LITURGY MATTERS: The Jubilee 2025
By Michael McKenna, Archdiocesan Master of Ceremonies
Rooted in the Jewish tradition, a year of jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. Referenced in Leviticus (25:10) during a Jubilee, slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.
Pope Boniface VIII convoked the first Christian holy year with the papal bull “Antiquorum habet fida relatio” in the year 1300. The Church has since observed a Jubilee every 25 or 50 years, with Extraordinary Jubilees celebrated by special decree of the Holy Father.
The objective of a Jubilee is to inspire and encourage the call to holiness among the faithful through which the Church witnesses to God’s loving mercy in and for the world.
Of recent memory, Pope Saint John Paul II announced a Great Jubilee for the year 2000 with his apostolic letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente, while Pope Francis declared the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy for 2015/16 with the papal bull Misericordiae Vultus.
A Jubilee lasts a year and a few days beginning just before Christmas of one year and ending on the Epiphany of the following year.
A special year in which the Church offers the faithful the possibility of a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, that is, the remission of sins for themselves or for deceased relatives, a Jubilee is a time of grace and conversion involving prayer, sacramental repentance, and a pilgrimage element either to the city of Rome or some other designated sacred site.
The year is distinguished by unique rituals, acts and commitments. Among the most well-known ceremonies that distinguish the Jubilee is the unsealing of the “holy door” in each of the four great basilicas of Rome. Pilgrims will pass through these specially designated doors to symbolically access the plenary indulgence associated to the Jubilee.
Acknowledging 2025 as the next ordinary Jubilee of the Church, Pope Francis has expressed the desire that 2024 be a year dedicated to prayer, inviting the whole Church to a period of intense commitment to prayer ahead of the opening of the Holy Door that we might be ready to “live well this event of grace, and experience the strength of God’s hope”.
In accepting the Holy Father’s invitation, may we through our prayers this year arrive at the Holy Door with our hearts ready to welcome the gifts of grace and forgiveness that the Jubilee offers and seek out God’s mercy for ourselves, our loved ones, and the world.