the Apostle, the Beloved of the Lord, who was just a teenager when he received the call to follow our Lord. Think of Joan of Arc, this amazing young woman who heard the voices of the saints and of God calling her to an impossible mission. She was open to the Lord’s call, not so much to preserve France, but to revive the faith of the French people. We just celebrated a few days ago the Feast of St. Agnes, a 12-year-old martyr-virgin of the early Church, who inspired some of the great saints. There is a beautiful reading from St. Ambrose in the Office of Readings, describing how her executioner trembled as she willingly submitted her life to martyrdom. Think of modern saints like Carlo Acutis, a great apostle of the Eucharist. So, my good young people, say not that you are too young to be a light in our culture and society. You have a unique power to be that light.
Pope Francis chose for the theme of this holy year to be Pilgrims of Hope. A Jubilee year is a time when the Church prays in a special way that we encounter the Lord anew. The Pope symbolized this encounter by going through the Holy Door. It is not just a physical gesture, but it is a physical prayer in which we try to open our hearts in new ways, to leave the darkness of the secular culture outside and to enter into a deeper relationship with our Lord. And so, we pray for that tonight.
In the 10th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, Jesus referred to Himself as the gate or the door. Jesus said, “I am the gate for the sheep.” And our Lord continued, “I am the gate; who enters through Me will be saved and will come in and go out and find pasture.” And then He declared, “I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” This is the same chapter in which Jesus identified Himself as the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for the sheep. Jesus reminds us that good shepherds know their sheep by name, and He is saying to all of us that He knows us by name. He desires to have a personal friendship with each of us, and so I pray that this holy year may be a time of grace for all of us when we open our hearts to the Lord, who is knocking on the door of our hearts, waiting for us to let Him enter in a greater way.
I believe Pope Francis chose the theme for this holy year to be Pilgrims of Hope because he noted that in our particular time, our world needs a renewal of hope. In so doing, the pope identified what so many in the social sciences have termed as epidemics of anxiety, loneliness, depression and despair, especially among young people. As Christians, we understand ourselves to be pilgrims. This world is not our final destination. We are on a journey through the world to the heavenly kingdom for which Jesus is the gate and door.
Ultimately for the Christian, our hope is not based on political leaders, cultural celebrities, or athletes. Our hope is anchored in the only one who will not and cannot disappoint. Friendship and communion with Jesus have given His disciples hope for 2,000 years—during times of adversity, illness, deaths of loved ones, persecutions, imprisonments, and even martyrdom. When we march tomorrow, we march as pilgrims of hope. This has motivated many here tonight to give their lives to be advocates for life.
Elections are important—they have consequences—and we pray for our new president and vice president. I was encouraged to hear that the new president gave pardons to pro-life prisoners who have been spending time in jail because of their advocacy for life. We pray for the president and vice president, that they will have wisdom to be good leaders for our nation. However, as Pope St. John Paul II understood so clearly, culture is more significant than politics. Elections reflect the values of a culture.
After the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe vs. Wade and returning to state legislatures the authority to determine public policy regarding abortion, the pro-life community was celebrative. We have experienced since that time, though, many disappointments with the outcome of state referendums, beginning with my state of Kansas. Part of the reason that we lost in Kansas, and I think this is true in other places, is that there was a great outpouring of new young voters who voted for legal abortion. This amendment did not pass, particularly because of the young people, and I can understand that in many ways. They have grown up in a culture where they have never known anything but legalized abortion, a culture of death. They have grown up in a culture where they have seen so much infidelity in love. They have grown up in a culture where my generation has failed to protect them from a pornography industry that targets children and young people to addict them to this phony and false kind of love.
My good young people, you are called to be witnesses to your peers. You are called to help them to come to know what brought you here tonight. These defeats have been sober reminders that we need to reintensify our efforts to build a Culture of Life. Jesus never promised His disciples an easy life. In fact, He said that if we are going to follow Him, we have to follow Him all the way to Calvary; that we have to be prepared to take up the cross. To transform our culture, we must touch hearts by efforts like Walking with Moms in Need, where we try to surround women in difficult pregnancies with a community of love and support; by efforts like Project Rachel, an important healing and forgiving ministry for those who have been involved with abortion; by ministries like And Then There Were None, started by Abbey Johnson, a former Planned Parenthood director who now has this ministry to bring people out of the abortion industry and to give them a renewed life, freeing them from that culture of death, that culture of darkness.
We must touch minds with the truth of the life and the dignity of every human person, a truth that can be arrived at by reason. But we must also touch hearts. In the First Letter of St. Peter, the first pope reminded us that we must always be prepared to share with others the reason for our hope. The reason for our hope is the Word made flesh. The reason for our hope is a God who pursues us despite our sinfulness, our brokenness. Our reason for hope is anchored in the Creator of the cosmos choosing to become an embryo in the womb of Mary, to be born in the poor circumstances of Bethlehem, to be an infant refugee fleeing a tyrannical king, to be a boy growing up in the small town of Nazareth, to be a laborer, a carpenter, who knew what it was to work hard, to exercise His public ministry in this obscure region of the world, the backwaters of the Roman Empire, according to the worldly leaders of the time, and ultimately to give His life on Calvary so that we could be transformed by divine mercy, and with His Easter victory of life, give us a destiny to live with Him and the saints forever.
My friend Bishop Thomas’s Episcopal motto in English is, “My Lord and my God,” the words of the Apostle St. Thomas, doubting Thomas, after touching the wounds of the love of Jesus. This is how we transform culture: by allowing ourselves to become wounds of love for our world; to help your peers, my dear young people, to know that they are made in the divine image; to see in them a reflection of God; to help them know that they are of such worth that God died for them as well; and to help them to reject all of the false narratives of our culture and society today. With the love of God revealed in the Word made flesh in Jesus Christ, how can we not have hope?
This is why Consecrated Religious are so powerful—you are witnesses of hope and love in the heart of the Church; you are heralds of the Gospel of Life. And so, we ask this Jesus, this Word made flesh who humbled Himself to be an embryo in Mary and humbles Himself again to be present to us in the Eucharist, to give us food for the journey. What we need now is to take up the banner to be pilgrims of hope, intent on building a Culture of Life and a Civilization of Love. Amen.
The Most Reverend Joseph F. Naumann is the Archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas. His chosen episcopal motto is “Vitae Victoria Erit” (Life will be Victorious). Archbishop Naumann has championed the cause for the right to life throughout his ministry, and he seeks to lead his flock in upholding and promoting the immense dignity of every human person from conception to natural death. This essay was adapted from the archbishop’s homily at the 2025 National Prayer Vigil for Life.