SPECIAL REPORT • PILGRIMAGE

JUBILEE 2025: A KAIROS OF GRACE

A Jubilee is a holy time of joy, of coming back to God for a unique encounter with Christ; a time for forgiveness and reconciliation, an opportunity to receive indulgences and to return to the essence of fraternity.

BY FR ANTONIO FERNÁNDEZ RODRÍGUEZ*

THIS YEAR’s Universal Jubilee is an invitation for everyone to experience “a moment of genuine, personal encounter with the Lord Jesus, the ‘door’ (cf. Jn 10:7.9) of our salvation, whom the Church is charged to proclaim always, everywhere and to all as ‘our hope’ (1 Tim 1:1).” (Bull Spes non confundit §1).

The Jubilee is an extraordinary opportunity for each one of us to receive and live the graces which come through the mystery of the Son of God made man in view of our redemption and sonship, which fills us with a hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5).

Jubilee: A Time of Joy and Renewal

The Jubilee opens an inner path for us which transforms our life and replenishes it. It is a time of transformation of our hearts and of the reality of the world, according to God’s plan.

In the Old Testament, the Jubilee was an occasion to establish a right relationship with God, with others, and with creation. It implied forgiveness of debts, restitution of alienated land, and the resting of the earth. In the New Testament, Jesus Himself announces the Jubilee year in the synagogue in Nazareth:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me; for He has anointed me. He has sent me to evangelise the poor, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord” (Lk 4:18-19).

This text describes Jesus’ mission, which becomes our mission itself: To go on pilgrimage, to make an inner journey which will lead us to pass through the Holy Door—a powerful symbol which means entering into Christ, uniting us to Him, living from Him, with Him, and for Him, and becoming like Him.

The Church invites the faithful to experience this holy time, whether in Rome or in their Christian communities, so that this year of grace may unite us more closely to the Lord, transform our lives, and encourage us to engage with the world.

The Jubilee 2025 must be a spiritual, ecclesial, and social event in the life of the Church which rekindles our Christian life. It should be a year characterised by the forgiveness of sins and the reception of indulgences which express God’s mercy. Rekindled Hope and Forgiveness, the heart of the Jubilee, is a call to conversion, aimed not at condemnation, but at reconciliation with others, with God, and with oneself. It is an opportunity to live a new reality in which wounds are healed and the dignity of each person is recognised.

Holy Door

The Holy Door was opened on 24 December 2024 at St Peter’s and it will be closed on 6 January 2026 at the conclusion of the Jubilee Year. The Jubilee is a precious occasion to nourish the faith and consolidate the Christian life of the People of God. Conversion and forgiveness of sins also entail a social dimension which regards the transformation of our world.

As the spiritual dimension of the Jubilee year is linked to its social aspect, pilgrims are called upon to care for each other fraternally and to care for the earth. The Church in every country in the world will implement a sign of social commitment in this Jubilee year.

Indulgences

As the Decree granting the indulgence of the Jubilee states: “All the faithful, who are truly repentant and free from any affection for sin, who are moved by a spirit of charity and who, during the Holy Year, purified through the sacrament of penance and refreshed by Holy Communion, pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, will be able to obtain from the treasury of the Church a plenary indulgence, with remission and forgiveness of all their sins, which can be applied in suffrage to the souls in Purgatory.”

Indulgences are achieved through a Pilgrimage to a Jubilee Holy place and by other means which strengthen Christian life, such as works of mercy and penance, participation in popular missions, spiritual exercises, or other formation meetings of the Catholic Church. They are also achieved by visiting the sick, the imprisoned, the lonely, the elderly, and people with disabilities; through a spirit of penance: abstaining from superfluous and banal things, giving alms to the poor, supporting social works, and other missionary activities.

The Jubilee and the Missions

The very nature of the Church is to be missionary. The Jubilee is intended to bring the Good News to those who do not know Jesus. It is a time for true hope, which will come to the world through missionary activity. Missionaries are agents of hope. The Jubilee invites us to become instruments of evangelisation, through the universal language of charity works.

The year of Prayer in 2024 was a preparation and an invitation to humbly make room for the gift of prayer which comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit knows how to put in our hearts and on our lips the right words to be heard by the Father. Prayer in the Holy Spirit is what unites us to Jesus and allows us to adhere to the Father’s will.

In this Holy Year, Pope Francis “exhorts each of us to become pilgrims of hope, offering concrete signs for a better future. Let us not forget to take care of ‘the small details of love” (Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete et Exultate § 145), such as to know how to stop and pay attention to others, to offer a smile, a caress, a word of comfort. These gestures are not improvised; rather, they require daily fidelity, and almost always, remain hidden and silent; they are strengthened by prayer.

At this time, when the song of hope seems to give way to the clang of weapons, to the cries of so many wounded innocents and the silence of countless victims of war, let us turn to God and ask him for peace. We are in need of peace; let us raise our hands to welcome it as a precious gift and, at the same time, commit ourselves to restoring it in our daily lives.

The Church, living the synodal dimension, rediscovers her pilgrim nature, as people of God on a journey through history, ‘migrant’ towards the Kingdom of Heaven; with an unquestionable certainty: “The Lord your God accompanies you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you” (Dt 31,6).

Although hope is threatened by injustices, violence, and inequality, all of them present in our world, it has been revealed to us that the poor have a privileged place in the heart of God, so that, in the face of their suffering, God is ‘impatient’ until He has done them justice, “until He has removed the multitude of the arrogant and broken the sceptre of the unjust, until He has rewarded each man according to his deeds, and has recompensed the works of men according to their intentions” (Sir 35:21-23).

The Jubilee, in addition to being a pilgrimage, a prayer, an evangelisation, and a celebration, leads each Christian individual and every community to be an instrument of God for the liberation and promotion of the poor, enabling them to be fully a part of society. This demands that we may be docile and attentive to the cry of the poor and to come to their aid.” (Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, 187).

The Jubilee invites us to become instruments of evangelisation, through the universal language of charity works.

May your grace transform us, O Lord, into dedicated cultivators of the seeds of the Gospel that ferment humanity and the cosmos, in confident expectation of the new heavens and the new earth, when, with the forces of evil vanquished, your glory will be revealed forever.

May the grace of the Jubilee rekindle in us, Pilgrims of Hope, the longing for heavenly goods and pour out on the whole world the joy and peace of our Redeemer.