Jean-Claude Kanku, cicm
On May 9, 2024, the day of the Ascension of the Lord, the Pope officially announced that a jubilee, commonly known as a "Holy Year," would be held in 2025. At the same time, he published the Bull of Indiction entitled "Spes non Confudit," meaning "Hope does not disappoint" (Romans 5:5). In the introduction to the bull, he expressed a heartfelt wish: "May hope fill the hearts of those who read this letter."
I read the Bull of Indiction with great interest. I even used it recently during a retreat for nuns preparing for their silver jubilee of religious life. I emphasized that hope is both a gift and a practice: something we receive and cultivate through intentional effort.
Hope lies at the very heart of initial formation: "Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead, our salvation and eternal glory." This is what we proclaim and firmly believe, knowing with certainty that we are moving toward this eternal glory. It is an absolute promise from our Lord Jesus Christ. Without this conviction, because hope is intrinsically linked to faith, formators can achieve little, and young people in formation will be left to their own devices. It is God who calls the young person by placing the seed of hope within them (hope as a gift), and He is the true and only formator. This is a fundamental truth that formators must internalize, recognizing themselves as "imperfect mediators" in the service of the Lord.
Moreover, Amadeo Cencini, in his book "The Feelings of the Son," describes formation as a ministry—a fraternal service offered to those who are discovering God's plan for their lives. At the same time, formation is a mystery, a divine action that the Father undertakes with the power of the Spirit to mold those He calls into the image of His Son. The formator's role is to help the young person open themselves to be converted and formed by grace.
In other words, the formation process is not primarily about transmitting concepts, mapping out paths, or giving directions. Instead, it is fundamentally about a "commitment" and a "confession" of faith—a transmission of our hope. The formator, who possesses deep convictions, strives to live them out and prepares an environment where the active power of God can take root. The formation process is a journey in God's presence. He promised this to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:1). It truly involves walking in the presence of God, feeling that we are advancing toward the path He has laid out for us, and allowing ourselves to be guided by His promise (hope).
Walking, always walking—despite the ups and downs of life—requires putting our trust in Him, for hope does not disappoint. In this sense, the house of formation becomes a spiritual space of hope, where formators and young people in formation look to Him to shine, without shadow or trouble on their faces. "A poor man cries out; the Lord hears him and saves him from all his troubles" (Psalm 33:6-7). They look to Him to remain anchored in something eternal. To live this life of hope, we need an anchor—something solid and unshakeable—that stabilizes us when life's waves grow strong. For us believers, that anchor is the promise of God's love and providence. This is what we must inspire and nurture in young people in formation.
We show, through our way of life, that hope is a journey—not solely defined by grand gestures but by a continuous, determined movement forward. By emphasizing the importance of prayer and spiritual exercises, formators help young people in formation become attuned to the constant presence of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit radiates the light of hope, keeping it burning like an eternal torch that supports and strengthens our lives (Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of 2025, n. 3).
Msgr.François Bustillo, in his book, "Let Us Cross Over to the Other Side, Towards a Renewed Religious Life," raises an important question: "If young people respond to a call, what are we going to offer these young people? A quality spiritual life? A passion for the Kingdom? Models of devoted men and women? A prophetic simplicity of life? A lifestyle that fulfills their expectations?" (p. 79).
Pope Francis addresses all these questions in his homily of February 2, 2017, when he speaks of hope: "We are the heirs of the dreams of our fathers, heirs of the hope that did not disappoint our founding fathers and mothers, our elders." Suppose our Congregation has remained steadfast until today. In that case, it is because our founder and his first companions, along with all our elder confreres, walked in the presence of the Lord and passed on their passion for God and for the mission to future generations. It is this passion for Christ and for the mission entrusted to our Institute that we must impart to the young people in the formation, using all the means available to us through the Congregation, and relying on the One who calls, who forms, who sends, and who promises us his presence until the end of time. Let us focus all our energies on this noble task of passing on to our young people in formation this certainty of our hope: “the already there and the not yet there.” Then our formation houses will become places where we live in expectation of this hope and, while waiting, we will discern the signs of the times in order to walk with confidence toward the one who does not disappoint: “Behold, I am doing a new thing: it is already sprouting, do you not see it? Yes, I will make a way in the desert, rivers in the arid places” (Is 43:19).
Living in a profound attitude of trust in the Lord (hope) is an important element of initial formation. We need a new kind of community, structured by mutual deference and obedience, where no one occupies the center; the center remains empty, a space filled by the glory of God (Timothy Radcliffe, Let Your Joy Be Perfect, p. 155). Thus, we can already understand and live out in the formation community the fact that the history of humanity is not a history of individual success, promotion, or competition; it is the history of humanity's journey toward the Kingdom, celebrated each year in the liturgical cycle. Thus, we will be able to say with conviction and determination, with St. Paul: “I am certain that neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, neither powers nor heights, nor depths, nor any creature, nothing can separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:35, 37-39) That is what it is all about. Without this deep conviction nourished by meditation on the word of God, prolonged adoration of the Body of Christ given up for us, the Eucharist celebrated every day to remember the Lord's immeasurable love for his brothers and sisters, theological courses and various teachings to acquire a hope that is won, lucid, and free from any naivety, our houses of formation will be useless.
Fortunately, our formation programs have been designed to help young people in formation to come into contact with this precious gift placed in them by the Lord from their mothers' wombs, and also to give them the opportunity, through various spiritual and academic exercises, to keep the lamp burning, with a view to transmitting this hope to others in our apostolates throughout the world.
“Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory, for your steadfast love and for your faithfulness! Why should the nations say, ‘Where is their God?’ Our God is in heaven; he does whatever he pleases.” (Ps 115:1-2)
