High hopes for the Jubilee!

Jan 03, 2025

As I was contemplating - Fr Gerard Steve Theraviam
The Jubilee Year 2025 is upon us and we journey on as Pilgrims of Hope, celebrating the 2,025th anniversary of the Incarnation of our Lord. We are invited to have hope amidst situations of war, economic uncertainty and poverty because it is God who has put that hope into our lives through faith.

In the Old Testament, the Jubilee (Hebrew: y??el) was the year that followed the passage of seven "weeks of years" -seven cycles of sabbatical years, or 49 total years. This is described in Leviticus 25, 8-10). The 50th year was an economic, cultural, environmental and communal reset, when the land and people rested, and slaves were freed. The Jubilee Year represented God's mercy because debts were forgiven — literally wiped out! Land was returned to original owners and their families. Slaves were not only set free but were provided with resources to enable them to begin a new and independent life.

Jesus announced that He was enacting a Year of Jubilee when He launched His public ministry. Quoting from Isaiah 61:1-3, he proclaimed in the synagogue of Nazareth: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favour.” (Lk. 4:18-19) This was actually His personal mission statement which was subsequently lived out in His Life, Death and Resurrection.

In Western Christianity, the tradition of jubilee years dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years, with extraordinary jubilees in addition, depending on need.

Already we have seen in the Cathedral of St John, the ‘kick-off’ or inauguration of the Jubilee at the Kuala Lumpur Archdiocesan level. There is great interest in the Jubilee Year activities that will also happen in the other four designated pilgrimage churches. Pilgrimage parishes have the task of being hosts to the many who will flock for liturgies and visits by individuals and groups. Already, groups in my parish are making arrangements to visit all the other pilgrimage parishes.

My only apprehension is that we don’t become mere ‘spiritual’ tourists looking out for the sights and even shopping opportunities. Our pilgrimages must also include a pilgrimage within — towards our hearts, encountering God within. In all of this we need to balance the Mary and Martha in us. Yes, we need activities in this jubilee year but let us also get into a frenzy that we fail to be reflective and miss a genuine encounter with God, self and our neighbour.

During this year, we are called to reach out to different categories of persons. Among these special categories that might otherwise be forgotten are the sick, prisoners, migrants and refugees, the elderly as well as the young and the poor. Surely the different diocesan and parish ministries will work towards celebrating the Jubilee with each of these categories to bring hope in each of their differing situations. Indeed, we must allow everyone an opportunity to connect with the Church as we celebrate the Jubilee.

Among the exciting pastoral initiatives that I am looking forward to as a pastor of souls is the monthly encounters on First Saturdays that the Central District parishes will take turns to host. Individuals who have been away from the Church for any reason and who feel the nudge to “come home” but are unsure where to start, are invited to meet our priests and lay collaborators for a friendly chat and a cup of coffee. The Sacrament of Reconciliation will be made available for those who desire it. I do personally hope that people will take this invitation seriously as there are many who want to return but are unsure how to do so. This initiative is an attempt to allow people to re-discover their faith and place within the Church. It will need people to invite and encourage those returnees who may be reluctant due to being shy or embarrassed for having been away.

The Cathedral parish is also inviting couples who have, for one reason or other, not had their marriages solemnised in church to come forward to meet the priests to see how we can ‘convalidate’ their marriages so that they can fully participate in the Eucharist and other sacraments again. Also invited are couples who have been divorced and remarried, to see if there are grounds for annulments so that they too may find freedom again.

I also hope that we may somehow be able to encounter the young, especially young adults who are often busy with education or work and sometimes are not very connected to the Church. This seems a difficult task as we seem to have a pool of a few active youth but a large untapped majority who may attend Mass but not get involved in the community.

Much more needs to be thought through and subsequently executed in our jubilee journey. Well, there is a whole year ahead and I hope the cross-pollination of ideas and experiences will allow us to reach out to all. I do hope that every Catholic and others of goodwill will enter into the spirit of the Jubilee and be able to say: Hope does not disappoint (Rom 5:5).

Fr Gerard Theraviam is the parish priest of the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist in Kuala Lumpur, as well as the Spiritual Director to the World Community for Christian Meditation, Malaysia.