The Jubilee Year Continues

We are still journeying through the Jubilee Year of Hope! Sarah Pedrozo suggests ways to start or continue celebrating it.

As you likely already know, we are journeying through a very special year right now. On May 9, 2024, Pope Francis declared that a Jubilee Year, which typically occurs every 25 years, would officially begin on Christmas Eve with the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Jubilee Year of Hope will conclude on Jan. 6, 2026, on the solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord.   

Essentially, a Jubilee Year means a year of favor from the Lord. In the Old Testament, several things were to happen during this special year, such as: 

• The forgiveness of debts 
• Freedom to those in bondage 
• The ability of all to return to their homeland and families  

 It was to be a year of rest and recovery for both the people and the land.  

In his book, Jesus and the Jubilee: The Biblical Roots of God’s Favor, author and theology professor, John Bergsma, explains that the custom of the Jubilee Year was established by God in the Old Testament. Originally occurring every 50 years, God created “this year of jubilee — a year in which God redeemed, released, returned and granted rest to his people — as a great year of favor wherein all people enjoyed not just forgiveness but the other great goods of freedom, family, and fullness.”  

Jesus is our Jubilee 

In the New Testament, this idea of the Jubilee Year is fulfilled in a person, Jesus Christ. Jesus Himself is the Jubilee: He is the one through whom our debts are forgiven. He secures freedom from slavery to all those in bondage, He restores and rebuilds the family of God, and in Him we can rest. Jesus himself alludes to how He, in His own person, is our Jubilee. The Gospel of Luke tells us: 

[Jesus] came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written:
“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.”
Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16-21) 

Now that Jesus has returned to the Father, the Jubilee Year lives on through His Body, the Church. Through participating in the life of the Church, we, too, can experience those same promises and blessings God wants to deliver during this year of favor.  

Celebrate the Jubilee Now 

Here are a few ways we and our families can participate in the Jubilee Year of Hope. 

• Give forgiveness to others and ask for forgiveness for ourselves. Make Confession a habit. Include your children, too! Ask them if there’s anyone they need to forgive or need to ask for forgiveness. 

• Seek freedom from anything we are enslaved to and put a special emphasis on the Works of Mercy. 

• Prioritize family and bring yourself back from any “foreign lands” we have exiled ourselves to (for example, too much social media or excessive obligations). 

• Discern where you can rest. Prioritize Mass and Sundays. Give yourself a chance to listen to God and trust Him. 

• Plan a pilgrimage to the cathedral in your diocese, or one of the designated Jubilee sites. Attend Mass, go to confession, pray for the intentions of the Pope and fulfill the requirements to receive a Plenary Indulgence. 

• Participate in the various Jubilee Days. Each month, the Holy See recognizes and celebrates different groups of people and various ministries in the Church. During September, there is the Jubilee of Consolation, the Jubilee of Justice, and the Jubilee of Catechists.  

We’ve just begun the month of September, so we are now more than halfway through the Jubilee Year of Hope. Unless Pope Leo XIV calls a special Jubilee Year, this year of favor from God will not come again for another 25 years. But there’s still time to find the forgiveness, freedom and rest God wishes to bestow on us during this year of favor. 

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Copyright 2025 Sarah Pedrozo
Images: Jubilee logo courtesy of the Dicastery for Evangelization, The Vatican; all others Canva