The Jubilee of Mercy was formally declared through the Papal Bull Misericordiæ Vultus, (The Face of Mercy) issued on April 11, 2015, which emphasizes the importance of mercy. It will be held from the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8), 2015 to the Feast of Christ the King (November 20), 2016.
For Pope Francis, the Extraordinary Jubilee Mercy breaks the previous cycles of every 25 years and occurs fifteen years after the Great Jubilee of the year 2000. (Pope John Paul II called an extraordinary Jubilee of Redemption in 1983). Pope Francis has invited the entire Catholic Church to refashion itself as a place not of judgment or condemnation but of pardon and merciful love. In the document convoking the year, Pope Francis states that the church’s “very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love.”
The Church, during Holy Years and Jubilees, seeks to emphasize one of her more profound characteristics, to make it visible for all to understand. This time, it is mercy and the inexhaustible capacity to welcome and forgive all men and women in need of pardon whether alive or dead. The Church is called to follow the example of Jesus who explains in many passages of the Gospel that he comes in search of sinners, of the lost sheep, to heal the sick, to free prisoners. In this way he reveals the authentic face of God, His and our Father “rich in mercy”. On these special occasions the Church makes it easier for the faithful to do penance and experience reconciliation. She teaches us to do penance and to make amends for sin with works of mercy and love for God and neighbour in order to gain the indulgence which God desires to grant all his children who seek him with humility.
What is a Holy Year?
Jewish tradition inspired the Catholic Church to start celebrating the Jubilee, or Holy Year (The words are interchangeable). The Catholic tradition was started in the year 1300 by Pope Boniface VIII. A Holy Year is a general forgiveness, open to all. It is a special proposal to approach God and others.
What’s the difference between an ordinary Jubilee and an extraordinary Jubilee?
There are ordinary Jubilees and extraordinary Jubilees. Since 1475, the ordinary Jubilee has been celebrated once every 25 years. Extraordinary ones are called only for special occasions. Until now, there have been 24 ordinary jubilees and four extraordinary. The Jubilee of Mercy, convened by Pope Francis, will be the fifth. The last extraordinary was convoked by Pope John Paul II in 1983 (Holy Year or Jubilee of Redemption). He also convoked the last ordinary one, the Jubilee of the Year 2000.
Why did Pope Francis call the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy?
The Pope announced the Jubilee of Mercy in March, and made the decision official when he read the Bull of Indiction on April 11, 2015. "Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation".
The Holy Door in the Basilicas or Holy Places is an important part of the celebration of the Jubilee Year. The church is a sign of the House of God, of the promised Kingdom where God is ready as Father to welcome all his children, who through Christ and the power of the Spirit, and in the company of Mary, are walking towards Him. He is the great Door which opens to humankind access to the Father. He is the Door through which we must enter if we are to go to the House of God. We enter the church to celebrate the Eucharist, to come together as a people gathered in faith, the find again the meaning of the Sunday Eucharist which calls all Christians to unite themselves intimately with Jesus in the sacrament.
Pope Francis hopes that with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, and the doors of Churches throughout the world, the door “will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.”
Indulgence is another constitutive element of the Jubilee: Pope John Paul II wrote in the Bull Incarnationis Mysterium (9). The indulgence discloses the fullness of the Father’s mercy who offers everyone his love, expressed primarily in the forgiveness of sin”. Normally, the Pope says, “God the Father grants his pardon through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation”, but “reconciliation with God does not mean that there are no enduring consequence of sin from which we must be purified. It is precisely in this context that the indulgence becomes important, since it is an expression of the total gift of mercy from God. With the indulgence, the repentant sinner receives a remission of the temporal punishment due for the sins already forgiven as regards the fault”.
The Jubilee Emblem
The logo and the motto together provide a fitting summary of what the Jubilee Year is all about.
The motto Merciful Like the Father (taken from the Gospel of Luke, 6:36) serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure (cfr. Lk 6:37-38). The logo – the work of Jesuit Father Marko I. Rupnik – presents a small summa theologiae of the theme of mercy. In fact, it represents an image quite important to the early Church: that of the Son having taken upon his shoulders the lost soul demonstrating that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his incarnation culminating in redemption. The logo has been designed in such a way so as to express the profound way in which the Good Shepherd touches the flesh of humanity and does so with a love with the power to change one’s life. One particular feature worthy of note is that while the Good Shepherd, in his great mercy, takes humanity upon himself, his eyes are merged with those of man. Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ. Every person discovers in Christ, the new Adam, one’s own humanity and the future that lies ahead, contemplating, in his gaze, the love of the Father.
Courtesy for information: Salt+Light Blog, Vatican Website etc.
