Little Notes: On the meaning and spirituality of Jubilee Year
2025 is a Jubilee Year. Every 25 years, the Church pauses to celebrate a jubilee year, a time to go back to what are the essentials of our journey with God. Since a Jubilee year is a going back into the heart of God, it is inaugurated by opening a special door (called “Holy Door”) of the church. It is called “Holy Door” because it’s the door to the heart of God. Our church buildings are usually big in size because they represent the heart of God (his City); in his heart there is space for everyone. Church doors welcome us into this heart of God.
Thus, the opening of the Jubilee door in Rome by the Pope marks the beginning of the Jubilee year and as he walks through the Holy Door, it signifies the whole Catholic Church, spiritual pilgrims on earth, after 25 years, re-entering into the heart of God. Then, after a year of journeying into the riches of God’s love as a Church in the year of Jubilee, learning from his kindness to strangers, widows, orphans, the sick and oppressed, etc., the Holy Door is once again closed by the Pope to signify the end of the jubilee. What it means is that after the jubilee year encounter, Catholics are sent out into their homes, places of work, cities, etc., to nourish their own lives and the entire world with the fruits and gifts received for the next 25 years, till the next Jubilee.
This year, on 24th December 2024, the Eve of Christmas, Pope Francis will officially inaugurate the Jubilee Year 2025 with a ceremony to open the Holy Door of the St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The Holy Door would later be closed on 6th January 2026 to officially conclude the Jubilee. The theme of the letter officially announcing the jubilee is, “Spes non confudit,” the Latin for, “Hope does not disappoint” (cf. Rom 5:5). The official motto is “Peregrinantes in Spem,” which means, “Pilgrims of Hope.” Indeed, our true hope, Jesus Christ, does not disappoint.
© Ask The Catholic Priest
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13.11.2024
