Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit to announce an everlasting jubilee year of universal restoration, justice, and freedom (see Lv 25:8ff). This jubilee year goes into effect when we listen to Jesus, repent of our sins, and give our lives to Him.

We desperately and immediately need continuous Jubilee years because of the devastation of our society due especially to the massacre of millions of babies in the womb by abortion. Because of our shedding of so much innocent blood, our society is under a curse (see 2 Kgs 24:3-4). On this anniversary of the date of the U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, we must cry tears of repentance (see Neh 8:9), for we are all responsible for the holocaust of abortion in some way, especially through our apathy and compromise with the anti-life values of our self-centered, pleasure-seeking society.

In addition to crying, however, we must also rejoice — not in mass murder, but in the Lord. We must rejoice in the Lord always (Phil 4:4; Neh 8:10), for He is the Resurrection and the Life (Jn 11:25). No matter how terrible our sins, Jesus "is an Offering for our sins, and not for our sins only, but for those of the whole world" (1 Jn 2:2). Because of Jesus, there is always hope to begin the jubilee year now. Repent, believe, and live for Jesus alone.

Nihil Obstat:  Reverend Edward J. Gratsch, July 15, 2000

Imprimatur:  †Most Reverend Carl K. Moeddel, Vicar General and Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, July 17, 2000