THE GREAT JUBILEE

The Holy Year, the Great Jubilee will be a wonderful, joyful event.  Reconciliation!  Sins, even the most grievous against the unity of the Church will be forgiven.  Hope will abound. Zeal will fire the people of God and draw millions to Jesus. Above all, it will be the year of Jesus, God among us.

The theme of the Great Jubilee year is timeless: "Jesus Christ, the one Savior of the world, yesterday, today and for ever" (cf. Heb 13:8).

One reason the Great Jubilee is called the Holy Year is because you are encouraged, even impelled by the Holy Spirit, to holiness of life. It is your year with Jesus. It will be a year in which your faith will be strengthened seven fold. Works of mercy will abound. Common prayer between Christians will abound the more. All will be encouraged to come home!

Before you begin thinking the Great Jubilee is a totally new thing, remember that the Church has been here for 2000 years keeping time holy. In fact, the Church has marked time so regularly that she defines two kinds of jubilee: "ordinary" and "extraordinary".

Ordinary ones fall after a set time period has passed. Extraordinary jubilees mark special events. The first ordinary Jubilee was proclaimed in 1300 by Pope Boniface VII and popes have been proclaiming them ever since.

The doors of St. Peter's will be opened to announce the beginning of the Jubilee. The Great Jubilee will begin on December 24, 1999 when the Holy Father opens the Holy Doors to St. Peter's, when he "opens the doors to Christ".

The celebration of the Great Jubilee, which will take place simultaneously in the Holy Land, in Rome and in all the local Churches throughout the world, will give glory to the Trinity, God, the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit.

How has the Church been preparing? It may surprise you to know that the preparations have been going on for years. All the Popes of this century have prepared for this Holy Year with numerous encyclicals, letters and messages. The Church has been profoundly conscious of the coming of the third millennium.

The most providential preparation has been the Second Vatican Council. For example, one need only read the Common Declaration of Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagorast to see.

What's that you say? That's the mutual declaration of the Holy Father and the Patriarch of the Orthodox rescinding the excommunications that were rendered against one another in the year 1054.

Oh.

Many of us pray an Our Father, a Hail Mary and a Glory Be for the Holy Father's intentions. Ever wonder what those intentions are? Ever wonder what he groans for when he's overheard groaning at prayer?

He's yearning for unity among Christians. The pope longs for the healing of the wounds of the sins of division. He says such wounds openly contradict the will of Christ and are a cause of scandal to the world.

Oh.

He's yearning for social justice in forgiving debt. What debt you ask? How about the international debt of the third world countries.

Oh

He's remembering the blood of the martyrs. He says start the documentation, update the martyrologies. Recognize the witness to Christ borne even to the shedding of blood, the common inheritance of Catholics, Orthodox, Anglicans and Protestants....

Oh.

So let us be strengthened in faith. Make yourself docile to the Holy Spirit, the principal agent of the new evangelization. Seek and attend to the signs of the times, the signs of hope before you.  

Prepare your heart for conversion. We are in the advent of the third millennium. Prepare.

It is time, Jesus is the reason for the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000: Christ who was conceived of the Holy Spirit. In Him, grace has been made manifest.