One who does not, is our current Holy Father, John Paul II, who has called for a Jubilee Celebration in the year 2000 and has issued an important pastoral plan for these next few years entitled, Tertio Milennio Adveniente, (As the Third Millennium Draws Near). Issued nearly two years ago, the Holy Father's plan and vision is one of the better kept secrets in the Catholic Church today.
What does the Holy Father say? How are we called to respond? What should we in the Catholic Charismatic Renewal be doing to respond?
To understand the significance the Holy Father sees in the coming third millennium, we should recall what he wrote in Redemptoris Missio (The Mission of the Redeemer) in 1990,
"As the third millennium of the Redemption draws near, God is preparing a great springtime for Christianity and we can already see its first signs" (#86).
In Tertio Milennio Adveniente, he writes,
"The 2000 years which have passed since the birth of Christ... represent an extraordinary great jubilee, not only for Christians but indirectly for the whole of humanity, given the prominent role played by Christianity during these two millennia. It is significant that the calculations of the passing years begins almost everywhere with the year of Christ's coming into the world, which is thus the center of the calendar most widely used today. Is this not another sign of the unparalleled effect of the birth of Jesus of Nazareth on the history of mankind?" (#14).
Thus, the Holy Father has called for a Great Jubilee in the year 2000 and offered guidelines for the church's preparation. He has often referred to these years of preparation as a "new Advent".
"Since the publication of the very first document of my pontificate I have spoken explicitly of the Great Jubilee, suggesting that the time leading up to it be lived as a 'new Advent'... It is certainly not a matter of indulging in a new millenarianism, as occurred in some quarters at the end of the first millennium; rather it is aimed at an increased sensitivity to all that the Spirit is saying to the church as well as to individuals through charisms meant to serve the whole community" (#23).
The preparation has two phases. There is a sadness in me that not much has been said in the church about the first phase. This phase is already coming to an end. The years 1994 - 1996 were meant "to revive in the Christian people an awareness of the value and meaning of the Jubilee of the year 2000 in human history" (#31).
A special emphasis was to have been placed on conversion (metanoia): "the joy of every jubilee is above all a joy based upon the forgiveness of sins, the joy of conversion" (#32).
Thus, we, the church, "cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging her children to purify themselves, through repentance of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness to act" (#33).
"Among the sins which require a greater commitment to repentance and conversion should certainly be counted those which have been detrimental to the unity willed by God for his people. In these last years of the millennium, the church should invoke the Holy Spirit, imploring him for the grace of Christian unity" (#34).
Besides fractured unity, there are other sins for which we should repent: "the acquiescence given, especially in certain centuries, to intolerance and even the use of violence in the service of the truth" and "violation of fundamental human rights" (#35, 36).
The Holy Father is no reactionary concerning the Second Vatican Council. He was an active participant and continues to espouse its major thematic directions in spite of what some media, within and outside the church, seek to portray.
In Tertio Milennio Adveniente he writes,
"An examination of conscience must also consider the reception given to the Council, the great gift of the Spirit to the church at the end of the second millennium... is the ecclesiology of communion described in Lumen Gentium being strengthened? Does it leave room for charisms, ministries and different forms of participation by the people of God, without adopting notions borrowed from democracy and sociology which do not reflect the Catholic Vision of the church and the authentic spirit of Vatican II?" (#36).
The second phase of the preparation for the Great Jubilee involves three years, 1997-1999. Each is given a thematic focus. In 1997 the Holy Father has called us to focus on Jesus Christ "the Word of God, made man by the power of the Holy Spirit" (#40). Emphasis should be placed on the Bible. "In the revealed text it is the heavenly Father himself who comes to us in love and who dwells with us, disclosing to us the nature of his only begotten Son and his plan for salvation for humanity" (#40).
Each year will have a Marian emphasis. In 1997 it will be on Mary "in the mystery of her divine motherhood" (#43).
1998 will focus on the Holy Spirit. "The church cannot prepare for the new millennium in any other way than in the Holy Spirit. What was accomplished by the power of the Holy Spirit 'in the fullness of time' can only through the Spirits power now emerge from the memory of the church" (#44).
It is music to our ears that the Holy Father writes, "The primary tasks of the preparation for the Jubilee thus include a renewed appreciation of the presence and activity of the Spirit..." (#45), and the signs of hope in the church "include a greater attention to the voice of the Spirit through the acceptance of charisms and the promotion of the laity, a deeper commitment to the cause of Christian unity and the increased interest in dialogue with other religions and with contemporary culture" (#46).
Mary "will be contemplated and imitated during this year above all as the woman who was docile to the voice of the Spirit..." ($48).
The "third and final year of preparation will be aimed at broadening the horizons of believers so that they will see things in the perspective of Christ: in the perspective of the Father who is in heaven from whom the Lord was sent and to whom he has returned" (#49).
In the year of "God the Father" the "sense of being on a journey to the Father should encourage everyone to undertake, by holding fast to Christ the redeemer of man, a journey of authentic conversion" (#50). The year is a time to lay greater emphasis on the church's preferential option for the poor, canceling the "international debt which seriously threatens the future of many nations" (#51) and "meeting the challenge of secularism" (#52). Mary will be seen as the "perfect model of love toward both God and neighbor" (#54).
The Holy Father has earlier in Tertio written extensively about the origins and meaning of jubilee in the Old Testament, in the life of Jesus and in the church's living tradition (cf #9, 16). It is a year of the Lord's favor (Lk 4:19).
"The term 'jubilee' speaks of joy; not just an inner joy but a jubilation which is manifested outwardly, for the coming of God is also an outward, visible, audible and tangible event, as St. John makes clear (cf. 1 Jn. 1:1). It is thus appropriate that every sign of joy at this coming should have its own outward expression... The church rejoices in salvation. She invites everyone to rejoice, and she tries to create conditions to ensure that the power of salvation may be shared by all. Hence the year 2000 will be celebrated as the Great Jubilee" (#16).
The Holy Father has a deep and penetrating vision of where the Lord is leading the church in the third millennium. I would offer two aspects.
First, whereas the church of the first 1000 years, in spite of many disagreements, was basically one, and while the church of the second millennium has seen repeated separations, "such wounds openly contradict the will of Christ and are a cause of scandal to the world" (#34). The church of the third millennium will see itself once again one. It is the Holy Father's fervent prayer. It is our Lord's. So it must become ours: "Among the most fervent petitions which the church makes to the Lord during this important time, as the eve of the new millennium approaches, is that unity among all Christians of the various confessions will increase until they reach full communion" (#16). Such unity will be a grace and a gift of the Holy Spirit to which "we are asked to respond... responsibly" (34).
Second, in the words of Dr. Vinson Synan of the Pentecostal-Holiness Church and Chairman of the North American Renewal Service Committee, if the church in the 19th Century can be characterized as in prayer and in the Upper Room, and the church in the 20th Century as experiencing a new Pentecost, then the church in the 21st Century will experience an unprecedented evangelical explosion. In this vein, the Holy Father has consistently been calling for a "new evangelization" and a "re-evangelization" (of those cultures, like our own, once Christian, and now suffering through post-Christian deterioration).
The principal agent for such re-evangelization is the Holy Spirit (#45). Hence the Holy Father's strong emphasis on the Holy Spirit, docility to the action of the Holy Spirit (#18), the promptings of the Holy Spirit (#50) and "increased sensitivity to all that the Spirit is saying to the church and to the churches" (#23).
First, the Holy Father makes it clear, "everyone is asked to do as much as possible to ensure that the great challenge of the year 2000 is not overlooked, for this challenge certainly involves a special grace for the church and for the whole of humanity" (#55). "Each family, in some way, should be involved in the preparation for the Great Jubilee" (#28).
Second, in our individual, family and prayer group/covenant community lives we should repent "of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency and slowness to act" (#33).
Third, we should work for unity in the Renewal, in the church and in the body of Christ, especially through prayer (#34).
Fourth, we need to recognize, in the words of the recent U.S. Bishop's statement, Called and Gifted for the Third Millennium, that this Catholic Charismatic Renewal has been "called and gifted" to assist the church in responding to the Holy Father's pastoral plan and vision in these remaining years of the second millennium, as well as into the future of the church in the third millennium. The grace of baptism in the Holy Spirit which is at the heart of this Renewal is a grace for the whole church. It is a new Pentecost and it is normative.
Therefore, we in the Renewal should commit ourselves, our groups and communities, and our renewal centers and ministries to the task of helping our church embrace more fully the power of the Holy Spirit to not only transform individual lives but the communal life of the church as well. "The recovery of baptism in the Spirit and the charism is needed in all the institutions of the church. Religious orders, Catholic universities, associations of the faithful, specialized movements, all need this touch of the Holy Spirit today" (Fanning the Flame, p.23). Not the least of which are our parishes! (pp. 10-11, 23-26).
Let us enlarge our vision and be creative as we seek new ways to "stir into flame the grace of Pentecost within and beyond the church."
We are privileged to live in this special moment of time, the year of the Lord's favor, this is soon to be a "great springtime for Christianity" (RM #86). Let us, by the power of the Holy Spirit, make the most of this time to the glory of God.
This article has been reprinted, with permission, from the Oct./Nov./Dec. 1996 issue of the Chariscenter USA newsletter.
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