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02 May 2010 - Fifth Sunday of Easter, Cycle C

IN HIS VISION John of Patmos declared he “saw . . . a new earth,” echoing God’s words in the Book of Isaiah God: “For I am about to create . . . a new earth” (65:17). Camping on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon almost a century ago, Theodore Roosevelt took in the view and declared: “There it is, magnificent. Man cannot improve upon it; leave it alone.” Apparently the old earth was pretty good, too, as least as far as Teddy Roosevelt was concerned! There is not, however, as big a gap between the old and the new as one might think. For centuries Christians have believed that God not only wanted to but has renewed the earth—made it new again. The redemption Jesus brought to the world, Saint Augustine said, meant a restoration of love and beauty to creation lost through humanity’s habit of turning from God and seeing God in the work of creation. Renew, redeem, restore: These re- words all say “again”—an “again” of what was, a “newing” of the old; not a restoration of what was but a making new of what is. Biblical writers from Isaiah to Paul and John have called on creation, especially its earthly stewards, we human beings, to cooperate with God’s initiative to heal, to flourish, to love, to return to communion with God and one another in Jesus. We have been given a new commandment, a new covenant, a new heart, new selves. Let us in spirit and deed sing to the Lord a new song.

Authors Joel Schorn

redemption Renewal restoration

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Here’s hoping

Funeral, Sacrament-based, Holy Day, Holiday, Special Occasion - Sample homilies to be adapted for your use

Special occasion: 2025 Jubilee Year HAVE YOU EVER BEEN so excited for something that you can barely wait for it to happen? Maybe that thing is Christmas. Maybe it’s a vacation or a graduation or a wedding. Maybe it’s the start of a new job or a long-awaited reunion. There’s something invigorating about knowing that a great event is on the horizon. We don’t know how it will go, of course, but we hope that good things are in store. What about a Jubilee year? If that wasn’t the first thing that came to mind, you’re excused. It’s a rare occasion—ordinarily, only once every 25 years!—so it might not be on your radar. But the 2025 Jubilee is almost here, so it’s worth considering why this event deserves not just excitement, but profound celebration. Let’s start with the basics. 2025 will be just the 27th ordinary Jubilee—or Holy Year—in all of Christian history. The last one was in 2000. (There have been a few extraordinary Jubilee years, and Pope Francis pronounced one of those in 2015.) The first church Jubilee was in the year 1300. It was so successful that Pope Boniface VIII declared that a year of forgiveness for all sins would take place every 100 years. But as time passed, that number shrunk to 50 years, then 33 years, and finally, in 1470, Pope Paul II settled on a Holy Year every 25 years. The heart of Jubilee is restoration and forgiveness. It’s an opportunity to revitalize our relationships with God, ourselves, and each other. Jubilee has seven characteristics: pilgrimage, prayer, profession of faith, reconciliation, liturgy, indulgences, and the Holy Door. Each of these has great spiritual significance, and I encourage you to learn about them at iubilaeum2025.va, the official Jubilee website. The heart of Jubilee is restoration and forgiveness. It’s an opportunity to revitalize our relationships with God, ourselves, and each other. For 2025, Pope Francis has chosen the motto “Pilgrims of Hope.” When he announced this motto, he referenced the tragedy of the pandemic, poverty, and the plight of those who have fled their homelands due to war and climate change. Facing these catastrophes requires great hope indeed. And, perhaps surprisingly, these realities echo those of the year 1300—realities that inspired Boniface to institute a Jubilee in the first place. We can go back further, though, to get at the earliest origins of Jubilee. We can go back to at least 400 B.C., to when the Old Testament book of Leviticus was written. Leviticus deals with the priests of ancient Israel, who were from the tribe of Levi. The book is known for its somewhat tedious list of laws. This, if you can believe it, is where we first hear about Jubilee. In a section known as the Holiness Laws, God speaks to Moses about the sabbath, the sabbatical year, and the Jubilee year. The sabbath, of course, is a once-every-seven-days day of rest for humans. The sabbatical year is a once-every-seven-years year of rest for the land. The Jubilee year takes place after “seven times seven years,” or 49 years. In Leviticus 25, God tells Moses about this awesome mega-reset that is Jubilee: “You shall treat this fiftieth year as sacred. You shall proclaim liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you, when each of you shall return to your own property, each of you to your own family. This fiftieth year is your year of Jubilee; . . . It shall be sacred for you” (Lev. 25:10-12). Liberty for everyone! This is your year of Jubilee! This is the ultimate time of restoration. Whatever you owe, those debts will be wiped away. Whatever is owed to you must also be forgiven. It’s a reminder that EVERYTHING IS GOD’S. We need Jubilee because even if we always treat others fairly—and even if we’ve always been treated fairly ourselves—sometimes situations still become unbalanced. Whether it’s due to disease, conflict, poverty, personal sin, or bad luck, our lives get out of whack. Jubilee has the power to fix all of that. Unfortunately, most of our world doesn’t run on the laws in Leviticus 25. Loan payments and doctor’s bills and credit card debt won’t automatically zero out in 2025. But we can do our part to bring restoration and forgiveness to those around us. We believe, after all, that as we forgive, we ourselves are forgiven. And we can hope. As Francis writes in Spes Non Confundit (Hope Does Not Disappoint), the Bull of Indiction of the 2025 Jubilee: “During the Holy Year, we are called to be tangible signs of hope for those of our brothers and sisters who experience hardships of any kind." We don’t know how it will go, of course. But there’s a great event on the horizon, and we hope that good things are in store—for all of us.

Authors Heather Grennan Gary

Special occasion 2025 Jubilee Year Forgiveness restoration

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Take Five for Faith Daily

Monday
March 31

We’re never alone

Our faith might be more conditional than we’d like to admit. We may expect it to magically solve all our problems, perhaps by way of miraculous signs and wonders. It’s understandable, but that is not how faith always works. It’s not only about a miracle fix but rather about facing and resolving life’s challenges with confidence that we do not face them alone—God is at our side. As Pope Saint John XXIII advised the People of God, “Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.” Rather than looking for a miracle today, work to resolve a problem yourself, with the good news of knowing that God is with you.

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