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<p><a href="https://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/jesus-and-the-jubilee/p/BKBBS0A348" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>Jesus and the Jubilee</i></a>, written by biblical scholar John Bergsma, is a well-timed book coinciding with the start of the <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/pope-francis-launches-jubilee-2025-with-opening-of-holy-door" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2025 Jubilee</a> on the theme of hope. The new Jubilee is a yearlong season of reconciliation and grace rooted in ancient Old Testament traditions. </p>
<p>Yet the Jubilee is not simply an ancient practice adopted from the Israelites. “You can understand Jesus’ whole ministry in terms of coming to restore the Jubilee,” Bergsma told the Register. </p>
<p>A theology professor at Franciscan University of Steubenville and vice president for biblical theology and mission effectiveness at the St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology, Bergsma offers the faithful a wealth of scriptural and spiritual background to help them appreciate the importance of the Jubilee Year. </p>
<p><i>Why should we, as Catholics, be interested in the Jubilee?</i> </p>
<p>Our Holy Father, Pope Francis, is calling us to celebrate this Jubilee Year, 2025. When the successor of Peter sets aside a certain time as holy, that’s not just words, it’s not just pretend. It really does become holy time, and it changes reality. He has called on our Heavenly Father to pour out extra graces during this year and make it a time of conversion and renewal for all of us. </p>
<p>Pope Francis is exercising <a href="https://www.usccb.org/sites/default/files/flipbooks/catechism/144/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">authority to bind and loose</a>, based on what Jesus said to Peter. Based on the Jewish background for these words, he gave very wide-ranging spiritual authority to interpret God’s law for God’s people, set up the liturgical calendar and decide what days and times feast days would be observed. </p>
<p>In this case, the Pope is letting loose graces during this Holy Year. So I think that Catholics should jump in with both feet and take advantage of traditional Jubilee practices like pilgrimages, the <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/cna/how-to-obtain-a-plenary-indulgence-during-the-2025-jubilee" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gaining of indulgences</a> for ourselves and for the deceased, and other celebrations. We should be excited and expect that this will be a year of conversion, really, for the whole world.
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<p><i>How is the Jubilee at the center of Jesus’ mission? What is the relationship between Jesus and the Jubilee? </i> </p>
<p>The Jubilee was a year of freedom that was supposed to come in ancient Israel every 50 years, coinciding with the Day of Atonement. All debts were erased, family property that had been lost or sold for debt was returned; everyone was set free to return to their family and their property — it was a great year of restoration. </p>
<p>That 50th year was supposed to be an experience of the goods of the Jubilee, which are freedom, family and fullness. It was the idea of a return to the Garden of Eden, where there was perfect freedom for our first parents. Unfortunately, the Israelites weren’t obedient, and they didn’t obey the law of Moses or observe the Jubilee. </p>
<p>The prophets began to point to the future and to the Messiah as the one who would bring about the everlasting Jubilee. <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/61" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Isaiah 61</a> talks about the one who is anointed with God’s spirit, the Messiah, who will proclaim liberty to captives and will proclaim the year of God’s favor. That is talking about the Jubilee year. </p>
<p>We know from <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Luke’s Gospel</a> that Our Lord begins his ministry in Galilee by going to his hometown, Nazareth, and preaching in the synagogue of his hometown, and he chooses that passage from Isaiah, reads it, and declares that it’s fulfilled in his Person. He is this Anointed One. He is this Messiah who has come to deliver on the Jubilee that the people of God never observed. </p>
<p>Our Lord’s ministry of freeing people from Satan and from the debt of their sins, this is all a Jubilee ministry. He entrusts that ministry to his apostles, who pass it down to their successors, and the Church to this day is still about the ministry of Jubilee. </p>
<p>Through the sacraments, Jesus feeds us the fullness of God, with the abundance of God’s provision for us. You can understand Jesus’ whole ministry in terms of coming to restore the Jubilee. </p>
<p><i>What have you discovered in your research that may have surprised you? Did you come across anything unexpected?</i> </p>
<p>Yes, I certainly did. When studying the <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/news/the-dead-sea-scrolls-return-to-the-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dead Sea scrolls</a>, I found that amongst the scrolls, there was a prophecy from one of the Essene writers. The Essene were a first-century Jewish movement that sponsored monasteries. They were the only Jews ‘who practiced monasticism. And their monastery on the shores of the Dead Sea is what left us the Dead Sea scrolls. </p>
<p>In the scrolls, I discovered a prophecy concerning the Jubilee, where these ancient Jewish monks said that Melchizedek would return. He would be the anointed one of God. And he would announce an eternal Jubilee that would free everyone, or at least God’s people, from the debt of their sin and from slavery to Satan. That’s quite remarkable. </p>
<p>Luke, a Gentile, is aware of these expectations and is writing his Gospel in such a way that it’s very, very clear that Jesus really is the Melchizedek that people were looking for, who is ushering in this eternal Jubilee year. </p>
<p><i>Which scriptural passages help us understand the Jubilee?</i> </p>
<p><a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/leviticus/25" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Leviticus 25</a> shows us how Moses set up this recurring year of freedom every 50 years and how it was meant to restore Israeli society, restore the people of God to freedom and fullness and happiness. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/jeremiah/34" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Jeremiah 34</a>, we see that they did not practice it, except at the very end of their existence as an independent nation; shortly before they were taken into captivity in Babylon, they tried to practice the Jubilee one last time. </p>
<p>Then, in <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/isaiah/61" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Isaiah 61</a>, Isaiah looks to the future for the Messiah to fulfill the Jubilee. In <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/luke/4" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Luke 4</a>, Jesus announces that he is fulfilling this passage. </p>
<p>In <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/ezekiel/47" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ezekiel Chapter 47</a>, he sees the river of life flowing out of the Temple, bringing life and freedom wherever it goes. Ultimately, we see that image come back at the cross in <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/john/19" target="_blank" rel="noopener">John 19:34</a>, where the river of blood and water comes from Christ’s side, which is a sign of the sacraments. </p>
<p>He is our Temple, and the sacraments are the river of life that bring liberty, that bring Jubilee wherever they go. Those are important passages, and <a href="https://bible.usccb.org/bible/daniel/9" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel 9:25-27</a> gives a chronology for when all this will take place. It charts out the time between when God’s people return from Babylonian exile until when the Messiah would come and do all the things promised by the Jubilee. </p>
<p><i>How can we each open our hearts to the spirit of Jubilee and participate in this ongoing year of favor?</i> </p>
<p>The first thing we need to do is open up our heart to the Holy Father and set aside cynicism and criticism. We need to embrace the Jubilee year with a spirit of childlike trust, just as Jesus says, because the Kingdom of Heaven belongs to those who are like children. </p>
<p>We should lean into traditional Jubilee practices. One is more frequent reception of the sacraments. Second is pilgrimages. And third is indulgences. </p>
<p>Pilgrimages have been part of the Jubilee ever since those first Israeli servants were released on the first Jubilee year. They sounded the ram’s horn on the Day of Atonement and then the freed servants started walking home. </p>
<p>Pilgrimage is always a going home, even if it’s to a place that we’ve never been before — we are going to a place where God has made his home. Some popular homes of God on Earth are Rome, where the Holy Father’s successor, Peter, has his home, and the Holy Land, where Jesus made his home. There will be local places set aside by dioceses and bishops for pilgrimage, as well. I encourage every Catholic to make at least one pilgrimage during the Jubilee year. </p>
<p>Lastly, indulgences really help in the spiritual life and have a biblical basis. The Jubilee is all about freedom from bondage. It makes sense to try to free the faithful departed who are in purgatory in this year of freedom and release. </p>
<p><i>What are some of the gifts of the Jubilee, and how can we live them out?</i> </p>
<p>The gifts of the Jubilee are forgiveness, freedom, family and fullness. </p>
<p>For forgiveness, the Jubilee year is a great time to practice forgiveness in our own families, in our own circles of acquaintances. It’s a great opportunity in 2025 to spend some time with an <a href="https://www.ncregister.com/info/confession-guide-for-adults" target="_blank" rel="noopener">examination of conscience</a> and see if we’re holding a grudge or a resentment or an unresolved anger towards anyone in our life, and then make that interior act of forgiveness, and then also exterior acts to express to that other person that we have forgiven them. </p>
<p>Regarding freedom, we should appreciate the sacrament of reconciliation and make more frequent use of it. We should see it as an experience of liberation where we’re freed from our bondage, from our habits, addictions and disordered desires through the sacrament. </p>
<p>Finally, I think the Jubilee year is a great time for us to work on our relationships within our families, especially for parents. There’s a great practice of having a Jubilee Day as a family where you make it clear that your children can come to you and tell you anything, and there will be no consequences for it. </p>
<p>Fullness is the idea of learning to trust in God’s providing for us. One great way we can live fullness is observing the Sabbath. Taking up traditional practices of resting, spending the day with family, enjoying Sunday dinner together, and making space for prayer and spiritual reading on the Lord’s Day can be a great way to lean in to the Jubilee year. </p>
<p><b>READ</b> </p>
<p><i>Purchase </i>Jesus and the Jubilee<i> at </i><a href="https://www.ewtnreligiouscatalogue.com/jesus-and-the-jubilee/p/BKBBS0A348" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><i>EWTNRC.com</i></a><i> or (800) 854-6316; Item: A348, $17.95.</i> </p>
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<br /><a href="https://www.ncregister.com/interview/jesus-and-the-jubilee-holy-year-2025-dr-john-bergsma">Source link </a></p>
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‘Jesus and the Jubilee’ Reveals Importance of the Holy Year 2025| National Catholic Register
