Download Jubilee Year Connections to World Youth Day

 Jubilee Year Connections to World Youth Day Posted on March 14, 2015March 14, 2015 by wydusa
This week, Pope Francis announced that the Church would be celebrating an
“Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy” from December 8, 2015, to November 20, 2016. An
“extraordinary jubilee” does not come that often (see this article on the history of these jubilees
over the centuries). The last time one was called was 1983, when Pope John Paul II announced
the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Redemption on the occasion of 1,950th anniversary of Jesus’
death and resurrection.
One of the last activities of the 1983-1984 Jubilee Year was a special gathering of young
people with the Holy Father on Palm Sunday, April 15, 1984. This event so moved Pope John
Paul II that, as a result, two things happened: first, the pope decided to hold another meeting with
young people on the following Palm Sunday, March 31, 1985, and then instituted a continuous
practice of such gatherings, which became known as World Youth Days (the next of which will
take place in Krakow in 2016); second, the official cross of the Jubilee of Redemption (which
had been stationed in St. Peter’s Basilica throughout the previous year) was entrusted to the
young people of Rome at Centro San Lorenzo, the Vatican’s International Youth Center – and
this become the World Youth Day Cross that has since traveled the globe and stands as a
perpetual symbol of the World Youth Day experience.
One has to wonder what the upcoming Jubilee Year of Mercy will yield. Knowing this
connection to WYD, it is quite fitting that the next international World Youth Day in Krakow,
Poland (home of Karol Wojtlya who became Pope John Paul II) in late July 2016, will take place
within this Holy Year of Mercy. Even more providential is the choice of the 2016 WYD theme,
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” (Mt. 5:7)
It should be noted that “extraordinary” jubilees are ones that take place outside the
normal 25-year cycle of “ordinary” jubilees (which take place at the turn of each century and
every 25 years after that), a practice begun in the year 1300. There have been 26 ordinary
jubilees in the history of the Catholic Church, the last one taking place in the year 2000.
Extraordinary jubilees are very rare, with only two being held in the last several centuries (in
1933 and 1983). With such rarity, it causes us to pay attention and to take heed at Pope Francis’
words (in English, courtesy of Vatican Radio):
“The call of Jesus pushes each of us never to stop at the surface of things, especially when we
are dealing with a person. We are called to look beyond, to focus on the heart to see how much
generosity everyone is capable. No one can be excluded from the mercy of God; everyone
knows the way to access it and the Church is the house that welcomes all and refuses no one.
Its doors remain wide open, so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of
forgiveness. The greater the sin, so much the greater must be the love that the Church expresses
toward those who convert.
https://wydusa.wordpress.com Dear brothers and sisters, I have often thought about how the Church might make clear its
mission of being a witness to mercy. It is journey that begins with a spiritual conversion. For this
reason, I have decided to call an extraordinary Jubilee that is to have the mercy of God at its
center. It shall be a Holy Year of Mercy. We want to live this Year in the light of the Lord’s
words: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. (cf. Lk 6:36)”
This Holy Year will begin on this coming Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and will end
on November 20, 2016, the Sunday dedicated to Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe –
and living face of the Father’s mercy. I entrust the organization of this Jubilee to the Pontifical
Council for Promotion of the New Evangelization, that [the dicastery] might animate it as a new
stage in the journey of the Church on its mission to bring to every person the Gospel of mercy.
I am convinced that the whole Church will find in this Jubilee the joy needed to rediscover
and make fruitful the mercy of God, with which all of us are called to give consolation to every
man and woman of our time.”
What amazing things will result from this Jubilee Year of Mercy? If World Youth Day
was the lasting legacy of the last extraordinary holy year, one can only imagine what will emerge
from this celebration.
In a special way, since WYD 2016, already under the theme of mercy, is situated at the
heart of this jubilee, the world and the Church will be looking at the participants of that
international event – and seeing how they will carry forth the mission to “be merciful,” to
“welcome all and refuse no one,” and to “give consolation to every man and woman of our
time.” Pope Francis has laid forth the vision of what God expects of the young pilgrims in
Krakow and those who celebrate in their home countries: that those who profess Christ be
heralds of mercy and compassion beyond imagination.
As we all prepare for World Youth Day, and for this Holy Year of Mercy, may we be
given the strength to be good pilgrims of faith, ready for the challenges and opportunities on the
road ahead.
Buon camino!
https://wydusa.wordpress.com