This year is a year of Jubilee, as y’all have probably heard. Although this is my second Jubilee year as a priest, I must admit I’m still coming to understand what a Jubilee is and why we celebrate it. I’m writing to y’all with a beginning of an answer, in hopes that we’ll all come to a greater understanding of it as the year progresses.
The concept of a Jubilee year goes all the way back to the Exodus, and is found described in Leviticus chapter 25. The Israelites were to observe a special year of restoration and redemption every fiftieth year, in which ancestral land that had been sold was restored to its original owner or his heir (in that time, this alienation was always a result of some financial hardship), all debts were remitted, indentured servants were liberated, and families were reunited. As I understand it, Israel rarely observed this Jubilee, but it is instructive that the LORD directed that this be done, pointing forward to a time when He Himself would redeem and restore His people.
The Catholic practice dates to the late middle ages, after a groundswell of popular devotion and expectation prompted Pope Boniface VIII to declare the first Jubilee Year in 1300. Many members of the Faithful from all over Europe went to Rome on pilgrimage, and indulgences — that is, the remission of temporal punishment due for sin — were offered to those who piously visited the tombs of the Apostles. I suppose that’s where we find a connection to the ancient Jewish practice of the Jubilee: an indulgence is in some way a remission of debt and a restoration to one’s inheritance. (Note: receiving an indulgence is ALWAYS dependent on being sorry for one’s sins and making a good confession.)
The Church has held Jubilees roughly every 25-50 years ever since 1300, with a few special “Extraordinary” Jubilees in off-years. The most recent was the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2016, and before that, there was an Extraordinary Jubilee in 1983 to celebrate the 1950th anniversary of the Resurrection. Mark your calendars, there’s a good chance the next Jubilee will be held in 2033.
For my part, although I won’t go to Rome this year (I must admit, I don’t care much for large crowds), I’ll try to take the opportunity to be more generous and merciful, in recognition of how God has gratuitously blessed and been merciful to me. Which is, after all, at the heart of the Jubilee.