Word to the Wise
Saturday, August 2, 2025 - Saturday in the 17th Week in Ordinary Time
[Lev 25:1, 8-17 and Matt 14:1-12]This fiftieth year you shall make sacred by proclaiming liberty in the land for all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, when everyone of you shall return tois own family estate. In this fiftieth year, your year of jubilee, you shall not sow, nor shall you reap the aftergrowth or pick the grapes from the untrimmed vines. Since this is the jubilee, which shall be sacred for you, you may not eat of its produce, except as taken directly from the field... [Leviticus]
The book of Leviticus sets forth the timing and requirements of what ancient Judaism considered a "jubilee!" It is not certain how much of the requirements were enforced. It is fairly certain they were not in force after the destruction of the temple and the reshaping of Judaism. Some of them are rather dramatic and economically untenable, especially as regards property and agricultural practices.
The idea of a jubilee, however, has survived and every once in a while, the Pope will declare a special year of jubilee to mark some important value or belief. During this year, those who make certain pilgrimages or perform certain devotional acts will receive a special "plenary indulgence." Dioceses may dedicate certain churches or "jubilee doors" in cathedrals as places that qualify for pilgrimages or devotions. There is a jubilee going on now in Rome. I know some college students who are making a pilgrimage to Rome for what is called a "Jubilee of Youth.."
Jubilees are a kind of spiritual holiday that are part of the Old Testament heritage that our Catholic faith has received and redesigned. AMEN
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