From the Heart of the Shepherd
- Church of St. Mark
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
From the bulletin for Corpus Christi (2025 June 22)
June 22, Corpus Christi
Oh snap: the Jubilee of Hope! I had forgotten all about it. I guess there has been a lot going on. But before it’s too late (that is, before the Jubilee Year of Hope is over), I want to say more about it. And during the month of the Sacred Heart, I think there is a beautiful connection to be made between it and the Divine Heart of Our Lord.
In the Old Testament, the jubilee year was part of a system of sacred time intended by God to help His people “enter into His rest” (Ps 95:11). It was designed like a Russian nesting doll. At the lowest level, you had the Sabbath day. Every seventh day, God’s people were to set aside temporal affairs and the daily grind to be free for rest and worship. “There are six days when you may work, but the seventh day is a day of sabbath rest, a day of sacred assembly” (Lev 23:3).
Then, you had the Sabbath year. Every seventh year, the land was to be allowed to “rest” by laying fallow that year. This surely implied a “trust fall” for a people who depended on the annual harvest for their sustenance. But God promised to provide if they proved faithful to Him: “Follow my decrees and be careful to obey my laws, and you will live safely in the land. Then the land will yield its fruit, and you will eat your fill and live there in safety. You may ask, ‘What will we eat in the seventh year if we do not plant or harvest our crops?’ I will send you such a blessing in the sixth year that the land will yield enough for three years” (Lev 25:18-21).
Finally, you had the jubilee year. Every seventh sabbath year was a special one: debts were to be forgiven, slaves emancipated, and land that had been sold was to return to its original owner. As a result, families would be reunited on their fathers’ soil, free from all those economic forces that had kept them apart or away. “In this Year of Jubilee everyone is to return to their own property” (Lev 25:13). Imagine the rest that would have ensued every fifty years: a giant family reunion with no work to do, just abundance and restoration to be enjoyed. Certainly this would have been like a foretaste of Heaven, and something to look forward to with hope, however far fortunes fell in the years preceding.
Significantly, Jesus kicked off His public ministry by announcing the messianic “year” of jubilee foretold first by Isaiah: ‘The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Lk 3:18-19; Is 61: 1-2). That year of favor (or of grace) seems to be a direct reference to the jubilee.
Jesus didn’t come to release monetary debts or free economic slaves. No, He came to bring about the kind of “deliverance” and “rest” that really matters: deliverance from slavery to sin, and peace of heart through reconciliation with God. Jesus Himself is the true Sabbath day, year, and jubilee: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:28-29).
The Old Law created a system of sacred time, so that at least on occasion God’s people experience His rest. But Jesus makes it possible for His followers to experience God’s rest and engage in their “Sabbath worship” in all times and places. How? By consecrating ourselves to Him. As St. Paul says, “I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, your spiritual worship” (Rom 12:1). Surrendering our lives to God’s service by living to please the Sacred Heart of Jesus: this is the pathway to deliverance from every form of slavery, release from every debt, reunion with our Father and His family, and entering into the land that the blessed “meek and humble of heart” shall inherit and delight forever in His eternal rest.
Like this topic? Come to the Sacred Heart Seminar this Wednesday at 7pm in Carolyn Hall to hear Sr. Cinthyia Carmona, PES, speak about it live!
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