On May 9, 2024, with the publication of the Bull Spes non confundit (“Hope does not disappoint” Rom 5:5), Pope Francis officially announced and called the Catholic Church to the celebration of the JUBILEE OF HOPE.
It is the experience of a special year, or “holy year,” as it is also called, as a special space-time to renew our relationship with God, renew our interpersonal relationships, and renew all our life in society in light of the criteria of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
By disposition of the Papal Bull, special dates to be taken into account in the celebration of this Jubilee are the following: on December 24 of this year the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica will be opened and in the following days the Doors of other important Temples for the Catholic world in the city of Rome will be opened. On December 29 of this year, in all the cathedral churches of all the dioceses of the world, the local bishops will preside over the Eucharistic celebration as the solemn opening of the Jubilee Year, which will culminate with the closing of the Holy Door of the papal Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican on January 6, 2026, with the liturgical celebration of the Epiphany of the Lord.
The origin of the jubilees or “holy years” that are – ordinarily or extraordinarily – called and celebrated in the Catholic Church, are a mixture of the sabbatical years and the jubilee years that were celebrated in Old Testament Israel; and it goes back to legal-religious customs, according to which, just as Saturday was the day of rest, every seven years, in a year called “sabbatical”, the whole country entered into a time of rest dedicated to the Lord, so that everything that – freely – grew in the field could be collected – also freely – by the poor, as a sign that the land is holy and the property of God. Likewise, every seven years, slaves were freed and debts were cancelled (Cf. Lv 25.1-7; Ex 23,10-11; Ex 21,2-6; Dt 15,1-6).
The year of jubilee, for its part, consisted of a legal order according to which, every fifty years, in addition to the same concessions of the sabbatical year, the ownership of lands and goods had to be restored to the original owners (Cf. Lev 25,8-17; Lev 23,55; Is 61,1-2).
Due to these ancestral customs and the difficulty of their being correctly fulfilled by men, Christians in the New Testament portray the time lived and shared with Jesus as “a year or time of grace.” A year of grace announced in the Old Testament, half-fulfilled or definitely unfulfilled by the people of the old covenant, but which would return fully with the Messiah. Year of grace and salvation, time of justice and peace, time of mercy and of “abundant life” (Jn 10:10)
The Good News, which is Jesus of Nazareth for those who meet Him, is interpreted, especially by the evangelist Luke, as Good News (gospel) for the poor, freedom for prisoners and oppressed, sight for the blind, and a favorable year for all, from God. (Lk 4:16-21)
The official celebration of jubilees in the Church dates back to the year 1300, convened, the first, by Pope Boniface VIII ordering that they be celebrated every 100 years. Later, in 1490 Paul II reduced the time to every 25 years, with the aim that each generation could participate in at least one Jubilee.
Over time, the jubilees in the Church, which initially in the Old Testament were a time of grace and forgiveness in the face of material and tangible realities such as land, crops, harvests, debts, slavery, were acquiring a “spiritual” emphasis, consisting of obtaining indulgences – which at one time were bought – through repentance, prayer, confession, communion and visits to sanctuaries, previously designated as places of pilgrimage, for the forgiveness of sins.
The theme of hope is the theme chosen by Pope Francis as the axis for prayer, reflection and practice in the life of the disciples of Jesus Christ in this coming jubilee year. A very pertinent theme, if we take into account that every human being lives thanks to hope which, as the driving force of existence, moves us and pushes us in the search for better days and that today – in the midst of the despair, failures and anguish of today’s world, there is an urgent need for signs, men, women, communities and institutions that are witnesses of hope.
In the daily wait for better times, waits that sometimes fail and sometimes come true, Christians wait, as in a permanent Advent, for the Hope that gives fulfillment to everything, that does not disappoint and that is Christ himself.
So every man and every Christian can be defined essentially and fundamentally as a being in, of and for hope, to the point of being able to cry out like Paul “it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me” (Gal 2:20), to achieve the construction of a new heaven on a new earth, that is, the reign of God, which is the reign of justice, peace, truth and brotherhood, through the new commandment of love.
All of which becomes a permanent challenge for the disciple. A challenge that pushes us to live and build, in our daily expectations, a world with hope.
The meaning and significance of the jubilees has also permeated the work of the governments of the world. On special occasions, the rulers of nations issue decrees of pardons or amnesties that benefit the poor, prisoners, etc.
So, may the Jubilee of 2025, called by Pope Francis, encourage us all – in the Catholic Church and in the governments of the world – to build actions, signs and realities (concrete and tangible) for the hope of all.
May we build coexistence and the world always, as a permanent jubilee, a permanent space-time of good news of salvation, healing, liberation and hope for all. Time of bread for the hungry, clothing for the naked, social opportunities for the “discarded” of the earth, shelter for the homeless and for migrants, health for the sick and justice for the innocent and impoverished, etc.
As Pope Francis ends his Bull announcing the Jubilee: “Let us allow ourselves to be attracted from now on by hope and allow it to spread through us to all who desire it”, because no one can live without reasons to hope for better times, no one lives without reasons to hope for hope.
Mario J. Paredes is a member of the Board of Directors of the Academy of Catholic Leaders in New York
