| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jubilee | 2000 |
The Great Jubilee
by John O’Connell
The great jubilee of the year 2000 began with the Holy Father opening the holy doors at St. Peter’s on Christmas Eve and will end with the sealing of the doors at St. Peter’s by the Supreme Pontiff on Epiphany 2001. Jubilee 2000 celebrates and commemorates two thousand years of Christianity. Because of a mistake in formulating the Gregorian Calendar, Our Lord Jesus Christ was actually born in 3 BC. It matters little that the date is imprecise, since the import of the Jubilee rests not in an exact historical remembrance, but in the recollection of the supreme spiritual significance of the two thousand years of Christianity since the Incarnation and Birth of Jesus Christ.
The practice of the ancient Israelites of keeping jubilees foreshadowed the Catholic
custom of celebrating holy years. God instructed the Israelites to keep a holy year every
fifty years. Just as the Hebrews consecrated one day out of the week (the Sabbath) and
every seventh year to God, so too they consecrated one year out of every half century to
the Lord (cf. Lv 25).
Seven weeks of years shall you count—seven times seven years—so that the seven
cycles amount to forty-nine years. Then on the tenth day of the seventh month let the
trumpet resound; on this, the Day of Atonement, the trumpet blast shall re-echo throughout
your land. The fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for
all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when every one shall return to his own
property, every one to his own family estate. (Lv 25:8-11)
The focus of the Jewish holy year was on repentance and atonement for sin by providing for
the poor, settling debts, and in social equity.
The practice of celebrating holy years in the Catholic Church originated with Pope
Boniface VIII who in 1300 established the first jubilee. During the original Jubilee the
Supreme Pontiff granted plenary indulgences to the faithful who would make a pilgrimage to
Rome—the heart of Christendom. Pope Boniface decreed that the Church would celebrate
a jubilee every 100 years. However, over the course of the centuries succeeding popes have
gradually reduced the number of years between jubilees until now the Church celebrates a
holy year every twenty-five years.
In 1933, Pope Pius XI made an exception in declaring a holy year to commemorate the
nineteenth centennial of Christ’s passion, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. Popes
have also declared special Marian holy years as well.
His Holiness John Paul II has declared a Jubilee for the year 2000 to commemorate the
second millenium since the coming of Jesus Christ. John Paul II in his apostolic letter of
the Jubilee, Tertio Millennio, states that “for the Church, the jubilee is precisely
this ‘year of the Lord’s favor,’ a year of remission of sins and of the
punishment due them, a year of reconciliation between disputing parties, a year of
manifold conversions and of sacramental and extrasacramental penance…”
Like all Christian holy years, the great Jubilee centers on Rome, the See of Peter. For
several years now the buildings of Rome have been spruced up and readied for the influx of
pilgrims expected to come to the Eternal City. Unlike the first Christian holy year,
however, pilgrims can visit designated churches in their own dioceses to participate in
the Jubilee pilgrimage and gain the special plenary indulgences.
The great Jubilee is truly a year of grace affording Christians the opportunity to repent,
to come closer to God our merciful Father, and to practice acts of charity and mercy. It
also a time to reflect on the splendid and awe inspiring mystery of the Incarnation of Our
Lord Jesus Christ.
The Incarnation is the central event of human history. The life of Christ marks and
divides human history. A weary world received the Savior of the human race. The Son of God
became enfleshed in the womb of the glorious Virgin Mary and through His passion and death
redeemed us from sin. Yet, the reality of the mystery of the Incarnation is more marvelous
yet. Because the Son of God made Man, who ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand
of the Father, remains with us on earth in the tabernacles of the world. Every day at the
celebration of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, Jesus Christ renews the sacrificial offering He
made on Calvary to the Father and, what is more, offers Himself as spiritual nourishment
to His followers in Holy Communion. May the Great Jubilee be for all a time of grace,
especially the grace to grow in love for the Eucharistic Heart of Christ.
John O’Connell is the Editor of The Catholic Faith magazine.