I have lived in Rome, taken groups to Rome, and hopped on a plane at the last minute and gone to Rome for a papal funeral. I have been to St. Peter’s Basilica more times than I can count. I’ve gone for early-morning visits alone, led groups of pilgrims on tours, and experienced both joy and sorrow within the world’s largest church. I have entered the basilica from its side doors hidden in plain sight, descended from the roof, and emerged from the narrow steps that come from the crypt. But there is one doorway I have never passed through. I have never walked through the Holy Door.
This door is unlike any other entrance to the basilica. It stands as a main entrance, one of the five that lead into the main body of the church. But it remains closed, bricked up from the inside. This door is only open during Jubilee Years. The pope himself opens the Holy Door of St. Peter’s on Christmas Eve to begin the Jubilee. This next year (2025), I’ll get to walk through that door for the first time.
When you hear Jubilee, maybe the first thing that comes to mind is a flaming cherry dessert. But what should come to mind is freedom and forgiveness.
2025 is a “Jubilee Year” for the Catholic Church, and millions of pilgrims are expected to arrive in Rome. For the Catholic Church, the tradition of Jubilee Years began at the end of the thirteenth century. As 1299 came to a close, thousands of pilgrims flooded the city of Rome. They faced difficulties not unlike our current age: war, plagues, and material hardships. Even though it was difficult to travel to Rome, they came to ask God’s blessing and the protection of the Apostles. Pope Boniface VIII, inspired by their faith, called a year of forgiveness of all sins for 1300. Special graces were attached to visiting the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul.
The idea of a Jubilee Year has roots in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 25, God commanded the Israelites to observe a Year of Jubilee every fifty years. During this time of celebration and rest, there was no sowing or reaping, as even the land was given rest. Debts were forgiven, slaves were freed, and property was returned. It is one of the greatest examples of social and communal mercy in the Old Testament. The people were to learn mercy by giving mercy.
This year of Jubilee was intended as a physical reminder of the even greater mercy God wanted to shower upon His people in His Kingdom to come. In Isaiah 61, the prophet speaks of a future Jubilee Year for Israel, prophesying of a time when God would release them from their slavery and debt. In Luke 4:18-19, we see Jesus beginning His public ministry by applying this prophecy to His work:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to bring glad tidings to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives
and recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.
As in all things, Jesus comes not only to fulfill the Old Testament but also to go beyond. He is fulfilling the Old Testament Year of Jubilee but with a promise of greater freedom: freedom from death and sin.
The Christian Jubilee Year, then, is a time to enter into this freedom. It is a time for reconciliation with God and neighbor. The popes proclaim these years of grace, also called “Holy Years,” to remind us that we are called to engage in acts of mercy and conversion. While we cannot take a break from our “sowing” or “harvesting” for a year, we can find ways to dedicate this year in a special way to the Lord.
Seven hundred and twenty-five years later, the hallmark of the Jubilee Year 2025 is the same as the first Christian Jubilee: pilgrimage to the tombs of Peter and Paul. Particular Jubilee graces are given to those pilgrims who, repentant of their sins, make a pilgrimage to one of the major Papal Basilicas of Rome, and spend time there in prayer. Walking through the Holy Door during the Jubilee is an outward sign of the pilgrim’s inward journey of faith, from trespass to reconciliation, sin to grace, death to life.
John Paul II said:
To focus upon the door is to recall the responsibility of every believer to cross its threshold. To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord; it is to strengthen faith in him in order to live the new life which he has given us. It is a decision which presumes freedom to choose and also the courage to leave something behind, in the knowledge that what is gained is divine life. (Incarnationis Mysterium)
While the Holy Father can call an extraordinary Jubilee Year any time, ordinary Jubilee Years only happen every 25 years. 2025 is your chance to participate in this historic event! Join us!
Editor’s Note: If you’d like to explore more of Joan Watson’s work, check out her new book, Opening the Holy Door, available from Ave Maria Press.
Photo by Rafael AS Martins on Unsplash
