Like a flame my hope is burning,
may my song arise to you:
Source of life that has no ending,
on life’s path I trust in you.
Ev’ry nation, tongue, and people
find a light within your Word.
Scattered fragile sons and daughters
find a home in your dear Son. Rit.
God, so tender and so patient,
dawn of hope, you care for all.
Heav’n and earth are recreated
by the Spirit of Life set free. Rit.
Raise your eyes, the wind is blowing,
for our God is born in time.
Son made man for you and many
who will find the way in him. Rit.
Pope Francis wrote: "We must fan the flame of hope that has been given us, and help everyone to gain new strength and certainty by looking to the future with an open spirit, a trusting heart and far-sighted vision.The forthcoming Jubilee can contribute greatly to restoring a climate of hope and trust as a prelude to the renewal and rebirth that we so urgently desire; that is why I have chosen as the motto of the Jubilee, Pilgrims of Hope".
The motto evokes the notion of the movement of a Church that walks in pilgrimage to the light of hope that makes the future possible. Daily and international experiences would seem to stifle the possibility of a future. The Jubilee with its focus on conversion, forgiveness, abundance, walk, and mercy, becomes a possibility for the future itself.
Hope is the light that brightens the future, but not in a naively optimistic sense. We know it: hope is Jesus Christ dead and risen. The prophet Isaiah repeatedly mentions the family of men and women, sons and daughters, that return from being scattered to being gathered in the light of the Word of God: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; on the inhabitants of a country in shadow dark as death light has blazed forth” (Isa. 9:1).
The light is that of the Son made Man, Jesus, who with the very Word, gathers every people and every nation. It is the living flame of Jesus that moves us through the path: “Arise, shine out, for your light has come, and the glory of Yahweh has risen
on you” (Isaiah 60:1).
The Christian hope is dynamic and illuminates the pilgrimage of life, demonstrating the face of those brothers and sisters who are companions on the journey. It is not like a lone wolf wandering, but a journey as a people, confident and rejoicing, that moves toward a new destination. The breath of the Spirit of life does not fail to brighten the dawn of the future that is about to break. The heavenly Father observes with patience and tenderness, the
pilgrimage of his children and opens wide for them the Way, pointing to Jesus, his Son, which becomes a space for everyone to walk. Therefore, the Jubilee is an event for all of the Holy People of God, who are in a journey - a pilgrimage illuminated by Christ, their only hope.
The profession of faith is a sign by which the baptized recognize their own identity; it expresses the central content of their faith and summarizes the main truths that a believer accepts and testifies to on the day of their baptism. There are various professions of faith, which shows the richness of the experience of encountering Jesus Christ. Traditionally, however, there are two that have gained special recognition in the Church: the baptismal creed of the church of Rome and the Nicene- Constantinopolitan creed, originally formulated in 325 at the Council of Nicaea, in present-day Turkey, and then refined at the Council of Constantinople in 381. “If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved” (Rom. 10:9-10). This passage from St. Paul emphasizes how proclaiming the mystery of faith requires a deep conversion not only in one's words, but especially of one’s understanding of God, oneself and the world.
The Holy Door is one of the most characteristic signs of the Jubilee. Its opening by the Pope constitutes the official beginning of the Holy Year. Originally, there was only one door, at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, which is the cathedral of the bishop of Rome. To allow the numerous pilgrims to walk through the door, the other Roman Basilicas also offered this option. In crossing this threshold, the pilgrim is reminded of the text from chapter 10 of the Gospel according to John: "I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture." Passing through the Holy Door expresses the decision to follow and be guided by Jesus, who is the Good Shepherd. After all, the door is also a passageway that ushers one into the interior of a church. For the Christian community, it is not only the space of the sacred, to be approached with respect, with appropriate behavior and clothing, but it is a sign of the communion that binds every believer to Christ: it is the place of encounter and dialogue, of reconciliation and peace that awaits the visit of every pilgrim, the space of the Church as a community of the faithful.
The Jubilee calls us to set out and overcome boundaries. When we travel, we not only change location, but also ourselves. The word “pilgrimage” comes from the Latin “per ager”, which means “through the fields”, or “per eger”, which means “border crossing”. Both roots point to the distinctive aspect of embarking on a journey. In the Bible, Abraham is described as a person on a journey: “Go forth from your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house” (Gen. 12:1). With these words Abraham begins his adventure, which ends in the Promised Land, where he is remembered as a “wandering Aramean” (Deut. 26:5). Jesus’ worldly ministry is also seen as a journey from Galilee to the Holy City: “When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem” (Luke 9:51). Christ calls His disciples to walk this road, and even today Christians are those who follow him and set out after Him. As a matter of fact, the journey is progressively constructed: there are various routes to choose from, places to discover; the situations, catecheses, rites and liturgies, and traveling companions allow one to be enriched with new matters and perspectives. Pilgrimage is an experience of conversion, of transforming one's very being to orient it toward God's holiness.
Charity is a principal characteristic of the Christian life. No one can think that pilgrimage and the celebration of the indulgence of the Jubilee can be reduced to a form of magical ritual, without knowing that it is a life of charity that gives them ultimate meaning. Furthermore, charity is the preeminent sign of the Christian faith and its specific form of credibility. In the context of the Jubilee, the apostle Peter's invitation cannot be forgotten: "Above all, let your love for one another be intense, because love covers a multitude of sins" (1 Pet. 4:8). According to John the evangelist, love toward one's neighbor, which comes not from man but from God, will ensure that true disciples of Christ will be recognized in the future. It is apparent, therefore, that no believer can claim to believe if they do not then love, and conversely, they cannot say they love if they do not believe. Paul the apostle also reiterates that faith and love make up the identity of the Christian; love is what begets perfection (see Col. 3:14), faith what enables love to be such. Charity, therefore, has its special place in the life of faith; moreover, in light of the Holy Year, Christian witness must be reaffirmed as a more expressive form of conversion.
Jubilee year is a sign of reconciliation because it establishes a “favorable time” (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:2) for conversion. We are called to put God at the center of our lives, growing toward Him and acknowledging His primacy. Concretely, reconciliation is about experiencing the sacrament of Reconciliation, taking advantage of this time to rediscover the value of confession, and personally receiving God's word of forgiveness. There are some Jubilee churches that continuously offer the possibility for Reconciliation. Indulgence is a concrete manifestation of God's mercy, which surpasses and transforms the boundaries of human justice. This gift of grace came about by Jesus’ saving mission. Seeing the witnesses of Jesus and the saints and living in communion with themì our hope for our own forgiveness is strengthened. Concretely, the experience of God’s mercy involves some spiritual actions, as Pope Francis has recommended to the faithful. Those who cannot make the Jubilee pilgrimage due to illness or other circumstances are nevertheless invited to take part in the spiritual journey that accompanies this Jubilee year. Among the conditions for receiving the indulgence is praying for the Pope's intentions.
The cross of Christ is
the hope that cannot
ever be abandoned
because we
are always in need of
it, especially in the
most difficult
moments.
The Cross, in the
shape of a sail, is
transformed into
an anchor that
imposes itself
over the waves in
motion. A
universal symbol
of Hope.
The figures represent
humanity from the
four corners of the
World. They are
embracing each other
to illustrate the
solidarity between the
peoples, as the first
holds onto the cross.
The rough sea
is a reminder of the
difficulties of the
pilgrimage of life. Often,
personal events as well as
those of the world, press
on us more intensely,
demanding a greater
hope.
The logo shows how the way
of the pilgrimage is not an
individual effort, but rather
collective, with the impression of
a growing dynamism that tends
more and more to the cross.
Father in heaven,
may the faith you have gifted us in
your son Jesus Christ, our brother,
and the flame of charity
kindled in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,
reawaken in us, the blessed hope
for the coming of your Kingdom.
May your grace transform us
into diligent cultivators of the evangelical seeds
that make humanity and the cosmos rise
unto the confident expectation
of the new heavens and the new earth,
when with the powers of Evil overcome,
your glory shall be manifested eternally.
May the grace of the Jubilee
reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,
the yearning for heavenly treasures
and pour over all the earth
the joy and peace
of our Redeemer.
To you God blessed in eternity,
be praise and glory for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Jubilee has always been an event of the people. In fact, the first Holy Year
of 1300 was born at the the request of the People of God. In a climate of change of century, the faithful o f Rome asked Pope Boniface VIll for "a pardon of sins which would be not only more abundant, but complete" as we read in the Bull of Indiction.
Among the ancient Hebrews, the Jubilee (called the year of the yobel, "of the goat" because the holiday was announced by the sound of a goat's horn) was a year proclaimed holy. At that time, the Mosaic law prescribed that the land, o f which God was the sole master, would return to its former owner and that slaves would receive back their freedom. It usually would fall every 50 years.
In the Christian era, after the first Jubilee, the recurrence for the jubilee celebration was set by Boniface VIII t o b e every 100 years. In 1342, following a petition from the Romans to Pope Clement VI, the period was reduced t o 5 0 years. Subsequently, Pope Paul Il, in the mid-15th century, reduced the inter-jubilee period to 25 years.
