Jubilee of Hope 2025
What is Jubilee 2025?
What Is a Jubilee?
A Jubilee – or a Jubilee Year – is traditionally proclaimed by the Catholic Church every 25 years. It is a year set aside to encourage the faithful to embark on pilgrimages, to repent of their sins and forgive the sins of others, and to renew a focus on the spiritual life.
The Biblical background
In the Biblical tradition, as recorded in the book of Leviticus, a Jubilee was celebrated every 50 years and was intended to be a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. The name, Jubilee, comes from the instrument used to announce the beginning of the year: the yobel, an ancient trumpet made from a ram’s horn.
Quoting the prophet Isaiah, the Gospel of Luke places Jesus’ mission in this context: a year acceptable to the Lord:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
(Luke 4:18-19; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2).
The Church’s tradition
In 1300 A.D. Pope Boniface VIII called the first official Jubilee, also known as a “Holy Year,” since it is a time in which God’s holiness transforms us. The frequency of Holy Years has changed over time: at first, they were to be celebrated every 100 years; later, in 1343 Pope Clement VI reduced the gap between Jubilees to every 50 years, and in 1470 Pope Paul II made it every 25 years. A special part of the Jubilee was to invite pilgrims to Rome to visit the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and enter through the Holy Door at St Peter’s Basilica.
You may remember the last Jubilee Year celebrated by Saint John Paul II in the year 2000 and that Pope Francis called an ‘Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy’ in 2015 as he began his pontificate.
Jubilee 2025
The Jubilee 2025 will be centred on the theme “Pilgrims of Hope.” Pope Francis put it beautifully: “We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.” The Jubilee 2025 begins on December 24th 2024, with the official Opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica Rome. Bishop Alan McGuckian will launch the Jubilee in the Diocese at a mass in St Peter’s Cathedral on Sunday 29th December at 3pm – all our welcome.
Also 2025 marks the 1700th anniversary of the first Council of Nicea where the Nicene Creed, which we profess at Sunday Mass, was offered to the Church as an anchor of true belief.
Whether or not you will travel to Rome this year to enter through Holy Door, all can focus on opening the ‘Doors of our Hearts’ this Jubilee year to the transformative love and mercy of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
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