Justin Appel

Dear Friends,

As some of you may know, Pope Francis designated 2025 as a Jubilee Holy Year for the Catholic Church. The late pope referred to participants in this Jubilee as “Pilgrims of Hope.”

In conjunction with this designation, the Jubilee Doors on St Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican City, have been opened from January 6 (The Epiphany) 2025 to the same date in 2026. Many Christians have travelled to St Peter’s to participate liturgically in the Jubilee.

This practice of holding a Jubilee year, also held in common with the Orthodox Church, has its origins in the Jubilee Year practice of the ancient Israelites, who in the book of Leviticus, are instructed by God to offer one year of forgiveness every 50 years.

Debts were to be forgiven, and indentured servants were to be redeemed according to God’s instructions, and restored citizens were to return to their own property.

In modern times, the practice of the Year of Jubilee has taken on important spiritual implications.

As Archbishop Elpidophoros of America (Greek Orthodox Church) puts it, the Jubilee Year reminds Christians to live in the freedom God’s grace has granted them—freedom from all the things that hold them back from approaching God. It is also a special reminder that we can forgive the sins that others have committed against us—emotionally, materially, or physically.

Interestingly, the biblical year of Jubilee was meant to be announced with a blast of the ram’s horn. The trumpet sounded a release to those suffering in bondage.

How appropriate, then, that St Paul would describe the future resurrection of the dead following the trumpet’s blast. “The trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible…”

This moment will usher in the ultimate Jubilee, for now our release from sin and death, already achieved in Christ’s death and resurrection, will be fully realized:

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”

Yours in Christ,

—Justin