Special Jubilee 2025
What is the Jubilee?
The term “Jubilee” is taken from a phraseology of the instrument by which it is signaled. This instrument is the yobel, or ram’s horn, standard for announcing the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). The holiday regarding this (Jewish) observance normally falls in ordinary times, but to establish a year as a Jubilee, it must take place in several instances. The earliest text about the year would have every fiftieth year applied as an “extra” year subsequent to seven sets of seven years or seven times seven, or forty-nine years (compare "And thou shalt number seven sabbaths," etc., Leviticus 25:8-13). It took a formidable effort to realize it, but Jubilee was intended as a time to renew right relationships with God, one another, and all of creation; it would include forgiveness of debts, giving back misappropriated lands, and letting the fields lie fallow.
Descriptions of Jesus’ mission in The Gospel of Luke echo words taken from the prophet Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners and to proclaim an acceptable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19; cf. Isaiah 61:1-2). Through his daily relations and contacts, Jesus brings liberation and change. Jesus continues to offer liberation, change, and emancipation to all but at an acceptable year of the Lord and hence emancipation.
In 1300 Pope Boniface XIII launched the first Holy Year, known as Jubilee. For the Holy Years, it is a time for individuals to transform themselves through God's holiness. Over the years, Holy Years have grown; at first, it was every century. However, in 1343, Pope Clement VI cut it to fifty years; in 1470, Pope Paul II trimmed it to twenty-five years. Sometimes there have been extraordinary Holy Years, such as the year 1933, to mark the nineteen hundredth year after Redemption was achieved. Pope Francis had declared the Year of Mercy as an extraordinary jubilee in the year 2015. Over time, the observance of Jubilee Years has changed too: initially, it was a simple pilgrimage to the Roman Basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul but was later extended and evolved through the addition of more and more symbols — the Holy Year enables a plenary indulgence.