Dear brothers and sisters!

The liturgy of the first Vespers of the Mother of God has a unique richness, deriving both from the awe-inspiring mystery it celebrates and its timing at the very end of the calendar year. The antiphons of the Psalms and of the Magnificat insist on the paradoxical event of a God who is born of a virgin, or conversely, Mary’s divine motherhood. And at the same time, this solemnity, which concludes the Octave of Christmas, spans the transition from one year to another, and extends over it the blessing of the One “who was and who is to come” (Rev 1:8). Furthermore, today we celebrate it at the end of the Jubilee, in the heart of Rome, at Peter’s Tomb, and therefore the Te Deum that will soon resound in this Basilica will expand to give a voice to all the hearts and faces who have passed beneath these vaults and along the streets of this city.

In the Bible reading, we have listened to one of the Apostle Paul’s astonishing summaries: “When the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons” (Gal 4:4-5). This way of presenting the mystery of Christ makes us think of a plan, a great plan for human history. A mysterious plan, but with a clear centre, like a high mountain illuminated by the sun in the midst of a dense forest: this centre is the “fullness of time”.

And it is this very word – “plan” – that is echoed in the canticle of the Letter to the Ephesians: “He has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Eph 1:9-10).

Sisters, brothers, in this time of ours we feel the need for a wise, benevolent, merciful plan. May it be a free and liberating, peaceful, faithful plan, like the one the Virgin Mary proclaimed in her canticle of praise: “His mercy is on those who fear him / from generation to generation” (Lk 1:50).

However, other plans, today as yesterday, envelop the world. Rather, they are strategies, which aim to conquer markets, territories, areas of influence. Armed strategies, cloaked in hypocritical discourse, ideological proclamations, and false religious motives.

But the Holy Mother of God, the smallest and highest among the creatures, sees things with God’s gaze: she sees that, with the power of his arm, the Most High scatters the plots of the proud, overturns the powerful from their thrones and lifts up the humble, fills the hands of the hungry with good things and empties those of the rich (cf. Lk 1:51-53).

The Mother of Jesus is the woman with whom God, in the fullness of time, wrote the Word that reveals the mystery. He did not impose it on her: he first proposed it to her heart and, having received her “yes”, he wrote it with ineffable love in her flesh. Thus, God’s hope was intertwined with the hope of Mary, descendant of Abraham according to the flesh and above all according to faith.

God loves to hope with the heart of the small, and he does so by involving them in his plan of salvation. The more beautiful the plan, the greater the hope. And, in effect, the world proceeds in this way, driven by the hope of so many simple people, unknown but not to God, who despite everything believe in a better tomorrow, because they know that the future is in the hands of the One who offers them the greatest hope.

One of these people was Simon, a fisherman from Galilee, whom Jesus called Peter. God the Father gave him a faith so sincere and generous that the Lord was able to build his community on it (cf. Mt 16:18). And we are still here today, praying at his tomb, where pilgrims from all over the world come to renew their faith in Jesus Christ, Son of God. This happened in a special way during the Holy Year that is about to come to an end.

The Jubilee is a great sign of a new world, renewed and reconciled according to God’s plan. And in this plan, Providence has reserved a particular place for this city of Rome. Not for its glories, nor for its power, but because here Peter, Paul and so many other martyrs shed their blood for Christ. This is why Rome is the city of the Jubilee.

What can we wish for Rome? That it may live up to its little ones. To children, to lonely and frail elderly people, to families who struggle to get by, to men and women who have come from afar hoping for a dignified life.

Today, dear friends, let us thank God for the gift of the Jubilee, which has been a great sign of his plan of hope for humanity and for the world. And let us thank all those who, in the months and days of 2025, have worked to serve the pilgrims and to make Rome more welcoming. This was the wish of our beloved Pope Francis a year ago. I would like it to be so again, and I would say even more so after this time of grace. May this city, animated by Christian hope, be at the service of God’s plan of love for the human family. May the intercession of the Holy Mother of God, Salus Populi Romani, obtain this for us.

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Holy See Press Office Bulletin, 31 December 2025