The Great Jubilee

To the Clergy, Religious and Laity of the Church of Pittsburgh

The Peace and Love of our Lord be with You.

The year 2000 provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the passage of time that will be celebrated with a Great Jubilee. Following an ancient tradition, with antecedents in the Old Testament, the Church periodically marks her pilgrimage through the centuries with jubilees. 1975 was proclaimed a holy year and recognized as a time of grace throughout the whole Church. In 1983 our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, called the Church to a special year of grace commemorating the 1,950th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus. The year 2000 will mark the closing of the second millennium of the Christian era and herald the beginning of a new century and a new millennium.

While it is true that now is the time of our salvation and each day marks a moment of grace, the new millennium will establish a special milestone in the history of God's people. For that reason we begin our preparation this year so that we may face this jubilee in a true spirit of reconciliation, renewal and recommitment to Jesus Christ, the Lord of history, who is the same yesterday, today and forever.

Pope John Paul II's apostolic letter, Tertio Millennio Adveniente (On the Coming of the Third Millennium), calls us to prayerful reflection as we approach the end of the second millennium of the Christian era. We are challenged to renew and deepen our commitment to the faith in the face of many obstacles that would compete against our living it to the full, including so much unbelief and secularism that dominates the world and society in which we live. The meaning of Christ can be obscured or even overwhelmed by the day-in and day-out proclamation of a secular and material "gospel" that knows no God, sees no manifestation of God with us, and does not experience God's loving care.

Interestingly enough, recent polls show that most people are now searching for spiritual meaning in their lives. While we see around us all kinds of fads, New-Age substitutes for religion, and other types of so-called spiritual experiences, at the core of this longing is the fundamental human need for God. No amount of worldly goods, in whatever form we enjoy them, can ever satisfy this natural longing of the human heart. Perhaps it is best summed up by Jesus himself who said that it is not by bread alone that we live.

As God's people we possess a great and abiding truth: in Jesus Christ, heaven truly does meet earth. God's Son comes among us to teach us the truth about God and ourselves. Jesus comes to walk with us and share in all the joys and sorrows of daily life.

God so loved the world that he sent his Son to be with us and to save us. It is this love that underlies the whole mystery of the Incarnation and the very possibility of our new life in God's Holy Spirit. In Christ, God has revealed God's self to us and has definitively drawn closer to us in a unique and abiding way -- in the person of Jesus Christ. Through Christ each of us has acquired an awareness of our own dignity and the heights to which we have been raised, of the surpassing worth of our humanity and the very meaning of our existence. In Jesus Christ and through the power of his Spirit, we are capable of a communion with God that when continually renewed and strengthened will one day give way to full union with God.

The Holy Father's call to spiritual renewal in preparation for the third millennium comes at a time when our local Church, the Diocese of Pittsburgh, is already in the midst of a diocesanwide effort at spiritual renewal and revitalization. Six years ago we initiated reorganization involving all the parishes throughout this local Church. The ultimate goal of this challenging process was to put our house in order so that we could focus with enthusiasm on the primary task of drawing closer to Christ. This we do individually and as members of a community.

We ask ourselves with increasing insistence: What does it mean to believe that Christ is God with us? How is God's kingdom coming to be in our midst? How can we live according to the gospel? What is required of us to walk in the way of Jesus on the path to holiness? What does it mean to bear witness to the triumph of the cross? This is both a time of faith and of renewed commitment. God is with us. We need to recognize, accept and live more fully this truth.

In my pastoral letter, Future Directions, I reflected that "the real challenge of Christian living begins when we seem to hear the quiet voice of the Lord calling to us: 'Friend draw closer' (Luke 14.10). This call might come to us in prayer, even in prayer that is less than fervent, or in hearing the words of scripture. We can never hide completely from God's word even if we are inattentive to it." Our continued openness to God's call allows us to hear, heed and follow the voice of the Spirit which is at the heart of Christian spiritual renewal.

In the same pastoral letter I also spoke of the need that our efforts for spiritual renewal be conscious and organized:

Personally and as a parish community we must seek spiritual renewal and accept the challenge to establish systematic, parish-wide renewal. When we speak of a revitalized Church, we must include some visible and recognized action plan for each parish. Each parish is free to select the form of its renewal but all of us are challenged to accept the call to ongoing conversion. The vocation of the Christian is to pursue holiness.

Last Holy Week and again at Pentecost, I wrote to all the faithful of this holy Church of Pittsburgh setting before us the challenge of spiritual renewal. From my 1994 Pentecost pastoral letter, allow me to quote one paragraph:

Since we are God's people, a community, we struggle to draw closer to Jesus not just as individuals but as a Church. As we begin diocesanwide parish spiritual renewal, we turn our attention to ourselves as a community of faith, a worshipping community, a teaching community, a community that serves and one that administers well the gifts at its disposal. During our revitalization I ask every parish to review what it is doing in all of these areas vital to healthy ecclesial life and to develop specific programs or engage in a systematic effort at spiritual renewal precisely by focusing on these aspects of our identity as God's people, Christ's family. Such an approach has the benefit of engaging all of us in this effort and reminding us of our obligations to one another as we make our faith journey together.

Each parish is encouraged to determine a program that best suits its particular needs. The Office for Parish Services is a resource as a parish plans its own spiritual renewal program. To be of help in this area, the Office for Parish Services is conducting workshops to help pastors establish plans of action and it is also preparing a parish resource book to assist in this effort.

While revitalization and spiritual renewal are by their very nature an ongoing process and can never be fully addressed in a single event, nonetheless renewal can be built around particular events or programs to give focus and attention to an aspect of our spiritual renewal.

The Diocesan Committee on Spiritual Renewal has been evaluating existing spiritual renewal programs that are available in other parts of the country and is prepared to offer information about them as a resource as each parish considers its own needs, capabilities, and preferences.

As with most elements in the life of the Church, so too revitalization and spiritual renewal is best accomplished on the level of the parish faith community. Nonetheless the diocesan central administration, the offices of the Diocesan Pastoral Center, are available to assist each parish in the work of revitalization. The Secretariat for Pastoral Life, in part, was formed to be this link with each parish specifically in the areas of pastoral life and ongoing spiritual renewal.

As we celebrate the one thousand nine hundred and ninety-fifth year of the Word made flesh among us, I ask you to join me in uniting our diocesan spiritual renewal to that proposed by our Holy Father in preparation for the millennium jubilee---only five years from now. In this current year we will focus on reconciliation with each other in the Church and reconciliation through the Church with God. John the Baptizer heralded Jesus' presence with a call to repentance for the forgiveness of sins. Jesus began his ministry by calling us to a recognition of the coming of the kingdom and to repentance so that we would be worthy of the kingdom.

The idea of making 1995 a year of reconciliation grows out of a series of meetings last Spring with our priests. It was suggested then that we use Lent of this year as an opportunity to focus on reconciliation as an initial and integral part of spiritual renewal.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that even after receiving the grace of our new life in Christ through baptism, we continue to experience human failure and the need for forgiveness. Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in our lives. "This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who 'clasping sinners to her bosom is at once holy and always in need of purification, and follows constantly the path of penance and renewal'" (1428). The work of conversion is not just a human effort. It is the movement of a contrite heart drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of a gracious God who first loves us.

Jesus compared himself to a physician. It was his mission to teach and to heal. While he directed his attention to bodily ailments, he used such cures as signs of a more radical, moral and spiritual therapy which he desired to extend to all people. In Mark's gospel, when people brought to Jesus a man who was paralyzed, Jesus forgave his sins. When some complained of his claim to this divine power, he replied "'That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins' he said to the paralyzed man 'I command you. Stand up! Pick up your mat and go home'" (Mark 2.10-11). In this action the healing of the man's body was a visible sign of a far greater healing -- the forgiveness of sins.

Today that healing of spirit and soul continues in the sacrament of reconciliation. Here we are still concerned with spiritual illness and afflictions of the moral order. Here we still deal with personal failures and faults, those sins that taint our relationship with the Lord and our communion with the Church. It is to this sacrament that we need to bring all those thoughts, words, deeds and omissions that are at the root of discord within families, and tensions, even violence, in our neighborhoods, and the hard feelings some may still harbor over parish reorganization.

In the sacraments, especially reconciliation, it is Christ who works with his mighty power. Still, the sacraments presuppose our quest for God, our personal response to the grace of God and contrition, confession and satisfaction as a part of the forgiveness of sins. The celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation is an integral part of our personal, ongoing spiritual renewal.

It is no secret that the participation in the sacrament of reconciliation has fallen off dramatically in past years. However its renewed use by all in the Church, clergy, religious and laity, and the encouragement of its reception in homilies and personal counseling can be a positive sign of Spirit-led renewal in the Church. In fact, recently a number of priests have commented that they have increasingly experienced people coming to this sacrament with renewed honesty and fervor. In the context of our effort at spiritual renewal and reconciliation, we will make an effort this year as an entire diocesan family to concentrate on reconciliation and sacramental confession that brings about true, enduring spiritual renewal.

In 1996 we shall turn our attention to the sacraments of initiation and the Church's call that we renew and confirm our baptismal promises. In the sacrament of baptism we die with Christ and rise with him to new life. As the rite of baptism teaches us "Those who are baptized ... are buried with him, they are given life again with him, and with him they rise again. For baptism recalls the effects the paschal mystery itself, because by means of it men and women pass from the death of sin into life" (General Introduction, 6). It is the risen life of Christ that we share through the wondrous effects of baptism. Baptism removes sin, fills us with grace and makes us members of the Church and sharers in Christ's sonship. In becoming a living member of the Body of Church, we are grafted onto the vine and joined vitally to Christ. Hence each year the Church calls us to relive that baptismal experience, and renew our baptismal promises.

Next year, 1996, each of us can reflect on our baptismal experience and the promises that proclaim our commitment to Christ. Perhaps the celebration of the sacrament of confirmation in your parish could be the focal point for parish-wide preparation to renew those promises. The Easter triduum provides each parish an occasion in some systematic way to prepare for and celebrate the renewal of baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil and Easter Masses. Whatever means we use let us make 1996 the year of our renewal of commitment to our Lord who washes us free of all that is unredeemed and shares with us the wondrous life of the Spirit.

As a part of our spiritual renewal program, the remaining years of this decade will each have a theme which corresponds to the outline established by our Holy Father in Tertio Millennio Adveniente. The year 1997 will be devoted to a reflection on Christ, the Word of God made flesh by the power of the Holy Spirit. The distinctly Christological character of the jubilee will be emphasized for it celebrates the Incarnation and coming into the world of the Son of God, the mystery of salvation for all. As the Holy Father's apostolic letter points out: "The general theme proposed...for this year is: 'Jesus Christ, the one savior of the world, yesterday, today and forever'" (cf. Hebrews: 13.8).

The next year of the preparatory phase, 1998, will be dedicated in a particular way "to the Holy Spirit and to his sanctifying presence within the community of Christ's disciples." As the Holy Father reminds us: "The great jubilee at the close of the second millennium...has a pneumatological aspect, since the mystery of the Incarnation was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit."

The final year of preparation, 1999, will aim at broadening our horizons so that we will see things in the perspective of Christ: "In the perspective of the 'Father who is in heaven' (cf. Matthew: 5.45), from whom the Lord was sent and to whom he has returned (cf. John: 16.28)." As our Holy Father points out: "In this year the sense of being on a journey to the Father should encourage everyone to undertake, by holding fast to Christ the Redeemer, a journey of authentic conversion."

Finally, we will celebrate, as we turn the page onto the new millennium, our share in the life of the Holy Trinity through the Eucharist which unites us with Jesus in the communal life of the Father, Son and Spirit.

As we remember and celebrate the story of Jesus' birth, the proclamation of the kingdom, our redemption and the Lord's death and resurrection, as well as our share in the paschal mystery, may we do so with a fresh spirit of confidence in what we proclaim and with a renewed spirit of solidarity, not only with the whole diocesan Church, but also with the entire Body of Christ, the Church universal, that also responds to the challenge to be continually and constantly renewed in Jesus Christ.

May our preparation for the Great Jubilee be a time of confident faith, renewed hope, and Spirit-filled love for each of us and for this holy Church of Pittsburgh.