Simply Jubilee

Later this week, the Jubilee calendar means the Church will celebrate the worldwide Jubilee of Consecrated Life. Religious from around the world are travelling to Rome for a full programme of events and liturgies - sadly, though, there's nothing special happening here for those of us opting or needing to remain at home, carrying on as normal. Though, as I jokingly said to some friends from other orders, maybe we don't need special events, because in religious life, every day is about jubilee!

It was a throwaway remark, but it contained a lot of truth. As religious we are called to live the pilgrimage at the heart of any Jubilee Year: an endless journey and quest for the God who has called us to respond to Love with love, and who alone can give meaning, purpose and deep, deep joy to our lives. We are called, too, in the spirit of ancient jubilees, to be people who are sent to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken and comfort all who mourn, and proclaim liberty, and an unlimited Love which heals and frees and redeems. 

And underlying all this, and especially in this Jubilee of Hope, we are called to be women and men of hope: anchored in and bearing a hope which, as Pope Francis wrote, is born of love and based on the love springing from the pierced heart of Jesus upon the cross (Spes non confundit, 3). Surely, wrote Pope Francis, we need to “abound in hope” (cf. Rom 15:13), so that we may bear credible and attractive witness to the faith and love that dwell in our hearts; that our faith may be joyful and our charity enthusiastic... 

And over and around and woven through all this... We are called to be people of jubilee, because we are called to be people of joy, and jubilation; women and men whose lives proclaim the deep, often quietly pervading joy of our daily encounter with Jesus, and our constant self-offering to God, and to the world. As we were reminded at the start of the Year of Consecrated Life...

We are called to know and show that God is able to fill our hearts to the brim with happiness; that we need not seek our happiness elsewhere; that the authentic fraternity found in our communities increases our joy; and that our total self-giving in service to the Church, to families and young people, to the elderly and the poor, brings us life-long personal fulfilment.

So yes; every day is a day of jubilee... But even so, my friends and I would like to mark the Jubilee of Consecrated Life in a special way. So, from the 8th to the 12th we will be on social media, posting, blogging and reflecting on our own and our communities' experience of Jubilee, of call and mission... and whatever else we want to share, to proclaim the joy at the heart of our lives. If you are on social media, look out for our posts and our blogs, and the hashtag #SimplyJubilee (following on from #SimplyLife, which we began to use last year). And please do engage with us, comment, share your own experience, and your own joy, so that everyone's jubilee may increase...