Maybe you have heard. Last May in a declaration entitled Spes Non Confudit (Hope Does Not Disappoint) Pope Francis declared 2025 a Jubilee Year of Hope. The year officially began in Rome with the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica, and in the rest of the Catholic World on December 29, the Feast of the Holy Family, when a special Mass was to be celebrated in all the Cathedrals around the world. While the ritual aspects of a Jubilee Year may be of marginal interest to many Catholics, what lies behind a Jubilee Year is quite central to our faith.

Jubilee Years have been part of our Catholic tradition since 1450. Traditionally they take place every twenty-five or fifty years, but sometimes more often. The concept of a Jubilee Year goes back to Biblical times, when God instructed Israel that every fifty years, land should be returned to the family that originally owned it. One was free to acquire land from one’s neighbor, but the price to be paid would be partly determined by how long one’s family would have the use of it. Land that would be yours for 48 years would command a much greater price than land that would only be held for eight years. The Jubilee Year was based on the principle that the land was a gift from God, and the gift was meant for everyone and not just for a few rich landowners. To be in right relationship with one’s neighbors was essential to being in right relationship with God. So, a Jubilee Year is not just an opportunity to slurp up some grace or go on a trip to Rome. It is a call to take an inner journey. To root out the things in our life that keep us from being in right relationship with God and neighbor. It is an affirmation of the rights and dignity of all human beings.

A Jubilee Year is also a time of pilgrimages. Going on a pilgrimage to a sacred shrine or church has an even longer history in the Catholic Church. English majors are all familiar with The Canterbury Tales, written by Geoffrey Chaucer in the      century. It is about the stories told by a group of pilgrims on their way to the Shrine of St. Thomas Becket in Canterbury. Going to the Holy Land to retrace the steps of Christ on the journey to Calvary was considered the greatest of pilgrimages. The reason that we have Stations of the Cross in churches is to make it possible for those unable to go to the Holy Land to go on what we would now call “a virtual pilgrimage.” Today, many people have walked one of the pilgrimage routes to the tomb of the Apostle James in Spain. This practice has become so popular that it is in danger of becoming overly commercialized and secularized; but at least it retains the basic element of a pilgrimage—that it takes effort and perseverance. Reaching the end of the pilgrimage tests your body and your soul. A pilgrimage is a way of stepping away from ordinary life and focusing on the divine.  On the way, we become aware of how attached we can become to our creature comforts. Hopefully, we come away from the journey with a deeper commitment to the things that endure forever and extending the reign of God. When Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s, a pathway was set up for pilgrims to walk. Two dozen churches and shrines (including Holy Name Cathedral) have been identified as pilgrimage churches in this Archdiocese. To visit one of these sights, though, one should not just take an Uber! It should be a journey. If we cannot walk very far, we can at least spend part of the day in prayer and reflection before taking an Uber.

A third element of a Jubilee Year has a more checkered history in the Catholic Church. One may gain a Plenary Indulgence by visiting a pilgrimage church, going to Confession, receiving the Eucharist, and praying for the intentions of the Holy Father. What is an indulgence? An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. It is based on an understanding of the afterlife developed by St. Augustine in the fourth century. Belief in a time of continuing conversion or purgation after death was a common teaching among the Mothers and Fathers of the Church. Some believed more strongly in Purgatory than in Hell. Eventually, they believed, everyone would succumb to the love of God and be welcomed into heaven. St Augustine’s belief was that even though our sins are forgiven in confession, we are not absolved of the consequence. We still have to pay a price for our behavior. Indulgences either partially or totally took away the punishment that we would otherwise incur.  Offering (and, for all practical purposes) the selling of indulgences was something often abused in the medieval Church and one of the causes of the Reformation. Whether we embrace this particular understanding of purgatory or not, seeking an indulgence still calls us to get right with God and our neighbor.

So, a Jubilee Year is a truly “a year of favor.” It is a time to look honestly at our lives, change what needs to change, and then to look forward in hope, for hope will not leave us disappointed.

                                                          Fr. Joe