Jubilee Pilgrim Cross
Purpose of the Jubilee Pilgrim Cross
This cross is a reminder of the great love Jesus has for all of us...that he emptied himself, gave himself completely so that we could have life in abundance.
In 2007 the Diocese of Fort Wayne South Bend will celebrate its 150th Anniversary. During this Jubilee Year there will be many events and remembrances to mark this historic occasion. The theme for the Sesquicentennial Jubilee is: Behold the Face of Christ: His Steadfast Love Endures Forever.
During 2006 and 2007 the Jubilee Pilgrim Cross will be on pilgrimage throughout the Fort Wayne/South Bend Diocese, entrusted to each parish for a few days, in order to prepare us for the Sesquicentennial Jubilee Year In addition, the cross will visit the campuses of as many high schools, colleges and universities as possible. The Jubilee Pilgrim Cross serves as a witness of gratitude for the many blessings we have received in this diocese and as a call for reconciliation and peace in our families, our communities and country, and around the world.
Let us pray for acceptance and love among our faith communities so that all Christians and all people of good will can be further strengthened through Christ's love poured out for us on the Cross. May His steadfast love endure forever in our hearts!
What is a Jubilee?
A jubilee, in biblical terms and in the teachings of Pope John Paul II, is “a year of favor from the Lord.” The tradition of the Jubilee year reaches back to the Old Testament. The law of Moses prescribed Sabbatical and Jubilee years for the Jewish people when there was to be no cultivation of crops, alienated lands were returned to their original owners, debts were pardoned, and slaves freed (Lev 25:8-54). The word jubilee is derived from the Hebrew word meaning ram’s horn, sounded to announce this special year.
In the New Testament, Jesus presents himself as the One who brings the old Jubilee to completion, because He has come “to bring good news to the poor, to heal the broken-hearted, to announce release to captives and freedom to those in prison.”
When Pope John Paul II announced the preparations for the celebration of the Jubilee Year 2000, he wrote: For the church, the Jubilee is precisely this ‘year of the Lord’s favor,’ a year of the remission of sins and of the punishment due to them, a year of reconciliation between disputing parties, a year of manifold conversions and of sacramental and extra-sacramental penance.” (TMA, #14)
Many people ask how the celebration of Jubilees began in our church. Historically, it is safe to say the first Christian Jubilee was born out of public acclaim. It was the practice of Christians from early times to go on pilgrimage to the Holy Land, visiting the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul and the shrines of the martyrs. There also was a prevailing belief that every 100th year was a year of “great pardon”.
The late 13th century, in fact, was a time of vast suffering caused by wars and diseases. Among the people there was a great desire to return to a more holy way of living. With tremendous faith many Christians traveled to Rome (on foot) to visit the tombs of the apostles and to receive the pope’s blessing, in order to obtain grace and strength to carry on. They came by the thousands at Christmas in 1299. Due to their immense number, Pope Boniface VIII -- full of admiration for their faith and the reason for their coming -- proclaimed the first Christian Jubilee in February 1300 as a “year of forgiveness of all sins.”
Reflection on Reconciliation and Evangelization
For Jubilee 2007 Bishop John M. D’Arcy, and all the American Bishops, encourage us to reflect on the twin themes of reconciliation and evangelization. Both of these are difficult concepts because they directly challenge the “spiritual status quo” in each of us. While, in our heads, we acknowledge the need to forgive and be forgiven, past experiences show that, when it comes to really “doing” reconciliation, we fall miserably short of the acknowledged need.
Individual Reconciliation
Sometimes we’re afraid to forgive too readily, lest that forgiveness somehow demean the degree of hurt we have felt or the harm that was done to us. We nourish our anger as though it will produce reparation that continues to accrue, like interest owed on unpaid debt. The grudge can become a part of us, something too precious to renounce. We may ask ourselves: Why shouldn’t “they” ask for my forgiveness first? Why must I take the first step? Each thinks precisely the same thing; each waits for the other to make the first move. Pride encourages procrastination, and reconciliation never happens.
Forgiving the one who has wronged us may force us to confront our own wrongdoing. It’s hard to acknowledge our faults; we have a powerful drive to justify and excuse ourselves. We find it easy to claim successes as our own; we find it even easier to blame others for our failures: It wasn’t our fault; he/she/it/they did…. We have all seen efforts at reconciliation fail when each party must admit a share in the responsibility.
Even our sincerest desire for reconciliation can drown in a flood of excuses. It’s not the right time, not the right place. We don’t have the right words. We don’t know how our apology will be received. All this agonizing to avoid the simple acknowledgment: “I’m sorry.”
Families and Communities
The ambivalence we sometimes see in ourselves can be found in families and other intentional communities as well. We pay lip service to unity and community and still find one part defined by the fact that it avoids “the other,” and all because thirty years ago so-and-so did such-and-such to someone. The old grudge becomes cast in stone, a legacy passed on. The story of the hurt is handed down and around – retold in full and savory detail, and the family or community remains divided, reconciliation unaccomplished.
Christ’s call to conversion and reconciliation also has an institutional or corporate dimension. Our personal sins are reflected or amplified, depending on your perspective, on the corporate level, causing violence, poverty, injustice, and discrimination. Individuals, families, communities, churches, political parties, races and nations – all are called to reconciliation, but so many have “good” reasons to resist the forgiveness and reconciliation they so desperately need. Conflicts that consume the world are often rooted in unresolved wrongs – imagined or real, deliberate or involuntary – that retain their power to provoke discord and violence. What may really holding us back is the shame we feel – individually or collectively – when we confront our own sinfulness. I repeat, what is really holding us back is the shame we feel – individually or collectively – when we confront our own sinfulness. It’s very hard to say I’m sorry.
During this preparation year in front of the Jubilee Pilgrim Cross, God and the Church ask each of us to look at our relationships with each other and with God, with our families, communities, our friends and colleagues and identify those areas for which we need to seek forgiveness.
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, something new is happening. All this is from the God who reconciles us to Himself through Christ and who has entrusted to us the ministry of reconciliation. God was, in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself; not holding their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. And so we are ambassadors for Christ, God, as it were, making His appeal through us. We ask you on behalf of Christ: be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5;17-20)
No sin is too big or too old to be beyond God’s power to forgive, no sinful attachment beyond God’s ability to rectify, no hurt beyond God’s strength to heal.
Reconciliation is the first step in evangelizing others. Pope John Paul II repeatedly called for a “new evangelization” - a time to better become the hands and feet of Christ on earth. If we are a reconciling people, we will be an evangelizing people. Forgiveness of sins is at the heart of the Gospel message. To the end of his earthly life, Jesus was concerned with forgiveness. Evangelizing people can be identified by their awareness of the human need to forgive and be forgiven. When we forgive, difficult as that may be sometimes, we say to others that we love them in spite of what was done to us. Christian forgiveness is loving “in spite of.” Christian forgiveness is evangelization in action.
In the Roman Catholic tradition, a Jubilee is a year of reconciliation with ourselves, our God, our families and loved ones, our friends, colleagues and those who are not yet our friends. It is a time of renewed relationships between and among churches, nations, and other societal institutions. It is a time of solidarity, hope, justice, and a commitment to serve God with joy and in peace with our bothers and sisters. But, above all else, a Jubilee Year is a year of Jesus Christ, who came to bring life and grace to all of humanity.
Behold the Face of Christ: His Steadfast Love Endures Forever!
The diocese gratefully acknowledges Roethle Lumber in Fort Wayne for the gift of the Jubilee Pilgrim Cross and their generous donation of time, talent and treasure. Staining and lettering of the Cross was done by Te Deum Creations and Restorations in LaOtto, Indiana.
Traveling Jubilee Pilgrim Cross Schedule
2006
May 5-12 Queen of Angels Fort Wayne
May 12-19 St. Vincent de Paul/Bishop Dwenger Fort Wayne
May 19-26 St. John Bosco Churubusco
May 26-June 2 Immaculate Conception Churubusco
June 2-9 St. Mary of the Assumption/Sacred Heart Home Avilla
June 9-16 Immaculate Conception Kendallville
June 16-23 St. Joseph Garrett
June 23-30 Immaculate Conception Auburn
June 30- July 7 St. Michael the Archangel Waterloo
July 7-14 St. Anthony of Padua Angola
July 14-21 St. Paul Chapel Angola
July 21-28 St. Mary of the Angels Angola
July 28-Aug. 4 St. Joseph Lagrange
Aug. 4-11 St. Gaspar Del Bufalo Rome City
Aug. 11-18 Blessed Sacrament Albion
Aug. 18-25 St. Patrick Ligonier
Aug. 25-Sept. 1 Our Lady of Guadalupe Warsaw
Sept. 1-8 Sacred Heart Warsaw
Sept. 8-15 St. Bernard Wabash
Sept.15-22 St. Robert Bellarmine/Manchester College North Manchester
Sept. 22-29 St. Francis Xavier Pierceton
Sept. 29-Oct. 6 St. Martin de Porres Syracuse
Oct. 6- 13 St. Dominic Bremen
Oct. 13-20 St. Michael/Ancilla College Plymouth
Oct. 20-27 St. Mary of the Lake Culver
Oct. 27- Nov. 3 St. Patrick Walkerton
Nov. 3 -10 St. Stanislaus Kostka New Carlisle
Nov. 10-17 Sacred Heart of Jesus South Bend
Nov. 17-Dec. 1 St. John the Evangelist/Goshen College Goshen
Dec. 1-8 St. Mary of the Annunciation Bristol
Dec. 8-15 St. Thomas the Apostle Elkhart
Dec. 15-Jan. 5, 2007 St. Vincent de Paul Elkhart 2007
Jan. 5-12 Queen of Peace Mishawaka
Jan. 12-19 St. Bavo/Marian High School Mishawaka
Jan. 26-Feb. 2 St. Joseph/The Mount Mishawaka
Feb. 2 - 9 St. Monica/IUSB Mishawaka
Feb. 9 - 16 St. Anthony De Padua/Bethel College South Bend
Feb. 16-23 St. Joseph South Bend
Feb. 23-March 2 Little Flower
March 2 - 9 Notre Dame Complex/University of Notre Dame/Holy Cross House Notre Dame
March 23-April 13 Notre Dame Complex/St. Mary’s College/Holy Cross College/Saint Joseph’s High School Notre Dame/South Bend
April 13-20 St. Pius X Granger
April 20-27 Christ the King South Bend
April 27-May 4 Corpus Christi South Bend
May 4-11 St. John the Baptist South Bend
May 11-18 Holy Cross South Bend
May 18-25 St. Stanislaus South Bend
May 25-June 1 St. Augustine South Bend
June 1-8 St. Hedwig South Bend
June 8-15 St. Patrick South Bend
June 15-22 Holy Family South Bend
June 22-29 St. Adalbert South Bend
June 29-July 6 St. Casimir South Bend
July 6-13 Our Lady of Hungary South Bend
July 13-20 St. Mary of the Assumption South Bend
July 20-27 St. Jude South Bend
July 27- Aug. 3 St. Matthew Cathedral South Bend
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