Living the Jubilee

POPE Francis has declared 2025 a Jubilee Year, a special year set aside for forgiveness and restitution. These holy years hold a venerable place in the Catholic faith. The first Jubilee was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 to mark the start of a new century. Drawing on the Jubilee tradition described in the Old Testament, Boniface called Catholics to observe it with penance and other spiritual sacrifices. After witnessing the fruits of this Jubilee, he recommended the Church declare one every hundred years. Since then, the gap between Jubilees has gradually shortened. In the 14th century, Pope Clement VI reduced the interval to every half century, and later Pope Paul II declared that, starting in 1475, Jubilees should occur every 25 years, which is how the tradition continues today. Some popes have also called for ‘extraordinary’ Holy Years. For example, in 1933 Pope Pius XI commemorated the 1900th anniversary of Christ’s death and resurrection. More recently, Pope Francis recognized 2015 as an extraordinary Jubilee, naming it the “Year of Mercy.”

The purpose

Regardless of timing or specific reasons for their commemoration, Jubilee years share a common purpose. As indicated above, the concept traces back to biblical times. Under the Old Covenant, the Jubilee Year was a kind of ‘super Sabbath’. For the people of Israel, the seventh day of the week was set aside for rest and worship. Just as God rested after six days of creation, so human beings were called to rest one day each week. The command to remember the Sabbath and hallow it was the third of the ten commandments given to Moses at Mount Sinai, and this weekly commemoration became foundational to Israelite religion. Resting from one’s work, even for one day a week, required active trust that God would provide, so commitment to this practice was seen as a barometer of spiritual health.

This Sabbath observance was then extended to every seventh year. During these ‘Sabbath years’, the land was to lie fallow, with no sowing or pruning permitted. The Jubilee Year, held every fifty years, involved even more radical practices. The fiftieth year followed seven occurrences of seven years (7x7+1=50) and was proclaimed with a special ceremony – blowing a ram’s horn on the Day of Atonement. The name for the Jubilee Year can be traced back to this instrument, called a yobel, which is still used in certain ceremonies today. The Jubilee Year upped the ante, as it were: in this fiftieth year, all debts were to be forgiven, slaves set free, and forfeited land returned to its original owners or their descendants .

Jesus declares a Jubilee

Lest we assume that the Jubilee was simply an Old Testament concept, we need only turn to the Gospels to see that the idea was central to Jesus’ mission as well. At the start of his public ministry, Jesus visited the synagogue in Nazareth, where he read the following passage from the book of the prophet Isaiah: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,/ because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor./ He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives/ and recovery of sight to the blind,/ to set at liberty those who are oppressed,/ to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

When Jesus finished this reading, he announced, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Everyone who was gathered that day would have recognized what was happening. There in his hometown, Jesus was declaring a Year of Jubilee. Even if the people of God chose to ignore this pronouncement, Christ was signaling that his ministry would be characterized by good news to the poor, freedom for prisoners, and healing of the infirm. His mission, in other words, would be a powerful manifestation of what the ancient Jubilee Years were meant to accomplish.

Christian Jubilee years

Fast forward to today. The Catholic celebration of Jubilee Years has its own unique character, but it is oriented to the same basic aims as the ancient Jubilees – forgiveness of debts and righting of wrongs. In this respect, Jubilee celebrations have an inherently social dimension. As Pope Francis noted in his initial announcement of the 2025 Jubilee Year (Spes Non Confundit), our commemoration of this holy year should not merely be about our own spiritual growth, but also about care for others. The theme of this Jubilee is Pilgrims of Hope; and we become “signs of hope,” the Holy Father continued, when we take time to care for the sick and homebound. “Care given to [those with disabilities or illness] is,” in his words, “a hymn to human dignity, a song of hope that calls for the choral participation of society as a whole.” What a stirring image for us to reflect upon as we begin this Jubilee Year. In a world thrown into confusion by a cacophony of voices – many of them divisive and antagonistic – it’s inspiring to be reminded that God has called us to be cultivators of harmony. Evangelism can take many forms, but one of the most powerful ways to share the Gospel is to be a peacemaker. In so doing, we help others to experience the hope that God has placed in our hearts.

Our common home

The challenge of this Jubilee Year is multifaceted. The proclamation of the Jubilee calls each of us to grow in our walk with God, but as we have seen, it also has implications for how we organize our communal life. Pope Francis even calls whole countries to conversion. In his papal bull announcing the Jubilee year, Francis writes, “Another heartfelt appeal that I would make in light of the coming Jubilee is directed to the more affluent nations. I ask that they acknowledge the gravity of so many of their past decisions and determine to forgive the debts of countries that will never be able to repay them. More than a question of generosity, this is a matter of justice.” In our present circumstances, justice demands that those nations which have benefited most from the global economy be willing to forgive the debts of less affluent countries, whose people suffer due to forces outside their control. The call for a Jubilee, in other words, is meant to comfort the afflicted and challenge the comfortable.

As part of his Jubilee pronouncement, Pope Francis has also asked Catholics to take stock of their relationship to the natural world, which God has entrusted to us to be stewarded for the common good. We should not dismiss this thread in Francis’ preaching as a secular or left-wing cause. Whenever the Holy Father teaches on these matters – such as in his ecological encyclical, Laudato Sì – he draws deeply from the wellsprings of Scripture and Tradition. The key, Francis notes, is to move beyond seeing the world as a thing to be possessed and instead to view it as creation, a gift from God that we are called to protect so it can be responsibly handed down to future generations. In this light, seeking justice begins with care for our common home. The Jubilee Year is a reminder to rededicate ourselves to this task, even though our care for the earth should be an unwavering part of the Church’s witness.

Final thoughts

The most pressing question now is, how will you spiritually benefit from this Jubilee Year of Hope? We can sometimes live as if time stretches out in front of us indefinitely. In the back of our minds, however, we know that time flies. At the start of this new year, then, let’s make a firm resolution not to let the promise of this Jubilee go unfulfilled. Regardless of your station in life, know this: God has called you to be a pilgrim of hope. Whether it’s through feeding the hungry, caring for the sick, tending to the earth – or some combination of these – you have been called to be a witness to hope. And what does it look like to become a witness to hope? Perhaps the simplest summary remains the words of the ancient prophet Micah, whose vision overlaps with what we have heard from Pope Francis: “You have been told, O mortal, what is good and what the Lord requires of you: only to do justice and to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).