On May 13, 2024, which was Ascension Thursday, Pope Francis announced that the Church would celebrate a Jubilee Year in 2025. In the Bull in which he proclaimed the Holy Year, entitled, Spes non Confundit, that is, “Hope does not disappoint,” (Rom. 5:5) he wrote: “In the spirit of hope, the Apostle Paul addressed these words of encouragement to the Christian community of Rome. Hope is also the central message of the coming Jubilee that, in accordance with an ancient tradition, the pope proclaims every twenty-five years.” (n.1)

With these words the Holy Father confirms a tradition in the Church, dating back to 1300, to celebrate a Jubilee Year every 25 years. In fact, the last Ordinary Jubilee Year was the year, 2000. He also declared that the theme and point of reflection and action for this special time of grace is hope.  

In the opening paragraph of this document, Pope Francis reminds us that the Holy Year, as always, is lived within the dynamic of a pilgrimage, a movement, journey leading to transformation and renewal. In that regard, he stated: “My thoughts turn to all those pilgrims of hope who will travel to Rome in order to experience the Holy Year and to all those others who, though unable to visit the City of the Apostles Peter and Paul, will celebrate it in their local Churches.” (n.1)

History and meaning of the Jubilee Year 

Before reflecting upon the document in which Pope Francis proclaimed the Jubilee Year, let us look at the history and meaning of a Jubilee Year. 

The Jubilee Year or Holy Year has its origin in the Jewish faith and goes back to Biblical times. It originated with the Mosaic Law itself, which declared that every seven years there would be a Sabbatical Year. We read in the first verses of Leviticus 25: “The Lord said to Moses at Mount Sinai, 2 ‘Speak to the Israelites and say to them: “When you enter the land that I am going to give you, the land itself must observe a sabbath to the Lord. 3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the Lord. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.”’”

In these few verses we find theological insights about the land that the Chosen People were given, namely the Promised Land, which they entered after their forty years of journey in the desert that ended their salivary in Egypt. Indeed, they did not take this land because they conquered it through a battle or agreement with earthly powers. No, the land that they entered was given to them by God as a gift. The land came from God’s goodness and love for His people By giving this law of the sabbatical year, God manifested His intention on how the gift of land was to be used.

Another theological insight reveals that the land is so precious that, as God rested on the seventh day of creation, so the land would rest during the seventh year. Let the land rest after six years of cultivation. The number seven represents the perfect number in the Bible. Therefore, the sabbatical year indicates the perfect cycle of time arising from creation, God worked for six days in creation, and on the seventh, He rested.

The law of the sabbatical year also prescribed what should happen to the fruits of the land that grew during the sabbatical year. Whatever grew during that time would belong to everyone, not just the ones who were in charge of the land. We read in Leviticus: “Whatever the land yields during the sabbath year will be food for you—for yourself, your male and female servants, and the hired worker and temporary resident who live among you, 7 as well as for your livestock and the wild animals in your land. Whatever the land produces may be eaten.” (Lev. 25: 6ff) In other words, during the sabbatical year, one shall neither sow nor reap for private gain. Whatever grows would belong to all members of the community—the owner, his servants, and strangers—as well as domestic and wild animals. All would share in consuming the natural or spontaneous yield of the soil. The sabbatical year affirms that God owns the land, and the sabbatical year reminded the Jewish people of this fundamental truth.

The sabbatical year then developed into a Jubilee Year that would be celebrated every 50 years. The theological significance of numbers enters again. The Jubilee Year would be celebrated following the last year of seven Sabbatical cycles, that is 49 years which is seven times seven, the biblical perfection of the cycle of time.

However, the Jubilee had a greater meaning which went beyond the mere regulations about land. The prescriptions of the Jubilee Year had great social consequences. 

Again, let us turn to other verses of Leviticus: “Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sound everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields. In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property.”

Here we see a dramatic leap in the meaning of the Jubilee Year as opposed to the Sabbatical Year. In the Jubilee Year, slaves were to be freed, debts were to be forgiven, and everyone was to be given a new chance starting on an equal footing.  As you can see, it had tremendous social consequences. The law of the Sabbatical Year acts as a statute of limitation or a bankruptcy law for the poor debtor, in discharging his liability for debts contracted without the fear that his future earnings will be seized by his former creditors. The Jubilee Year was the year of liberation of servants whose poverty had forced them into employment by others. Similarly, all property alienated for a money consideration to relieve poverty, was to be returned to the original owners without restoration of the amount which had been advanced. It was a sort of rebooting, putting everyone on an equal footing whose purpose was not only a call to justice but of restoring justice.

The Jubilee Year was a celebration of what God intended for His creation; it was a call to justice, giving all a chance to start over, in a sense, to bring creation back to its original state. It showed that God played an active role in the life of His people in real time, revealing Himself as the sole master of His creation. It was called the Jubilee Year, or the Year of the Yobel or of the goat because it was proclaimed by the sound of the goat’s horn. 

We are not sure when the last Jubilee Year was celebrated within the Jewish tradition, but it cannot be celebrated again until all the twelve tribes of Israel are gathered in the land that God gave them.

In the Christian era, the first Jubilee was celebrated in the year 1300, and it arose from popular piety. In late 1299, many pilgrims had gathered in Rome, driven by a real spontaneous movement on the part of the people, seeking a renewal of their Christian life above all by the reception of indulgences in preparation of the new century which would begin in the year 1300. The spirituality of the people was deeply inspired by the Bull of Forgiveness of Clement V of 1294 in which the pope conceded the fullness of forgiveness through an indulgence if the people visited the Church of Santa Maria of Collemaggio in Aquila between the 28th and 29th of August. By 1299, the people themselves anxious for personal spiritual renewal flocked to Rome. Driven by this vast and spontaneous initiative, Pope Boniface VIII instituted the Holy Year on February 22, 1300, in which all worshippers could gain a plenary indulgence by visiting the basilicas of St. Peter’s in the Vatican and St. Paul Outside the Walls. In doing so, Pope Boniface adapted to the wishes of the people and demonstrated a real pastoral sensitivity. 

The Bull of Pope Boniface also determined that the Jubilee Year would take place in the future at least every 100 years. The Jubilee had a great success with a great influx of people to Rome from around the world. It meant, of course, a significant contribution of financial resources for the city and the Church, the celebration of the significance of Rome as the primatial See of the entire Church, and a solidification of the prestige of the pope himself.  

The celebration of the Jubilee Year was somewhat erratic over the course of the years. At one point, it was celebrated every 100 years, then 50 years and even every 33 years to commemorate the earthly life of Christ. The last interval of 50 years was celebrated in 1450, and after that the every-25 years cycle was established, which has been the case up to our day, although it was suspended in 1800 and 1850 during the Napoleonic wars.

Besides the ordinary Jubilee Year which we celebrate [this] year, there have been extraordinary ones. For example, in 1933 there was a Holy Year to remember the 1,900 anniversary of the death and resurrection of Christ, in 1983 the Extraordinary Jubilee marked the 1,950th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Christ, and Pope Francis proclaimed an Extraordinary Jubilee in 2015 to call the Church to ever deeper practice of mercy. It was called the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

In all cases, the Jubilee Year is marked by the spirituality of pilgrimage which represents the Christion life of a journey towards an ever-deeper relationship with Christ. The primary pilgrimage is Rome. Another mark characteristic of the Jubilee Year is the passing through the Holy Doors of the four Basilicas of Rome: St Peter’s in the Vatican, St. Mary Major, St. John Lateran, and St. Paul Outside the Walls. It recalls the words in the Gospel of St. John: “Jesus is the door to the Father.” Another characteristic of the Jubilee is conversion, a spiritual rebooting, also with the reception of an indulgence. 

The Jubilee of 2025: Awaking hope arising from faith

Pope Francis confirmed the Jubilee Year of 2025 within the context of the celebration of Vespers or Evening Prayer of the Ascension, during which he preached a homily reflecting on the Jubilee Year. Therefore, we have two sources for our reflection on the Jubilee: the Bull (SC), which I mentioned above, and the homily given at Vespers (AT). 

In both instances, the Holy Father affirms that the theme of the Jubilee Year is hope.  

He starts by stating that we live in “a culture marked by much despair … often caught up only in the present and incapable of looking to the future.” He continued: “(We live) in an age caught up in an individualism that is frequently content merely to scrape along from day to day. Peoples and nations look to the future with anxiety and fear,” because “injustice and arrogance persist, the poor are discarded, wars sow seeds of death, the least of our brothers and sisters remain at the bottom of the pile, and the dream of a fraternal world seems an illusion.” Young people live in a state of confusion and uncertainty longing for a life of happiness and fulfillment, which for them is often an illusion. The elderly, the sick, and the suffering live with a sense of being abandoned “by a culture obsessed with efficiency and excess.” Even creation, the world itself, “gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness” survives with a sense of need and yearning. 

In short, Pope Francis sees the present state of the world, and even the Church, as a time of great “uncertainty about the future” which “gives rise to conflicting feelings, ranging from confident trust to apprehensiveness, from serenity to anxiety, from firm conviction to hesitation and doubt.” In that context, therefore, he writes: “Often we come across people who are discouraged, pessimistic, and cynical about the future, as if nothing could possibly bring them happiness.” (SC)

Consequently, our lives so often are “weary and wounded, our hearts thirsting for truth, goodness and beauty, and our dreams that no darkness can dispel.” (AT)

In this context, we can say “everything, within and outside of us, cries out for hope.” “What we – all of us – need, then, is hope,” but not mere human hope, which is “mere ‘human’ optimism or the ephemeral expectation of some earthly benefit.” (AT)

Rather, our yearnings are based in Christian hope, which “sustains the journey of our lives, even when the road ahead seems winding and exhausting. It opens our eyes to future possibilities whenever resignation or pessimism attempt to imprison us. It makes us see the promise of good at times when evil seems to prevail. Christian hope fills us with serenity when our hearts are burdened by sin and failure. It makes us dream of a new humanity and gives us courage in our efforts to build a fraternal and peaceful world, even when it seems barely worth the effort.” (AT)

Christian hope, then is not a philosophical or abstract reflection. Rather, it is something real that has already been accomplished through the mission of Christ and bestowed on us in baptism. (AT)  

Christian hope arises from our response to the redemptive mission of Christ Himself, who died and rose from the dead. In other words, there is a connection between faith and hope, so much so, that often in the Sacred Scriptures, faith and hope are interchangeable. Faith gives us hope; our hope comes from faith. Pope Benedict XVI, in his encyclical on hope, Spes salvi (In Hope we are Saved) (SS), teaches how St. Paul explains this beautifully in his Letter to the Ephesians. Paul reminded the Ephesians that before their encounter with Christ they were “without hope and without God in the world.” (Eph 2:12) Of course, he knew that they had had gods, he knew that they had had a religion, but their gods had proved questionable, and no hope emerged from their mythical gods. Notwithstanding their gods, they were “without God” and consequently found themselves in a dark world, facing a dark future.” (SS 2) 

But for Christians, when we encounter Christ and embrace Him in faith, we know that there is a future. That is, we have hope that opens the door to a future even if we do not know all its details. We know that life does not lead to emptiness or oblivion. The future is a positive reality not an illusion or a fantasy. This hope is based in our relationship with Christ. Consequently, it is very interesting to note that at the very beginning of the Bull on the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis calls upon all Christians: “For everyone, may the Jubilee be a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, Whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope.’” (1 Tim 1:1) (SC)

It is a call which the Holy Father made at the very beginning of his pontificate in the document, Joy of the Gospel. There, he wrote: “I invite all Christians, everywhere, at this very moment, to a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ, or at least an openness to letting Him encounter them; I ask all of you to do this unfailingly each day. No one should think that this invitation is not meant for him or her, since ‘no one is excluded from the joy brought by the Lord.’ The Lord does not disappoint those who take this risk.” (EG, 3) Indeed, those who accept His offer of salvation are set free from sin, sorrow, inner emptiness, and loneliness. (EG, 1) In other words, our relationship with Christ, that is faith, gives us hope, gives us a future, gives us a reason for living.

Our faith is not merely a revelation of things and mysteries that can be known—it makes things happen and is life-changing. The dark door of time, of the future, has been thrown open. The one who has faith and hope lives differently; the one who hopes has been granted the gift of a new life. (SS 2)

The Jubilee: Activities to awaken hope

The Jubilee Year offers us this opportunity to renew, to reboot and, if need be, to start over our relationship with Christ through the various spiritual exercises offered to us at this time. Above all it is marked by the concept of pilgrimage - a journey, leading to conversion. Pope Francis wrote: “Pilgrimage is of course a fundamental element of every Jubilee event. Setting out on a journey is traditionally associated with our human quest for meaning in life. A pilgrimage on foot is a great aid for rediscovering the value of silence, effort, and simplicity of life. In the coming year, pilgrims of hope will surely travel the ancient and more modern routes in order to experience the Jubilee to the full. In Rome itself, along with the usual visits to the catacombs and the Seven Churches, other itineraries of faith will be proposed. Journeying from one country to another as if borders no longer mattered, and passing from one city to another in contemplating the beauty of creation and masterpieces of art, we learn to treasure the richness of different experiences and cultures, and are inspired to lift up that beauty, in prayer, to God, in thanksgiving for His wondrous works. The Jubilee churches along the pilgrimage routes particularly in the city of Rome can serve as oases of spirituality and places of rest on the pilgrimage of faith, where we can drink from the wellsprings of hope, above all by approaching the sacrament of reconciliation, the essential starting-point of any true journey of conversion.” (SC)

With regard to the Jubilee Year of 2025, the Holy Father refers to the very special symbol of every Jubilee, namely the Holy Doors of the majors Basilicas in Rome. He wrote: “Now the time has come for a new Jubilee, when once more the Holy Door will be flung open to invite everyone to an intense experience of the love of God that awakens in hearts the sure hope of salvation in Christ. The Holy Year will also guide our steps towards yet another fundamental celebration for all Christians: 2033 will mark the two thousandth anniversary of the redemption won by the passion, death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. We are about to make a pilgrimage marked by great events, in which the grace of God precedes and accompanies His people as they press forward firm in faith, active in charity, and steadfast in hope.” (cf. 1 Thess 1:13) (SC) As he stated at the very beginning of the Bull, he referred to the passage from John’s Gospel which declares Jesus as the door to salvation. (John 10:7)

Another important spiritual element of the Jubilee Year is the granting of the indulgence. In this regard, Pope Francis offered a lovely reflection on indulgences for the Jubilee of Mercy in 2015. On that occasion, he stated that “a jubilee entails indulgences,” (MV, 22) and he offered an important significance to this practice.  The pope taught that when we are forgiven, “the conflicting consequences of our sins remain” and “sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act.” (MV, 22). Yet, the mercy of God, Who “never tires of forgiving in ways that are continually new and surprising,” is stronger than the lingering effects of sin. It happens through “the indulgence on the part of the Father Who, through the Bride of Christ, His Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.” (MV, 22)

The Holy Father went on to explain: “To live the indulgence of the Holy Year means to approach the Father’s mercy with the certainty that His forgiveness extends to the entire life of the believer. To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church, who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ’s redemption, so that God’s love and forgiveness may extend everywhere. Let us live the Jubilee intensely, begging the Father to forgive our sins and to bathe us in His merciful ‘indulgence.’” (MV, 22)

The Jubilee: Signs of hope

With this new impulse of hope arising from a renewed relation with Christ through the practices of the Jubilee Year, with the clarity of our vision of reality and life we can, not only see signs of hope, but we become singers and promotors of hope.

Pope Francis tells us that “the first sign of hope should be the desire for peace in our world, which once more finds itself immersed in the tragedy of war.” (SC)

Another sign of hope moves us to embrace life and encourage the transmission of life. Oftentimes, there is a hesitation in bringing new life into the world because of lack of job security, economic welfare to support a family, causing an alarming decline in population in many countries. Therefore, the Holy Father calls upon the Christian community to be at the forefront in pointing out the need for a social covenant to support and foster hope, one that is inclusive and not ideological, working for a future filled with the laughter of babies and children, in order to fill the empty cradles in so many parts of our world.

Moreover, writes the Holy Father, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind. He said: “I think of prisoners who, deprived of their freedom, daily feel the harshness of detention and its restrictions, lack of affection and, in more than a few cases, lack of respect for their persons.” He recalls the Jubilee of the Mosaic Law, written in the Scriptures whose words remain timely yesterday, today, and tomorrow, called for the liberation of all every 50 years. Jesus Himself took the words of the Prophet Isaiah upon Himself when, at the beginning of His ministry, He said: “The Lord has sent Me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Specifically, Pope Francis wrote: “In every part of the world, believers, and their pastors in particular, should be one in demanding dignified conditions for those in prison, respect for their human rights and above all the abolition of the death penalty, a provision at odds with Christian faith and one that eliminates all hope of forgiveness and rehabilitation. In order to offer prisoners a concrete sign of closeness, I would myself like to open a Holy Door in a prison, as a sign inviting prisoners to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence.” (SS)

The Holy Father calls us to give signs of hope to those who are sick, especially those with severe illnesses; signs of hope are to be given to the young who too often “see their dreams and aspirations frustrated.” We must never forget that the young are the future of society and of the Church. Hope is to be extended to the elderly who can be living in situations of loneliness and fear.

In a particular appeal, His Holiness calls upon Christians to offer signs of hope to migrants who leave their homelands behind in search of a better life for themselves and for their families. Their expectations must not be frustrated by prejudice and rejection. A spirit of welcome, which embraces everyone with respect for his or her dignity, should be accompanied by a sense of responsibility, lest anyone be denied the right to a dignified existence. 

In a heartfelt appeal, Pope Francis wrote: “I ask, with all my heart, that hope be granted to the billions of the poor, who often lack the essentials of life. Before the constant tide of new forms of impoverishment, we can easily grow inured and resigned. Yet, we must not close our eyes to the dramatic situations that we now encounter all around us, maybe those who live next to us.”

He goes on to make other appeals, in this case to the rich nations asking them to recall that the goods of the earth are not destined to a few but to all. In the same context, he asked the affluent nations to 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.

Jubilee Year: Anchored in hope

Finally, when all is said and done, the ultimate profession of hope is found in our profession of faith, in our Creed, which we profess each Sunday and solemnity: “I believe in life everlasting.” Christian hope finds in these words an essential foundation, for hope is “that theological virtue by which we desire… eternal life as our happiness.” 

The pope goes on to say - and I think this is so profound as we count time, years and weeks and days, like every twenty-five years - “By virtue of the hope in which we were saved, we can view the passage of time with the certainty that the history of humanity and our own individual history are not doomed to a dead end or a dark abyss, but directed to an encounter with the Lord of glory [at our individual judgement at His second coming].”

In regards to judgement, our own and that at the end of time, the Holy Father brings us to the Sistine Chapel and to the great work of Michelangelo which has the aim of inspiring a sense of awe in the viewer. The pope writes that “we should indeed prepare ourselves consciously and soberly for the moment when our lives will be judged, but we must always do this from the standpoint of hope, the theological virtue that sustains our lives and shields them from groundless fear. The judgement of God, Who is love, (cf. 1 Jn 4:8.16) will surely be based on love, and, in particular, on all that we have done or failed to do with regard to those in need, in whose midst Christ, the Judge Himself, is present. (cf. Mt 25:31-46) Clearly, then, we are speaking of a judgement unlike any handed down by human, earthly tribunals; it should be understood as a rapport of truth with the God, Who is love, and with oneself, within the unfathomable mystery of divine mercy.” Benedict XVI, too, spoke of this and affirmed: “At the moment of judgement we experience and we absorb the overwhelming power of His love over all the evil in the world and in ourselves. The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.”

Conclusion

Jubilee Year is a great gift to the Church and even to the world. Like the Jubilee Years of the Mosaic Law, we are asked to come to terms with time, the rhythm of time, the passing of our lives always with the goal of staring anew, setting the accounts straight, giving new chances, and even starting over.

This reality is the focus of the Jubilee of 2025, a time of hope, based not on some lofty human and philosophical reflection, but based on a real and personal encounter with the person of Jesus in Whom alone can we have a future full of hope, trust, and confidence. Only in Jesus, and the vision of life that He gave, can our true aspirations be fulfilled. Only in Him can the authentic desires of life be reached. 

In conclusion, Pope Francis wrote: “In our journey towards the Jubilee, let us return to Scripture and realize that it speaks to us in these words: ‘May we who have taken refuge in Him be strongly encouraged to seize the hope set before us. We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered.’ (Heb 6:18-20) Those words are a forceful encouragement for us never to lose the hope we have been given, to hold fast to that hope, and to find in God our refuge and our strength.”