Sanctifying space and time: The Great Jubilee,
(part 2)
In exploring, last week, how the creation narratives in the book
of Genesis show God making time and space holy, we come to understand
how the celebration of Great Jubilee 2000 calls us to enter in
a new way into our time and our space.
The Pope has done this for the universal Church through long years
of preparation for the year 2000. In l985 he called for a New
Evangelization to prepare the New Millennium and spoke of the
Second Vatican Council as an event which marked the beginning,
in our time, of a new appreciation of the incarnation of the Eternal
Son of God. In Christ, we learn who we are and what is our destiny
as human beings; in celebrating the two thousandth anniversary
of Jesus’ incarnation, we have a chance to learn that lesson anew.
The Pope prepared the time by bringing the Church into a period
of examination of conscience, a second look at our history so
that we could take up Christ’s mission again in a penitent spirit
and with new ardor. Then he set out a second three year period
to bring us into the life of God. In year one, two years ago,
the Holy Father asked the Church to look at Jesus Christ and understand
the virtue of faith and the sacrament of baptism, which is the
beginning of our life of holiness. In year two, last year, the
Pope directed us to the Holy Spirit and the virtue of hope, a
hope confirmed in the gift of the Spirit in the sacrament of confirmation.
Year three, this year, is dedicated to God the Father and the
virtue of charity. The Pope has asked us to make good use of the
Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation, preparing us for the Great
Jubilee, which will be a Eucharistic year.
More recently, the Holy Father has turned his attention and ours
from sacred time to sacred space. He has announced his desire
to go on pilgrimage, visiting again the places made sacred in
the history of salvation. He will, “God willing”, visit Ur of
the Chaldees, the land of Abraham’s origins; Mount Sinai, symbol
of the Exodus and the covenant with Moses; and, above all, Nazareth,
Bethlehem and Jerusalem. He will follow the path of historical
revelation, visiting in prayer spaces made sacred by God’s presence
through the ages.
How will we in the Archdiocese pick up the universal Church’s
call to live again in sacred time and sacred space during the
Jubilee? The past year has been given over to preaching among
ourselves once again the Gospel of Jesus Christ, savior of the
world. We will begin the Jubilee year itself with ecumenical prayer
services, so that all those who acknowledge Jesus as Lord might
greet the beginning of the millennium in prayer together. We will
mark the feast of Corpus Christi in June with a grand Eucharistic
celebration in Soldier Field, uniting the entire Archdiocese around
the table of the Lord. A year from now, at St. Mary of the Lake
Seminary in Mundelein, we will take a weekend to make a journey
of faith, visiting in tableaux and prayer and song the moments
that have defined the growth of the Church in Cook and Lake counties.
None of this will be more than empty memorial unless each one
of us looks to his or her internal space and the relationships
that shape our lives and hand everything over to the Lord. In
this surrender, we find our freedom and understand the deepest
meaning of Jubilee. God bless you.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
