Originally published at National Catholic Register
The Jubilee Year of Hope invites us to fix our eyes on Christ, the source of all hope, and to rediscover the ways this hope transforms lives. In a series of articles during this Jubilee Year, I plan to reflect on the priest as a man of hope, in particular highlighting how priestly fatherhood is a sign of hope in a world so often fraught with despair.
This priestly and paternal hope is perfectly expressed in the hopeful gaze of the father. In a world weighed down by discouragement, fear, and isolation, the hopeful gaze of priests and fathers becomes a profound witness to God’s unconditional love.
This idea of the hopeful gaze of the Father is inspired by Father Jacques Philippe in his book Priestly Fatherhood. A priest with the Community of the Beatitudes, he writes about the welcoming and patient love of the father for the smallest and weakest, describing a father as one with “a limitless patience, founded on hope. He believes the other, even when the other doesn’t believe him. I would dare to say… that a kind of ‘unconditional hope’ is one of the aspects of this unconditional love.”
The priest is the
