Time for a Fresh Start | #1509

Ordinary Time, 3rd Sunday (C) In addition to a sabbath day, Jewish law also prescribed a Sabbatical Year. Every seventh year, the land was to be left fallow and debts would be forgiven. After seven such sabbatical years, or 50 years, the Bible calls for a Jubilee. This was like a super sabbatical year. Slaves were freed and land that had been sold returned to its hereditary owners. The land is a gift from God and all human ownership is temporary. We all owe debts to God, and we are destined for freedom and not slavery. No one knows for sure if these jubilee rules were followed, but they depict a kind of heaven on earth of rest, freedom, and the chance to have a fresh start.

The Catholic Church has picked up the practice of the Jubilee. A Jubilee is the granting of a special plenary indulgence every 25 years. On December 24, 2024, Pope Francis began opening the Holy Doors of the four major basilicas in Rome. Local Bishops are also able to designate pilgrim sites. In our Diocese, Champion Shrine, St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, and St. Pius X Parish in Appleton are the designated pilgrimage destinations. Pope Francis hopes that we can experience peace, hope, an openness to life, a recovery of the joy of living. This jubilee has been entitled, "Pilgrims of Hope."

Today's first reading we see the Israelites listening to a reading from the scroll of the Torah. They are weeping because their hearts are moved by love: the love that chose them, that has been faithful to them, and has now brought them back to their land and allowed them to rebuild their city. God's love comes first, and our actions are a response to his love.

Dr. Scott Hahn responded to God's love by offering his children a jubilee, a chance to come clean without punishment. He had learned from Jesus that the relationship is what matters most.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus announces a Jubilee. When we draw near to Jesus, we experience the freedom, peace, hope and a fresh start. Jesus himself is the jubilee. "Rejoicing in the Lord must be your strength."

(26 Jan 2025)

Going Deeper: Read and meditate on the words of Pope Francis in the bull Spes non confundit to open the Jubilee year of hope 2025.

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