SPECIAL HOLY YEAR JUBILEE OF MERCY

Pope Francis inaugurates Jubilee of Mercy

“We need constantly to contemplate the mystery of mercy. It is a wellspring of joy, serenity, and peace. Our salvation depends on it. Mercy: the word reveals the very mystery of the Most Holy Trinity. Mercy: the ultimate and supreme act by which God comes to meet us. Mercy: the fundamental law that dwells in the heart of every person who looks sincerely into the eyes of his brothers and sisters on the path of life. Mercy: the bridge that connects God and man, opening our hearts to a hope of being loved forever despite our sinfulness.
The Holy Year will open on 8 December 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This liturgical feast day recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes of evil. So he turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love (cf. Eph 1:4), choosing her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready to forgive. I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On that day, the Holy Door will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the love of God who consoles, pardons, and instils hope.”

Listen to Hymn for Year of Mercy:

The image and its meaning:

The logo and the motto together provide a suitable summary of what the Jubilee Year is celebrating. The motto Merciful Like the Father (taken from the Gospel of Luke, 6:36) invites us to follow the merciful example of the Father who asks us not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure ( Lk 6:37-38). The logo – designed by Father Marko Rupnik SJ – presents a small theological summary of the theme of mercy. In fact, it shows an image quite important to the early Church: that of the Son having taken upon his shoulders the lost soul showing that it is the love of Christ that brings to completion the mystery of his incarnation ending in our redemption. The logo has been designed in such a way so as to show the deep way in which the Good Shepherd touches the flesh of all people and does so with a love with the power to change one’s life. One particular feature is that while the Good Shepherd, in his great mercy, takes humanity upon himself, his eyes are merged with those of man he carries. Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ. Every person discovers in Christ, the new Adam, one’s own humanity and the future that lies ahead, meditating, in his gaze, the love of the Father.

The scene is expressed within the mandorla (the shape of an almond), a shape quite important in early and medieval iconography, for it calls to mind the two natures of Christ, divine and human. The three concentric ovals, with colors progressively lighter as we move outward, suggest the movement of Christ who carries humanity out of the night of sin and death. The depth of the darker colour suggests the never changing love of the Father who forgives all.

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