March 4, 2025
A jubilee is a gift from God: “You shall thus declare this fiftieth year to be a jubilee for all the land.” The prophet Isaiah, then Christ, explain the meaning: “The Lord has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the Lord.” The Church has continued this tradition. The first jubilee was instituted in 1300, celebrating the anniversary of the Incarnation. From 1470 onwards, jubilees were celebrated every 25 years.
The graces of a holy year will abound if we are ready and ask for them. Do we desire that Jesus come and make all things new in our hearts? Do we ask him for it every day? We have already received grace upon grace from him, but let us have the audacity to ask for more for those who are lost, those who seek him without knowing where to find him. Let us also pray for ourselves, because the Lord wants to do great things for us and through us. Let us place ourselves entirely at his disposal this year and we will see that our whole life will be transformed, that every year can be a jubilee year, a year in which he showers us with his graces. But let us not be alone in taking up this challenge; let us rely on our pastors, our loved ones, our friends in Heaven, the saints.
In the Holy Year 1925, Pope Pius XI gave us as a model of holiness “the star of his pontificate”: the very little Thérèse (of Lisieux), this universal sister who touches all hearts, this monument of smallness who never ceases to send a shower of graces upon our world. This jubilee was ordained by God's Providence between the two world wars. From 1914 onwards, many soldiers obtained the protection of Sister Thérèse, and they went into battle bearing her image or her relic. In the same year, the Curé of Ars was held up as a model for priests but also as a father for the good people of God. 2025 will see the long-awaited canonization of Pier Giorgio Frassati, the man of the eight beatitudes; the one who repeated: Gesu sta con noi, non abbiamo paura (Jesus is with us, let us not be afraid). Is not the saint who founded the “society of shady characters” a saint who exhorts us to unfailing joy? Carlo Acutis, in a flash, will also be canonized, a young saint who teaches us to make good use of the means of communication of our time and to live a Eucharistic life constantly.
Will 2025 see the day of my conversion? A jubilee is a year to ask for forgiveness and to give thanks. Have we noticed the gifts God gives us? The trials He helps us through? The friends He puts in our path to tell us again: Do not be afraid, I am with you? And have we thanked Him for all His blessings? If everything around us seems to push us towards discouragement, towards despair perhaps, let us be among those who cling to Christ and to His victory over evil and sin. Noise does little good, good does not make noise. Let us be actors for a better world, let us spread goodness and peace around us, it will be contagious. Then 2025 will be a year of grace and hope from the Lord. What are we waiting for to live it? Let us live it in joy and gratitude.
Happy Jubilee Year, Happy Lent!
