My Sisters and Brothers in Christ:
Within our faith, we associate freedom with the ability to love, as Moses and Jesus speak. Moses said to “return to the Lord with all your heart and all your soul.” Jesus affirms what Moses said and clarifies even further when a scholar of the law said that to inherit eternal life, “You shall love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, with all your being, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself (Luke 10:27). These words may seem so simple. Jesus illumines the strength of God’s Word when He says that loving God is more than being passive. As the scholar and Jesus discuss who is our neighbor and Jesus speaks about the Samaritan who ministers to an injured man on the road, while others pass him by, Jesus asks each one of us, who treated the man as a neighbor? The scholar replied, “The one who treated him with mercy.” Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise (Luke 10:37).”
This is the freedom we receive from God to attain eternal life. We are given the choice to love God and love our neighbor as we love God and ourselves. We are given the choice to treat one another with mercy, with forgiveness and tender care. We observe a Jubilee Year as pilgrims of hope. The Jubilee calls for a restoration, a return to God with all our heart, being, strength, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself. The Jubilee is a time of great joy. In the time of Moses, during a Jubilee Year, Israel reset, where debt and land loss and slavery were rescinded.
It is time for us to understand the significance of this today. The Jubilee Year is receiving a deeper experience of God’s unmerited grace. It is setting free His superabundant mercy through our daily living. In our country, we don’t ‘forgive loans;’ we expect repayment with interest. We are beholden to civil law. Our Catholic faith is counter cultural. God compels us to care for one another, to set free His mercy upon one another. This care is not relegated to only the people we want to be our neighbor, the people we already like and with whom we have our Catholic faith in common. This care is offered for all God’s people, every person on earth, as we are all created of God, by God, for God. In our participation of the Jubilee Year, we desire to be restored to the family of God. In our reception of Jesus the Eucharist, we are called to be who we receive.
Sit with your family and name your neighbors. Start with your family first. Are there any family members with whom you have had a disagreement or difficulty? Are there any family members with whom you have stopped calling or inviting to family gatherings? Name these members and pray for strength and courage to compassionately approach them once more. It may start with a handwritten note or a text or a phone call.
Think of others in your life with whom you have had difficulties. It may be the person next door, whom you have exclaimed, “is so difficult or ‘hates’ you.” Pick flowers from your yard and bring them to your neighbor or drop off home baked cookies. Think beyond your block. Pray for the people with whom you work who are difficult. Think about the people suffering in our own communities, those without homes, those who are lost. You may not know them personally, but you are able to pray for them, to take time to participate in Mass, offering them as your special intention, or pray a Novena remembering them or pray with our Blessed Mother’s devotional Rosary. Grocery shop for your food pantry or donate to Catholic Charities of Central Florida for their well-being.
When we extend God’s mercy, we also offer a sacrifice in praise of God, a holy offering! When we pray for one another, we ‘take time away’ from some other task. When we offer food or donations for or visit one another, we also sacrifice. These sacrifices praise God as they proclaim His goodness and extend His mercy. They fulfill what God has asked during this Jubilee Year and throughout all generations, to care for one another as He cares for each one. It is something already in your mouths and in your hearts; you have only to carry it out.