Christmas Eve holds special significance this year. At 7 p.m. Rome time, Pope Francis will stand before the Jubilee Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, as the Church petitions her heavenly Bridegroom to flood the world with grace. The tall heavy portals, shut and walled up since the close of the last Jubilee, will swing open, inviting pilgrims and prodigals into the merciful Father’s welcoming embrace.
Do we not each need a fresh start at times in our lives? An impetus to upend established patterns of sin and sadness? And with that impetus, we need words of encouragement reminding us of forgotten or neglected truths: God loves and treasures me, my soul is worth the effort demanded by change, and I am strong with the strength of Him “for whom all things are possible” (Mt. 19:26, Lk. 1:37, Phil. 4:13).
In a sense, a Jubilee is the freshness and hope of Christmas extended through an entire year. It originated centuries before the Incarnation when God, setting out His merciful law for the Israelites, decreed every 50th year a time to redress wrongs, release captives, and rest (Lev. 25). The Church now celebrates a Jubilee every 25 years; this Dec. 24, as she swings open Jubilee Doors in St. Peter’s and pilgrimage sites around the world, she will be reminding us that Christ is the “key” to, and the “newness” of, freedom.
Both of these words mark the Advent liturgy. On Dec. 20, the Alleluia verse before the Gospel addresses Christ as the “key of David” and begs Him to “free the prisoners of darkness.” Whatever our shackles, there is a key within reach: Christ, our Savior. What Christ did during His earthly ministry — healing illnesses, forgiving sins, restoring to sinners and outcasts their dignity — He now does through the ministry of His Church, especially in the sacraments of confession and anointing. Let us set aside fear and prepare ourselves to answer Christ’s question, “What do you wish me to do for you?” (Mk. 10:51).
Christ as “key” unlocks chains; another way of saying this is that He opens doors to new life. Among the many reasons for His coming as a Baby is to teach us that newness lies within reach of each of us. On Dec. 18, the Church prays in her opening prayer at Mass: “Grant, we pray, almighty God, that we, who are weighed down from old by slavery beneath the yoke of sin, may be set free by the newness of the long-awaited Nativity.” St. Irenaeus echoes this, “The Spirit accomplishe[s] the Father’s will in men who ha[ve] grown old in sin, and [gives] them new life in Christ.”
This is the hope Christ extends his clandestine student, Nicodemus, a new birth “of water and the Spirit” (Jn. 3:5). Nicodemus asked Christ, “How can a man be born when he is old?” (Jn. 3:4). Whisper this question to the Infant in the manger and hear the answer He — and His gentle Mother — wish you to hear this Jubilee Year of Hope.
Sr. Maria Veritas Marks is a member of the Ann Arbor-based Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist.
