Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 8
Thursday, January 25, 2001
Lasting impact of the jubilee year
By H. Richard McCord
Catholic News Service
-T r
Jl he weather was raw, and rain
fell intermittently, but the day was —
as the Irish would say — just grand.
I stood in St. Peter’s Square in
Rome in the closing days of the jubi
lee-year 2000 with thousands of pil
grims from every corner of the world
and watched Pope John Paul II give
copies of the Vatican II documents to
10 laypersons representing the vari
ous continents.
Before handing over the council
documents, the pope declared: “In par
ticular, you lay people must again
take the documents in hand. To you
the council opened extraordinary per
spectives of commitment and involve
ment in the church’s mission....
“Today more than ever, ... your
apostolate is indispensable if the Gos
pel is to be the light, salt and leaven of
a new humanity.”
At the end of the ceremony we re
cited the Angelus, a prayer honoring
Mary for her obedience to the greatest
of callings. And then we rose to sing,
alternating in different languages, the
magnificent jubilee-year hymn:
“Christ who was, Christ who is now,
Christ in all things, below, above.”
It was indeed a grand day, a won
derful conclusion to a four-year period
(1997-2000) during which we prepared
for and celebrated the jubilee of our
redemption and the crossing over into
a third Christian millennium.
■ ■ ■
In announcing the jubilee’s prepa
ratory phase in his 1994 apostolic let
ter “As the Third Millennium Draws
Near,” Pope John Paul II called
Vatican Council II a “providential
event” by which the church began to
ready itself for the new millennium.
His reasons for saying this are a
commentary not only on the meaning
of Vatican II but on what he hoped
would dawn with the next millennium.
—Vatican II focused on the mys
tery of Christ and his church.
—Vatican II represented a Gospel-
oriented response to recent changes in
the world.
—Vatican II marked the beginning
of a new era in the church’s life, while
at the same time drawing upon a rich
legacy of the past.
Did we emphasize these elements
as we prepared for and celebrated the
jubilee year?
A jubilee theme statement dis
played on banners and posters in
many church buildings was “Open
Wide the Doors to Christ.” This
brought together the pope’s points of
emphasis for the council and for the
jubilee in a succinct, inspiring way.
■ ■ ■
Last year there was a huge gasp of
relief when the world crossed into
CNS photo by Nancy Wiechec
were intensely busy. We could be for
given for wanting to pause and catch
our breath.
On international and national lev
els, the jubilee calendar was filled
with special days for almost every con
ceivable group of people. On these oc
casions we recognized the calling and
the contribution of parents, ordained
the longer term? To answer, we
need to know how we would recog
nize that the jubilee year had a last
ing impact.
I think we who are laity must look
deeply into our hearts and ask serious
questions about vocation and mission.
Jesus began his public life by pro
claiming his awareness of being called
2000 without suffering any disastrous
consequences from a massive com
puter failure. We relaxed and re
turned to business as usual.
Fine, but will we do the same now
that the jubilee year is history?
The year and its preparation period
and lay ministers, and religious-order
members, married couples and single
persons, workers and health-care pro
viders, artists and media profession
als, teachers, people with disabilities
and children.
Will all this activity bear fruit in
and anointed to do the reconciling
work of his Father and to usher in a
“year of the Lord’s favor” (Lk 4:16-30).
The pope proposed this Scripture pas
sage as a way to understand the sig
nificance of a jubilee.
It also holds the key to assessing
the longer-term impact of a jubilee
celebration. Was this year only a feel
good event or did it stir within us a
profound sense of being called,
anointed and sent to “bring glad tid
ings to the poor ..., to proclaim liberty
to captives ..., to let the oppressed go
free” (Lk 4:18)?
All the special jubilee days cel
ebrated last year played a variation on
a single theme: All Christians are
called to holiness within the circum
stances of their lives, their work, their
iiJl the special jubilee days
celebrated last year played
a variation on a single theme:
All Christians are called to
holiness within the circum
stances of their lives, their
work, their relationships....
There is a specific vocation
and mission for everyone.”
relationships; all are called to share in
Christ’s ministry of salvation. There
is a specific vocation and mission for
everyone.
That is not only a jubilee-year mes
sage. Vatican II taught it emphatically.
So it made eminent sense for the
pope to entrust the Vatican II docu
ments to lay people at the conclusion
of the jubilee celebration. In his hom
ily he declared that the council
“marked a decisive turning point.
With the council the hour of the laity
truly struck, and many lay faithful,
men and women, more clearly under
stood their Christian vocation.”
If our jubilee-year activities rein
forced this awareness and energized
us to accept the challenges and sacri
fices of being a witness to Christ in the
new millennium, then we truly cel
ebrated a “year of favor,” and we have
proclaimed it for the future.
(McCord is director of the U.S.
bishops’ Secretariat for Family, La
ity, Women and Youth.)
FOODFORTHOUGHT
I think it can safely be predicted that some concerns addressed during the jubilee year will remain with us for a
long time. How we deal with these matters will come to constitute part of the jubilee’s legacy.
Take, for example, the jubilee’s focus on the diversity of cultural groups within parishes. Understanding and
genuinely accepting all in the parish — new immigrants, for example — is the challenge.
In a November 2000 statement, the U.S. bishops acknowledged that this concern is ongoing. “The church of the
21st century requires a profound conversion in spirit and in its institutions to reflect its own cultural pluralism,”
they said.
Another dimension of the jubilee’s legacy might stem from the unique attention given — through special jubilee
days — to the vocations of all church members: teachers, priests, government workers, parents, police.
According to some thinkers, fostering a sense of vocation on every church member’s part prepares a cultural
“seedbed” in which specific vocations grow — including vocations to priesthood and religious life.
If that is correct, the jubilee’s legacy in this area may ultimately prove helpful in resolving what is called the
church’s “vocations crisis.”
3 David Gibson, Editor, Faith Alive!