In Touch: Reconciliation and Renewal

This coming year, the Church celebrates Jubilee 2025. So what is a Jubilee year? A Jubilee is first a great gathering of people. In our Catholic tradition, the Jubilee year points people towards Reconciliation and forgiveness of sins through an encounter with Jesus Christ.

Its historical origins can be traced back to the Book of Leviticus and the Law of Moses. The name comes from the instrument used to mark its beginning, the Yovel, which is the ram’s horn, and it was blown to proclaim the Day of Atonement.

This Jewish holiday occurs every year, but it takes on a special significance when it marks the beginning of a Jubilee year. A Jubilee year was to be marked every 50 years. It was intended to be a time to reestablish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation. Quoting the prophet Isaiah, the Gospel of Luke describes Jesus’s mission in this way.

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. 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.” 

In the year 1300, Pope Boniface the Eighth called the first Jubilee, also known as a Holy Year. Since it is a time in which God's holiness transforms us. The frequency of modern Holy Years has changed over time. At first, they were celebrated every 100 years and then every 50 years, and now we celebrate them every 25 years. There have also been extraordinary Holy Years. For example, in 2015, Pope Francis proclaimed the Year of Mercy as an extraordinary jubilee. 

The motto for Jubilee 2025 is Pilgrims of Hope, and the way in which Jubilee Years are marked has also changed through the centuries. Originally, the Holy Year consisted of a pilgrimage to the Roman Basilicas of Saint Peter and Saint Paul, and over time other signs were added, such as the Holy Doors, which are huge and they’re designed to allow many pilgrims to enter the Church at one time.

Jubilee 2025 starts this coming Christmas Eve and continues through January 2026.

If you’d like to know more and learn how the Jubilee will be celebrated in our Archdiocese, the November 26th issue of the Catholic Herald