Jubilee 2025 Part I

Jubilee Year 2025--Pilgrims of Hope
Part 1
 
On December 24, 2024, Pope Francis opened the great door of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to welcome an estimated 35 billion pilgrims over the course of the year, as he proclaimed that the Jubilee Year of 2025 would be known as the Year of the Pilgrims of Hope. The Jubilee Year will run through December 28, 2025, and formally end at the Vatican on January 6, 2026. The entire Church is invited to participate, either as a pilgrim to Rome, or in Jubilee events that are offered here at home or in other churches designated as pilgrim sites.
 
What does this mean for us here in the EMCC? We can take the opportunity this week and next week in the bulletin to learn what this means for us as individuals and as the Church. This first week, let’s look at the idea of the Jubilee Year.
 
The Jubilee Year is a practice that originated in biblical times. The Law of Moses prescribed a special year, a jubilee year, every fifty years. During the designated year, fields were left fallow, debts forgiven, slaves freed, and land returned to the owners. People returned home to their families and celebrated a jubilee. The year was announced by the blowing of a goat’s horn or Yobel in Hebrew; this is the origin of the word jubilee. The first Jubilee Year of the Catholic Church was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 in response to great suffering throughout Christendom (the known world) from disease and wars, and the people longed for a return to a holier way of living. The Jubilee is also known as a Holy Year. It begins, is marked with, and ends with holy acts that encourage a holiness of life. The Jubilee Year is considered ordinary if it falls on a set period of years, every 25 years; extraordinary when proclaimed for an outstanding event. The Jubilee in 2000 was the 26th ordinary year, while the Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy in 2015 was an extraordinary Jubilee. 
 
Extraordinary years, which first began in the 16th century, are called to mark a special event. There were three extraordinary Jubilees in the 20th century:   1933 and 1983 marking the 1900th and 1950th anniversary of the Redemption through Jesus’ death and Resurrection at 33 years old, and a Jubilee in 1987 when John Paul II declared a Marian Year.
 
This year, 2025, is an ordinary year, as it is occurring on a quarter year of the century. This ordinary Jubilee is an intentional time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, one another, and all of creation. It is an opportunity to celebrate prayer, forgiveness and reconciliation in the Catholic Church.
 
 
Peace,
Cathy Pressimone
Parish Life Coordinator
[email protected]