Pope Francis inaugurates extraordinary jubilee year

December 09, 2015

Pope Francis inaugurated the Jubilee of Mercy on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council.

The jubilee year, whose theme is “merciful like the Father,” concludes next November 20, the feast of Christ the King.

The tradition of jubilee years in the Church dates to 1300 and hearkens back to the Book of Leviticus. The Jubilee of Mercy is termed extraordinary because it falls outside the regularly scheduled cycle of jubilee years.

“God’s grace enfolded [Mary] and made her worthy of becoming the Mother of Christ,” Pope Francis preached during a Mass celebrated in St. Peter’s Square. “The fullness of grace can transform the human heart and enable it to do something so great as to change the course of human history.”

“The words of Genesis reflect our own daily experience: we are constantly tempted to disobedience, a disobedience expressed in wanting to go about our lives without regard for God’s will,” he continued. “This is the enmity which keeps striking at people’s lives, setting them in opposition to God’s plan. Yet the history of sin can only be understood in the light of God’s love and forgiveness. Sin can only be understood in this light. Were sin the only thing that mattered, we would be the most desperate of creatures. But the promised triumph of Christ’s love enfolds everything in the Father’s mercy.”

The Pope then discussed the significance of the jubilee year:

To pass through the Holy Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone and goes out personally to encounter each of them. It is he who seeks us! It is he who comes to encounter us! This will be a year in which we grow ever more convinced of God’s mercy.

How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgment before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy (cf. Saint Augustine, De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, 12, 24)! But that is the truth. We have to put mercy before judgment, and in any event God’s judgement will always be in the light of his mercy.

In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves are part of this mystery of love, of tenderness. Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things.

Recalling the anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council, he said that

this anniversary cannot be remembered only for the legacy of the Council’s documents, which testify to a great advance in faith. Before all else, the Council was an encounter. A genuine encounter between the Church and the men and women of our time. An encounter marked by the power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church to emerge from the shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey.

It was the resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in their cities and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are people, the Church is called to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the Gospel, and the mercy and forgiveness of God. After these decades, we again take up this missionary drive with the same power and enthusiasm.

The Jubilee challenges us to this openness, and demands that we not neglect the spirit which emerged from Vatican II, the spirit of the Samaritan, as Blessed Paul VI expressed it at the conclusion of the Council. May our passing through the Holy Door today commit us to making our own the mercy of the Good Samaritan.

An estimated 50,000 people, including Italy’s president and prime minister and Belgium’s king and queen, were present at the Mass. At the conclusion of Mass, with Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI present, Pope Francis opened the holy door of St. Peter’s Basilica, officially inaugurating the jubilee year. 

 

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Further information:

• Inauguration of the Jubilee of Mercy -2015.12.08 (YouTube Vatican)
• Booklet for the Celebration
• Santa Messa nella Solennità dell’Immacolata Concezione e Apertura della Porta Santa della Basilica Vaticana per l’inizio del Giubileo della Misericordia, 08.12.2015 (Holy See Press Office)
• Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
• Letter Granting Indulgence during the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
• Jubilee of Mercy (IM.va)
• Pope Francis opens Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica, opens Jubilee (Vatican Radio)