On Christmas Eve 1999, Pope John Paul II opened the Holy Door of St. PeterŠs Basilica and ushers in the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000. In Hebrew Scripture, the Jubilee or Holy Year is a time of extraordinary joy, expectation and thanksgiving as well as extraordinary challenge. How will our actions translate into joy for the poor and those who suffer? In Hebrew times, the Jubilee was a time to recall and practice the belief that all things come from God. We are stewards of God's gifts but owners of none. The books of Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy indicate the Jubilee was a time for correcting social imbalances, forgiving debts and freeing slaves, for freeing the earth also, allowing lands to lie fallow and regenerate and returning them to their original caretakers.
Jesus embodied the Jubilee, taking on the words of the prophet Isaiah: The spirit of the Lord is upon me; he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.
Jesus' listeners received this as good news. But as the implications of his words became clear, admiration turned to rage. They were looking for a leader to empower them politically and enrich them economically, not one who advocated unconditional love for the poor and outcast. The challenge still may be hard to hear. Making the Jubilee real means to strive to restore to human relations the original harmony God gave creation, as Pope John Paul II says, to rejoice in our salvation and reverse that which in our personal lives and society contradicts the Good News.
TO BRING GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR is to reverse the imbalance created by the gap between poor and rich. The U.N. Development Program reports the richest 20 percent of the world takes in 82.7 percent of its income; the poorest 20 percent receives only 1.4 percent. The world's three richest individuals have assets greater than the combined gross domestic product of the 48 least developed nations.
TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO CAPTIVES: Announcing the Great Jubilee, Pope John Paul II says, "The human race is facing forms of slavery which are new and more subtle than those of the past and for too many people freedom remains a word without meaning. Some nations are oppressed by a debt so huge that repayment is practically impossible." Between 1980 and 1996 the countries of Sub-Saharan Africa repaid twice their foreign debt in interest but today remain captive to a debt that, with high rates and compounding, is three times greater than it was 16 years ago. Developing nations owe creditors $2 trillion, a burden that robs funds for social programs.
TO PROCLAIM RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND is to attend to those who suffer in body, mind and spirit. Prejudice and hatred have created some 23 million refugees from 1995 to 1997 and internally displaced another 30 million people. And AIDS this year will afflict a projected 40 million people, more than half of them in Africa south of the Sahara, where poverty, armed conflict and migration perpetuate transmission, says UNAIDS. The greatest scourge of our time, however, is hunger, with more than 800 million people malnourished, according to the U.N. Development Program.
TO LET THE OPPRESSED GO FREE is to let compassion flourish, expressed in solidarity and forgiveness. After years of violence,the poor in places like Guatemala and South Africa are opening creative efforts at reconciliation for the Church. To seek reconciliation is to remember the martyrs. It is, above all, to seek truth for healing, to create, as the Holy Father says, "a new culture of international solidarity and cooperation, where all particularly the weak nations and private sector accept responsibility for an economic model which serves everyone."
TO PROCLAIM THE YEAR OF THE LORD'S FAVOR. The year 2000 is the 26th Jubilee of the Christian era. Like its predecessors, it is convoked to strengthen faith and encourage works of charity. Unlike all others, this is the first to start a new millennium. It is a unique opportunity to deepen our faith. Some questions for the Great Jubilee might begin here: What can I do to simplify my life? How can I and my community influence discussions on debt relief or military spending? What are we currently doing to show our solidarity with the poor? What more can we do?