During the 2024 Christmas Eve mass, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St. Peter’s Basilica formally opening the Jubilee Year of Hope, which will be observed until Epiphany Sunday 2026. The celebration of a jubilee year has biblical roots. In Leviticus, we read that every 50th year, the Israelites strove to restore their relationship with God, with one another, and with creation. Their practice involved atoning for their sins, forgiving debts, returning misappropriated lands, and observing a fallow period for the fields.
You will notice that in the Gospel of the third Sunday of January, Jesus also inaugurates a jubilee in the context of Isaiah’s prophecy. He proclaimed good news to the poor, liberty to the captives,
recovery to the sick, and freedom to the oppressed. He proclaimed a year acceptable to the Lord. In
both contexts, in the core of the jubilee year are conversion and liberation, which are echoed by
our modern observance.