Jubilee Year 2025: A Spiritual Rest Stop on the Synodal Journey

By Fr Donald Chambers

As we eagerly anticipate the Jubilee Year 2025, it’s crucial to grasp its profound significance within the context of the Church’s synodal journey. This is more than just another addition to our busy pastoral calendar. Instead, it’s a pivotal moment that aligns with our theological identity and mission, making each of us an integral part of this significant restorative event.

The synod represents more than just a pastoral activity; it is the essence of the Church’s theological identity. It embodies the People of God’s collective journey towards deeper communion and active participation in the Church’s mission. The synod shapes the Church’s way of life through listening, dialogue, discernment, and decision-making (modus vivendi). It provides a framework for organising structures to foster greater communion and participation in its missionary outreach (modus operandi).

In the same way that a journey necessitates periodic rest stops, the Jubilee Year can be likened to a spiritual pause along the Church’s synodal journey. With the theme Pilgrims of Hope, Jubilee 2025 reminds the Church that it is on a journey, pausing to reignite the flame of hope extinguished by the challenges of our hurricane-like world.

There are three primary reasons why rest stops are essential. First, lengthy journeys often lead to physical, psychological, and spiritual fatigue, causing individuals to lose sight of their initial purpose and goals. Therefore, rest becomes necessary for reflection and restoration.

Second, unhealthy habits may develop, impacting personal well-being and relationships. Third, it is vital to recalibrate, and mend broken relationships, as they pose a significant risk to achieving collective goals.

These reasons resonate deeply with the biblical concept of the Jubilee Year, as described in Leviticus 25. First, the jubilee is a time of rest.

The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields (Lev 25:11–12).

The purpose, for example, of the Sabbath rest was a pause from work, placing pilgrims in a restful disposition to reflect on God’s liberating actions from Egyptian slavery.

The rest enables pilgrims to remember what is referred to as the triple belonging in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius—belonging to God, neighbour, and the earth. I make note of a recommendation by the Archdiocesan Jubilee Committee: “making pilgrimages to rediscover the value of silence.”

Second, Leviticus 25 is the primary biblical legislation on Jubilee, and it stipulates three critical obligations: the release of enslaved people, forgiveness of debts, and repatriation of property. This “biblical concept of redemption of persons and of land had its origins in the basic Jubilee view that Israel, people and land, belonged to God with the assertion that none of the earth belongs to humans but ultimately to God alone” (James Sanders).

The legislation aims to restore equity in social relationships. Hence, the Jubilee Committee recommends that there are “initiatives aimed at restoring hope to prisoners, the sick, the young, migrants, the elderly and the poor.”

Third, lengthy journeys tend to erode hope in the future due to the onset of feelings of desolation triggered by relentless tragedies, wars, violence, conflicts, and disputes.

The Jubilee Year is a moment to renew hope in God’s promises of liberation. In the words of Pope Francis, hope is a “constant expectation, it’s a gift from the Holy Spirit, it’s a miracle of renewal that never lets us down.”

For this reason, the Jubilee Committee of the Archdiocese of Port of Spain recommends some tangible signs of hope—“desire for peace in the world”.

For Jubilee 2025, every fabric of the diocesan Church is invited to celebrate this period of rest and reflection. Families, parish communities, religious congregations, charismatic communities, and pastoral ministries are experiencing emotional and spiritual burnout, overwhelmed by demands, limited material and human resources, and waning participation and involvement. This is a time for jubilee—to rest, reflect, and renew.

As we anticipate the jubilee year, every pastoral initiative during this period must find its roots in the Church’s identity as a synodal Church. Utilising tools of discernment, such as Conversation in the Spirit, can help parishes, families, and religious communities discern the best ways to celebrate Jubilee 2025.

By perceiving synodality as the driving force behind Jubilee 2025, we can infuse this period with deeper meaning and relevance within the Church’s journey.

In a following article, we will delve into specific matters for discernment and recommend prayers to discern ways of celebrating and enriching the celebration of the jubilee year.

Stay tuned for more insights as we prepare for this significant milestone in the life of the Church.

Fr Donald Chambers of the Archdiocese of Kingston, Jamaica is the General Secretary of the Antilles Episcopal Conference.