El Ignaciano / Junio 2025

Jubilee: A time for all times
Jorge R. Rodriguez

Introduction

Pope Francis officially launched the Jubilee Year 2025 with the rite of opening the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica just before the Christmas Eve Mass of 2024.¹ During the ceremony, he read a passage from the Gospel of John in which Jesus identifies himself as the door to salvation: “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved.” ² The pope also prayed for the Holy Spirit to soften the hearts of God’s people so that “enemies may speak to each other again, adversaries may join hands, and people seek to meet together.” This prayer reflects two primary goals of the Jubilee: the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of relationships through reconciliation. The softening of hearts is essential because, in the biblical narrative, it was the hardness of heart that prevented the Israelites from repenting and observing the law—failures that ultimately necessitated the institution of the Jubilee as described in Leviticus 25.

Pope Francis first announced the Jubilee Year 2025 on May 9, 2024, in the Bull of Indiction Spes Non Confundit ³  (“Hope Does Not Disappoint”; Rom. 5:5, NASB). He designated hope as the central message and official theme of the Jubilee: Pilgrims of Hope. In this letter, Pope Francis highlights the principal aims of the Jubilee: forgiveness, liberation, family restoration, restoration of relationships, and fullness of life. He also outlines the steps by which these goals are to be pursued: through forgiveness, healing, reconciliation, and renewal.

With Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis is actualizing the events of salvation history that led to the institution of the Jubilee in Mosaic law in Leviticus 25. The last Jubilee—known as the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000—was celebrated twenty-five years ago during the papacy of Pope St. John Paul II. Many today may not recall that event, some may have ignored the concept of Jubilee at the time. The issue is not whether there is benefit in participating in the Jubilee—its blessings are both spiritually and materially significant. Rather, the concern is whether people recognize the urgent relevance of Jubilee 2025. All signs suggest that this Jubilee arrives at a moment of great need for humanity. It calls us to ask: Why now? The answer lies in understanding this moment as kairos—a divinely appointed time—to respond to the deep anxieties and suffering of our age while embracing the fulfillment of its hopes. This Jubilee is not merely another observance; it is a time for all times. It is my hope that this article will help readers understand the significance of the Jubilee and offer guidance on how to participate in the many opportunities the Church provides to realize its sacred purposes.

What is the Jubilee. The Jubilee was established so that the Israelites would continually live in the freedom they had gained through the Exodus from Egypt—a freedom that itself echoed the liberty enjoyed by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Yet under the Mosaic Law, the Israelites failed to faithfully observe the Jubilee and thus did not maintain that liberty.⁴ Recognizing the persistent hardness of heart among the people, the prophets of Israel foresaw that the Israelites would not repent or fully embrace the Jubilee. Therefore, they prophesied the coming of a Messiah who would fulfill the meaning and purpose of the Jubilee and bestow its blessings upon the people. Today, Christians celebrate that same Jubilee, though now it is Jesus Christ himself who embodies the Jubilee. In him, we have another opportunity to celebrate the Jubilee Year and to realize its central goals of forgiveness, liberation, healing, and the reconciliation of relationships.

We can still hear the voices of the prophets of the Old Testament, anticipating a Messiah who would forgive sins, release the repentant from bondage, and restore broken relationships. That was an act of liberation that would bring people back to their families, and ultimately to the fullness that flows from God's love through the Jubilee. The Jubilee was God's desire to return humanity to the harmony first experienced in Eden. The prophet Isaiah powerfully expresses this vision when he declares: “The Lord has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Isa. 61:1–2 NIV). Here, Isaiah anticipates the Messiah who will proclaim the Year of the Lord’s Favor—the fulfillment of the Jubilee. His vision reaches back to the Jubilee commandment in Leviticus 25, which called for a societal reset grounded in God’s love. In creation, there exists an eternal impulse of love that breaks into time. It is God’s desire to restore creation to its original harmony that animates and compels us to act in the spirit of the Jubilee.

Structure of the paper. This article offers a survey of the Scriptural Jubilee as described in Leviticus 25, Isaiah 61, and Luke 4. Its goal is to provide readers with a comprehensive overview of the spirit and spirituality of the Jubilee as presented in Scripture and later taught by the Church. The article is structured into four parts: Part 1 introduces the topic and explains the purpose of the Jubilee. Part 2 explores how the Jubilee can transform both individual lives and society and considers how one might adopt a Jubilee-centered spirituality as a way of life. This section also addresses the challenges that arise when others in our relationships refuse to accept or observe the principles of the scriptural Jubilee—rejecting God’s love and declining to reciprocate it. Part 3 presents solutions to the personal and relational problems that the Jubilee seeks to address, particularly when considered at the level of individual application. Part 4 broadens the scope, examining the Jubilee in the context of contemporary, technologically driven society. It considers how rapid and profound changes in modern life affect our ability to understand, receive, and live out the goals of the Jubilee today.

Part 1. The Spirit and spirituality of the Jubilee—Humility and Obedience.

The Spirit of Jubilee
The Jubilee is infused with the love and wisdom of the Holy Spirit—a Spirit who reveals both God’s heart and His divine wisdom. As we prepare to celebrate the Jubilee, we are invited to open our hearts to God’s heart and to allow His wisdom to guide our decisions. At this critical moment in history, it is more important than ever to make relationships a foundational element of spiritual life. Our civilization is evolving at a pace that exceeds our natural capacity to adapt. We are often compelled to accept changes to our way of life without fully consenting to them—sometimes even when those changes prove harmful. Our response to these challenges must be spiritual in nature. We must seek a renewed approach: one that not only anticipates emerging developments but also thoughtfully engages the forces shaping the future. At the same time, we must not neglect our past. Our inheritance from Western civilization includes a rich array of spiritual traditions—among them, the celebration of the Jubilee. These traditions are not merely valuable; they are essential in times of profound societal transformation such as those we face today. The solution proposed in this paper is the promotion of a spirituality of interpersonal relationships, integrated with the spirit of the Jubilee. This approach fosters stronger, healthier, and more enduring connections among individuals and communities. All other factors being equal,⁵  relationships grounded in spiritual depth provide the foundation for a resilient and flourishing society. Such spirituality is inseparably linked with Jubilee spirituality, allowing them to flow together with greater coherence and transformative power.

Spirituality refers to a particular way of living one’s spiritual life, a way that is fundamentally dependent on the manifestations of the Holy Spirit. A spirituality of interpersonal relationships defines a way of relating to others spiritually while simultaneously deepening one’s connection with God. Without such a spiritual orientation, human life would be reduced to a purely physical existence, constrained by the limits of the material world—namely, time and space. A spirituality of relationships, when integrated with the spirituality of the Jubilee, becomes a distinctive practice in which relationships are made holy. In this approach, every relational encounter—its time, place, people, intentions, and interactions—is blessed with the presence of God. A relationship situation becomes holy when it is intentionally set apart for God. As with all forms of spirituality, communication within these relationships takes place through prayer. Prayer serves both as a means of sharing life with others and as a spiritual influence that operates within and beyond the relationship itself. To make every relationship situation holy, we set it aside for God, and in doing so, we transform all our actions and words into forms of prayer.

The Holy Spirit is always—and continually—moving both the Church and the world toward forgiveness, healing, restoration, and renewal. In Scripture, especially in Leviticus 25, the Jubilee is imbued with the Spirit of God, whose presence reverberates throughout the biblical narrative and finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ. What, then, is the spirit of the Jubilee? It is the divine impulse of God’s love, mercy, justice, and restoration—the movement of God’s own heart poured out upon His people. In Leviticus, the Jubilee year is animated by this liberating and restorative Spirit. It is the Spirit who frees the oppressed, reconciles broken relationships, heals both individuals and communities, and brings people back to their true home. The spirit of the Jubilee, as revealed in Leviticus 25 and echoed throughout Scripture, is a spirit of freedom. Just as God delivered the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, He desires that all of life—and the structure of society itself—reflect that same freedom, both materially and spiritually. The Jubilee also prefigures the work of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. It is the Spirit who empowers and fulfills the Jubilee in Christ. In Luke 4:18–19, Jesus proclaims the arrival of this promised time of release and renewal, declaring the Jubilee fulfilled in Himself—and alive today in our lives through the continuing work of the Holy Spirit.

Background on love

I we find that love in the Spirit of the Jubilee, we find God and God’s desire to restore His creation. We can then practice the spirituality of Jubilee and grow a desire to restore our relationships as co-creators with God. But how do we practice the spirituality of Jubilee? It is God’s desire to restore creation to its original state of harmony that moves us to act in Jubilee. It is that same love which God imparted on His creation that that moves us to restore our broken relationships through our love, our mercy, our forgiveness, our liberation, and our restoration. If we can have love.

To love and to be loved are among the deepest and most essential of all human needs. But how did this become so? Love is both the origin and the final end of human life: the first impulse in the abiding presence of God and the ultimate goal to which all things are ordered. It is love that stands at the center of creation, giving shape to relational order. Symbolically, this order—or “rank”—enables the spiritual movement of love.⁶ Here we encounter the spirit of the Jubilee: it is a spirit moved by divine love. The spirit of the Jubilee is the divine impulse of love, mercy, forgiveness, liberation, and restoration that flows from the heart of God and is poured out upon His people. Love is the Spirit who liberates the oppressed, restores what has been undone, and reconciles broken relationships. It is love that heals both the land and the community and leads the people back to their true home and inheritance. This truth echoes the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 13: “If I do not have love, I gain nothing.” The time of Jubilee is God's way of restoring harmony—to our relationships, and to all creation—through love, mercy, forgiveness, liberation, and restoration. If we find that love in the Spirit of the Jubilee, then we find God Himself, and we discover His desire to restore all of creation. We then become capable of practicing the spirituality of the Jubilee and cultivating within ourselves the desire to heal and restore our relationships as co-creators with God. But how do we live out this spirituality of Jubilee? It is God’s desire to restore creation to its original state of harmony that moves us to act. It is that same divine love—imparted to creation from the beginning—that moves us to restore what is broken in our world: through our love, our mercy, our forgiveness, our liberation, and our acts of restoration. If we can have love.

Humility and Obedience in the Jubilee Journey

We are called to “be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:48). Humility and obedience are essential attitudes on the Jubilee journey, which is already unfolding within the life of the Church. The Jubilee is our journey with Christ and toward the Kingdom of God, undertaken in solidarity with all humanity. Humility allows us to be obedient to the will of God and to one another in Christ. We are called to imitate the attitude of Christ, as described by the Apostle Paul in his Letter to the Philippians, where he reveals the depth and significance of humility and obedience within a life of communion: “[He] made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:7–8, NIV). Within a spirituality of Jubilee—where we seek to conform ourselves to Christ—this represents a radical model of humility and obedience. It challenges us to reflect deeply on what it truly means to embody these virtues in our own relationships and daily lives.

Four steps of the Jubilee

We are always—constantly—in need of the Jubilee and its blessings. Our spiritual path may be expressed by these simple steps of the Jubilee.

1. Return to God’s Love: Open your heart to the Holy Spirit. A spiritual response in the Jubilee is to love others as God has loved us. We love because he first loved us.
2. Forgive and Be Forgiven: Extend your forgiveness to others and receive God’s forgiveness in turn. With this you proclaim your liberty in Christ.
3. Accept Reconciliation: Reconciliation with God involves a return to his original design. The restoration of our relationships with others involves a return to a right relationship—as it was in the beginning.
4. Restore Relationships: Heal what is broken and celebrate the opportunity for renewal.

Part 2. The Problem: When others refuse to follow Scripture and reject God’s love.

When others are indifferent and uninterested in what the Jubilee offers, they do not seek forgiveness, healing, or reconciliation. We may find ourselves caught in the middle, feeling trapped in a dead-end relationship marked by injustice. The experience is one of deep pain, often leaving no resolution except to end the relationship. What does the spirituality of the Jubilee indicate in such situations? In our spirituality—rooted in the imitation of Christ—we come to realize that God does not abandon us. Even the space where we experience pain can become holy ground. We love God and are not bound to suffer the consequences of the attitudes of the hard-hearted or misguided. They resemble the Israelites who refused to repent and rejected the Jubilee law. Though many have rejected God’s love throughout generations—even to this day—we who love God are not ultimately defined by the actions of those who do not. In his infinite love and wisdom, God is always ready to receive even the most hardened offender, just as he did through the sacrifice of the Cross. Yet, in the end, those who refuse love and reconciliation must face the natural consequences of their choices. Our responsibility is to avoid being drawn into those consequences ourselves. Let us now consider a few key areas of concern—and the faithful response each one calls for.

1. When Love Is Rejected: Unrequited and Unreciprocated Love. At the root all the cases in this section, indeed, in this article, along with every wrong that may follow, is the experience of unrequited and unreciprocated love—the rejection of love, whether offered by God or extended by us to others. There is deep pain in such rejection, even for Christ, whose infinite love was rejected by His own people. Indifference, indeed, is the enemy of love. As Jesus approached Jerusalem, He wept over the city, lamenting the hardness of heart and indifference of its inhabitants, who refused to return His love (Luke 19:41–44). Unreciprocated love poses a fundamental challenge to the practice of Jubilee spirituality. Since love is foundational in all relationships, its absence complicates forgiveness and healing. Still, the spiritual path is sustained so that we do not fall into blame, anger, or resentment—temptations that can be transformed through love and wisdom. Our spiritual response in the Jubilee is to love others as God has loved us. We remember that we are able to love because He first loved us.

2.  When Forgiveness Is Rejected. As with love, we are called to remember that we can forgive because God first forgave us. The call to forgive is not dependent on another’s response; it is an act between ourselves and God. We are still called to love others and remain free to forgive. That freedom is our responsibility and our spiritual practice. The grace of forgiveness liberates us from the bondage of anger, resentment, and hatred. This marks the beginning of healing for both ourselves and our relationships. Furthermore, our commitment to forgive stems from the truth that we have been forgiven by God. Therefore, even if others reject our offer of forgiveness, we can still forgive them before God. We follow the spiritual example of Christ, who, even while being crucified, prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). Like forgiveness, healing does not require the approval of others in a relationship. Healing is ultimately about our relationship with God. If others reject our love, refuse forgiveness, and resist the Jubilee call to mercy and reconciliation, our healing can still unfold—so long as we do not surrender that power to others. Again, we follow the example of Christ, who healed many people who did not return to thank Him, as shown in Luke 17:17.

3. When Reconciliation Is Rejected. Reconciliation with God is a return to His original design for creation and for us. In human relationships, reconciliation entails the restoration of right relationship—the kind of relationship intended from the beginning. However, reconciliation also requires mutual trust and a shared willingness to engage in the process. Trust cannot be restored unilaterally. If the other party refuses reconciliation, that is their free choice, and it must be acknowledged. Reconciliation requires repentance, a desire to be reconciled, and a willingness to take responsibility for one’s actions. If the other person will not participate, we may have to accept that reality without agreeing with it. In such cases, we can set and maintain appropriate boundaries to create space for our physical and spiritual well-being.

4. When harm is inflicted: severe, abusive, and repeated harm, it becomes especially troubling when someone harms us—particularly when the harm is repeated, severe, or occurs despite sincere efforts on our part to seek forgiveness and reconciliation. The Jubilee path calls us to establish boundaries that protect our bodies and spirits. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, and we are commanded to care for them accordingly: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies” (1 Cor. 6:19–20). Boundaries serve to mark limits. The first step in establishing boundaries is to “name the harm” to understand its nature. Then, clear limits must be defined regarding situations, actions, locations, relationships, and times. It is essential to explain the reasons for these boundaries and to communicate the consequences should they be violated.

Ultimately, if boundaries are persistently violated in ways that lead to severe or excessive harm—resulting in unsustainable conditions—then defensive measures may need to be considered. However, the broader question of violent conflict and war lies beyond the scope of this article.

Part 3. The Jubilee as solution in an individual context

Humility and Obedience. To attain true freedom, as human beings, we must be obedient to our true nature. Just as butterflies in a garden move freely within the bounds of their natural existence, we also seek freedom within the framework of our own design. Harold Skimpole, in Charles Dickens, Bleak House complains: “I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies!”[i] Skimpole’s understanding of freedom in Dickens’s novel is flawed because he fails to recognize that true freedom requires obedience to one’s nature and responsibilities. The freedom exhibited by the butterflies we see in our gardens exists only within the constraints of their natural order, and only because they are obedient to those laws. All creatures experience freedom within the limits of what they were created to be and cannot act beyond their nature. Human beings possess a freedom that is neither absolute nor without constraints and unlike other creatures, we have the capacity to give up our natural freedom and even impose restrictions on others. We may choose to be bound by false loves, disordered attachments, temptations, ignorance, and deception. Yet, we also have the power to align ourselves with our true nature and calling. If we desire the kind of freedom symbolized by the butterfly, we must embrace our responsibilities, free from attachments and from falsehoods that obscure our purpose. This pursuit is necessary for living a meaningful life. Healthy and fulfilling relationships are rooted in authenticity. More importantly, love needs authentic relationships, for love, at its core, is the bond that unites individuals. This will be of essential importance when we practice the Pope Francis’ teachings for the spirituality of Jubilee based on Romano Guardini’s vision of the modern world.

1. Decisions have consequences. Today it is more essential than ever that we ask ourselves whether we are making sound decisions. Are we obeying God’s law? If not, what are the consequences? In addressing these questions, we must acknowledge and embrace our responsibilities. Our lives depend on our willingness to adhere to spiritual principles—natural laws that provide a foundation for the spirituality of Jubilee. These principles, woven into the fabric of existence, guide us toward a life of fulfillment. History is replete with poor decisions that have led to tragic consequences. Throughout the ages, seemingly insignificant choices have often changed the course of events in tragic ways. This phenomenon—where a small event produces large, unintended consequences—is known as the butterfly effect. ⁷ In the scriptures, we can trace it back to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when a seemingly small and local event ages ago had catastrophic consequences that still affect us very badly. In that primordial narrative, God commanded Adam and Eve what was expected, with a warning that disobedience would result in death. In the unfolding of this a seemingly minor act had far-reaching consequences for all humanity to this day.

Part 4. The Jubilee as solution in the context of a highly technological world

Romano Guardini’s The End of the Modern World

Pope Francis was deeply influenced by the thought of Romano Guardini, echoing and further developing many of Guardini’s concerns about the spiritual crisis of the modern world, the future of the human person, and the hope for renewal in the Church. Designating the theme for the Jubilee Year 2025 as Pilgrims of Hope, Pope Francis places Guardini’s insights at the heart of the Jubilee vision. Guardini foresaw the possibility of Christian renewal and a rebirth of holiness if the spiritual path of the Jubilee were embraced. Pope Francis has echoed and extended this vision for our time. In The End of the Modern World, Guardini offers a prophetic analysis of contemporary threats—many of which speak directly to the themes of Jubilee 2025. He describes a world caught in the crisis of a highly developed technological civilization, a society suffering from a profound spiritual loss that, if unaddressed, could ultimately result in the erosion of even its material gains and lead to catastrophic consequences.

Pope Francis’s teachings for the Jubilee Year 2025 are deeply connected to Guardini’s vision. That connection is both timely and profound. Since the mid-1950’s—often marked as the beginning of a new historical era—a new civilization is emerging. This new era has been given various names. Alvin Toffler called it “The Third Wave.” Others have referred to it as the Information Age, the Third Industrial Revolution, or the Digital Era—each term reflecting dominant technological trends of the time. Yet the most critical and transformative development of this era is the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI). Pope Francis refers to this as an “epochal change”—not merely a change of era, but a transformation of human existence itself. He has identified spiritual disorientation as a central feature of this time, evident in war, ecological collapse, social injustice, and the digital revolution.

Traditional solutions cannot adequately address the consequences of these rapid and far-reaching changes. No ideology or system is sufficient to respond to the spiritual and social dislocations brought about by technological acceleration. Indeed, the very technologies designed to solve today’s problems often generate new challenges, requiring yet more technological interventions—an endless cycle of disruption and remedy. This situation echoes the myth of Pandora’s Box: once opened, it unleashed many evils upon the world, but one spirit remained—hope. In the context of the Jubilee, that enduring hope takes on new meaning. Guardini, and later Pope Francis, recognized that what is needed in our time is not merely new tools, but a new kind of human being: one rooted in conscience, open to mystery, and able to live responsibly before God and others. This is the vision of the Jubilee: hope for the emergence of a spiritually renewed human person, capable of building a new world. That person is every follower of Jesus Christ who believes in the promise of the Jubilee.

Antiqua et Nova

The Vatican note Antiqua et Nova⁸ raises pressing questions about wisdom—both ancient and new. It opens with the words: “With wisdom both ancient and new” (cf. Matt. 13:52),⁹ we are called to reflect on the current challenges and opportunities. . . . The Christian tradition regards the gift of intelligence as an essential aspect of how humans are created ‘in the image of God’ (Gen. 1:27). Starting from an integral vision of the human person and the biblical calling to ‘till’ and ‘keep’ the earth (Gen. 2:15), the Church emphasizes that this gift of intelligence should be expressed through the responsible use of reason and technical abilities in the stewardship of the created world.” In the present article, we have already examined ancient wisdom. Now we turn to the new. However, a key point in this development is that the ancient and the new intersect today at a decisive moment in human history—a moment in which all our problems, both old and new, are no longer merely important but profoundly urgent. These challenges confront us with an immediacy we can no longer ignore. Our struggles, burdens, and trials can no longer be conveniently divided into ancient and modern categories. What is undeniably new—and overwhelming us with particular urgency—is the rise of artificial intelligence.

Today, we find ourselves repeating the same patterns of behavior that the prophets of the Old Testament observed in the people of Israel. “The prophets realized that hard-hearted Israel would never repent and observe the law, so they began to look to the future and the coming of the Messiah for the Jubilee to be fulfilled.” ¹⁰ John Bergsma notes that this rejection of God’s love reaches all the way back to the Garden of Eden. It is not unique to any one time or place, but rather a consistent theme throughout salvation history. Time and again, people have pushed their circumstances to the brink of destruction, refusing to change until faced with the possibility of annihilation. This pattern persists. Societies often delay needed transformation until presented with an ultimatum. Today, we face many of the same crises as ancient Israel: war, famine, plagues, and social decay. However, unlike in the past, the means of destruction have become exponentially more powerful. While many past catastrophes were natural, our present dangers are increasingly driven by human-made technologies.

We are now at what may be humanity’s final crossroads. Discussions of creating a survival civilization on Mars to escape a potential extinction event on Earth have moved from science fiction into plausible strategy. While such plans may be technically feasible, they do not align with the Christian narrative for the future of the human race. Rather than looking to Mars, we should look to the biblical vision of Jubilee as our guide for responding to the crises we face—personally, socially, and globally. If it is indeed true that humanity must be brought to the brink of destruction before we respond, then perhaps that moment is now. Perhaps the time of this Jubilee is a time for all times.

The Jubilee is not a single event but a profound spiritual reality that touches every level of our encounter with God, with others, and with the world. It is a continuous invitation to deeper engagement and transformation. This call to engagement also applies to how we approach the future development of artificial intelligence. Humanity has opened Pandora’s Box and cannot close it again. Yet, as in the ancient myth, one thing remained when all the evils escaped: hope. Our task now is to follow that hope. We must engage with AI continuously, shaping its development toward the good, and restraining its harmful tendencies—just as we are called to restrain the destructive tendencies within ourselves.

As a step in that long process of responsible engagement, I have been using ChatGPT by OpenAI, one of the most widely used AI language models available today. Google’s Gemini is another prominent model, integrated into the Google search function. My preference for ChatGPT is simply a matter of personal choice. Writing this article provided an opportunity to gain practical experience with AI. I used ChatGPT to support various aspects of the writing process, including fact searching and verification, grammar correction, sentence restructuring, and applying the stylistic guidelines of The Chicago Manual of Style. I also used it to refine voice and format citations. ¹¹

https://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/documents/ns_lit_doc_14121999_porta-santa_en.html#:~:text=The%20rite%20of%20the%20opening%20of%20the%20Holy%20Door%20in,prayer%20on%20the%20threshold%2C%20the (accessed May 16, 2025).
¹ “The gate,” also translated as “the door”. Jn 10:9, NIV.
² Pope Francis, Spes Non Confundit: Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (Vatican City: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2024), https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/bulls/documents/20240509_spes-non-confundit_bolla-giubileo2025.html (accessed May 16, 2025).
³John Bergsma, “Jesus and the Jubilee: Reflections for the Jubilee Year 2025,” Franciscan at Home, Catechetical Institute, Franciscan University at Steubenville, https:// Franciscanathome.com/the-catechetical-review/articles/jesus-and-jubilee-reflections-jubilee-year-2025 (accessed May 16, 2025).
⁴ The factors considered include those of spirituality (like faith, values, and sharing a purpose in life), emotional (trust, communication, closeness, and love), intellectual (shared beliefs and interests), practical (compatibility and financial stability), and material values.
⁵ Josef Pieper, About Love, trans. Richard and Clara Winston (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1997), 21.
⁶ Dickens, Charles. Bleak House<- Saúl Langarica Chavira. The Butterfly Effect and Our Decisions. https://lifehopeandtruth.com/life/blog/the-butterfly-effect-and-our-decisions/
⁷ Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith and Dicastery for Culture and Education, Antiqua et Nova: Note on the Relationship Between Artificial Intelligence and Human Intelligence, January 28, 2025, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20250128_antiqua-et-nova_en.html.
⁸ “He said to them, ‘Therefore every teacher of the law who has become a disciple in the kingdom of heaven is like the owner of a house who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old’” (Mt. 13:52, NIV).
⁹ John Bergsma, Jubilee: God’s Plan for It, Our Place in It.
¹⁰ Portions of this work were reviewed and refined using OpenAI’s ChatGPT to enhance clarity, improve readability, and align with the Chicago Manual of Style. All final decisions regarding content, style, and structure were made by the author. May 20, 2025, https://chat.openai.com.

Jorge R. Rodriguez is a Permanent Deacon in the Catholic Church and is an electrical engineer retired from International Business Machines Corp. Jorge earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and a Master of Science degree in Electrical Engineering, both from the University of South Florida. Jorge has published extensively and is the inventor in over a dozen US patents in the field of digital computers. After his retirement, he earned a Master of Arts degree in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville. Deacon Jorge devotes his ministry to the research in interpersonal relationships and is presently writing a multi-volume work on the Spirituality of Relationships to disseminate the results of his work on relationships.