As part of the lead-up to the 50th anniversary of the Vatican II council, a historic ecumenical council that modernized much of the Catholic Church’s practices, Pope Francis has announced that the church will celebrate an “extraordinary Jubilee” starting Dec. 8 and concluding on Nov. 20, 2016.
“I have decided to announce an extraordinary Jubilee that is focused upon the mercy of God,” Francis announced on March 13. “It will be a Holy Year of Mercy.”
The concept of a Jubilee, a word that derives from the Hebrew word for “ram’s horn,” stems originally from the command in the book of Leviticus that the children of Israel should “hollow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof.”
But passages from Leviticus aren’t the only influence on Francis. The Catholic Church, as well as ancient Judaism, has a long storied history of celebrating spiritual and physical “liberty” through a Jubilee.
The Jewish roots of the Jubilee
Many historians believe that the Jubilee is an outgrowth from the Sabbath year, or the agricultural standard that farmers were to rest from their labors on the seventh year of harvest. From that came the commandment in the Old Testament (or the Torah, as it is called as Jewish scripture) that at the conclusion of seven such cycles, know as Sabbatical years, “ye shall return every man unto his possession.”
The end of each cycle landed on the 49th year, seven years times seven, and became known as the Jubilee. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, the Jubilee became a time for “the annulment of all monetary obligations between Israelites, the creditor being legally barred from making any attempt to collect his debt.”
In other words, the Jubilee was a time for mercy and monetary redemption for the Israelites.
“The concept of Jubilee was an important institution by which Israel understood their theological identify and by which God provided protection against economic calamity,” according to John E. Anderson, professor of economics at the University of Nebraska.
According to Anderson, the Jubilee was not intended exclusively as “an instrument of social justice” despite more modern interpretations that claim otherwise.
“Ultimately, the year of Jubilee was intended to function as a picture of the redemption and restoration to come with the messiah.”
There were practical purposes to the Jubilee as well. According to Anderson, “The family-plus-land units were largely self-contained economic entities with both labor and land being integral and organic elements.” The Jubilee, then, acted as a way to stabilize the social and economic structure of ancient Israel.
In other words, the Jubilee acted as both practical economic strategy to secure that communal relationships wouldn’t implode, as well as a deeply theological practice aimed at unifying the ancient Israelites with Yahweh.
Jews, however, no longer celebrate the Jubilee as outlined in the Torah, because it is reserved for when all 12 tribes of Israel are gathered in one nation.
A history of Christian Jubilees
According to the Vatican, the Catholic Church has been celebrating the Jubilee since 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII first declared a Holy Year to “return to a more holy way of living.” Boniface apparently envisioned Jubilees as centennial celebrations, but subsequent popes were uneven in their timing.
While certain popes held to the Israelite tradition of celebrating every 50 years, Pope Urban VI believed the celebrations should occur every 30 years “according to Our Lord’s span of life on earth.” According to Manila Bulletin, the church began holding a Jubilee every 25 years starting in 1475, “in order to allow each generation to experience at least one Holy Year.” That tradition held steady until about 1875.
The most notable Jubilees of the modern era occurred in 1950, when Pope Pius XII used the occasion to adopt a new national anthem for the Vatican as well as making the Assumption of Mary official Catholic doctrine, and 2000, when Pope John Paul II presided over a massive bi-millennial celebration of the birth of Christ that spanned multiple countries.
While there isn’t clear unity on the issue — principally because some scholars differentiate between “extraordinary” Jubilees and “ordinary” ones — historians typically say that Francis’ Holy Year will be counted as the 30th such event in the history of Christianity.
What to expect from this Jubilee
As the National Catholic Reporter’s Robert Mickens wrote earlier this week, past Jubilees have focused almost exclusively on “mercy and reconciliation” and avoided the more traditional ancient purpose, to “rest the land, forgive debts and free the slaves.”
“Pope Francis has a chance to make that right,” Mickens argued, because “the timing of his announcement for this new Holy Year of Mercy suggests that it's exactly what he intends to do.”
Francis may use the Jubilee, according to Micken, to “add momentum to proposals for a merciful approach toward people in difficult marriage and family situations” in relation to last year’s Synod on the Family.
Some also expect that the Jubilee will serve as a “powerful reform signal,” particularly because of the event's relation to the Vatican II Council.
“I am convinced that the whole church will find in this Jubilee joy to rediscover and make fruitful the mercy of God,” the pope said while explaining his plans for the Jubilee, “with which we are all called to comfort every man and woman of our time.”
JJ Feinauer is a writer and Web producer for the Deseret News National. Email: jfeinauer@deseretdigital.com, Twitter: jjfeinauer.