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BOOK PREVIEW
| Preface | Introduction | Contents | Contributors | Preparing for the Year 2000 Editor: Sergio Sebastiani Publisher: Urbi et Orbi, 1996, 258 pages ISBN: 0-9641388-0-8
Price: $14.95TO ORDER Preface by Sergio Sebastiani "While I invite the faithful to raise to the Lord fervent prayers to obtain the light and assistance necessary for the preparation and celebration of the forthcoming Jubilee, I exhort my Venerable Brothers in the Episcopate and the ecclesial communities entrusted to them to open their hearts to the promptings of the Spirit. He will not fail to arouse enthusiasm and lead the people to celebrate the Jubilee with renewed faith and generous participation."
These concluding remarks of John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente seem most appropriate as an introduction to this Theological-Pastoral Commentary on the Apostolic Letter. In this Letter the Pope highlights the principal elements which ought to shape the life of the Church and the different local communities in the upcoming years. The richness of insights, proposals, examinations and assessments that one finds in this letter prove it to be an authentic treasure waiting only to be further uncovered and employed.
In the early stages of preparation for the Great Jubilee, a time in which the ground work is laid, it is most appropriate to provide this commentary to improve our understanding of the Letter. The intent of this Theological-Pastoral Commentary is first to provide the bishops and the national and diocesan committees with a tool to grasp the Holy Father's suggestions and recommendations to ensure that this time might truly be lived as a moment of grace and salvation. However, at the same time, because these pages are written with the whole Church in mind, they give everyone the chance to deepen his or her understanding of the life of faith.
The Great Jubilee of the year 2000 is at our doorsteps. May our journey towards the Holy Door be full of the "joys and the hopes, the griefs and the anxieties" of our brothers in faith and all those who seek God with a sincere heart. May our passage through the Holy Door also be for everyone a sign of the coherent Christian life, so that the third millennium may be marked by a renewed enthusiasm for the proclamation of Christ's Gospel through the testimony of His love.--Sergio Sebastiani Secretary General of the Presiding Council and of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 Introduction The Apostolic Letter As The Third Milennium Draws Near by Cardinal Roger Etchegaray If ever there were a pontifical document that Christians have handed to one another with joyous enthusiasm, like relay runners passing the baton, it is most certainly the Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente. Apparently the letter, written simply and with such a prophetic message, has aroused the sincerest enthusiasm everywhere. In the Letter the path that the Church, and all of humanity, must follow is clearly mapped out right up to the year 2000, the path that we follow to refresh ourselves at the font of salvation. This certainly is a great hope but it is also a great need that must be met.
Time leads us in an obscure manner towards the year 2000. However, instead of distancing us from Christ, each passing moment draws humanity mysteriously closer to a New Advent: "For salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed," wrote Saint Paul to the Romans (Rom 13:11). John Paul II asks that al1 lukewarm, tired and at times wearied Christians become contemporaries of Christ and his Gospel. In short, the Holy Father calls us to rediscover the zeal and enthusiasm of the Apostolic times.
The Church traces the footsteps of the Gospel along the paths man has trod throughout the ages. Yet, the more she addresses the issues of the day the more her original purpose emerges. A Church that were to teach solely according to the thinking of this world would quickly become insignificant. As a matter of fact, she would cease to be the Church.
Throughout the letter, the Pope reminds us that it is Christ who is to come. "In him the Father has spoken the definitive word about mankind and its history" (n. 5). "Christ is thus the furfillment of the yearning of all the world's religions and, as such, he is their sole and definitive completion" (n. 6). This is the focal point of our faith which John Paul II, in the name of the Gospel, wishes to strengthen and reestablish in the Church as she marches on towards the year 2000.
Such a firm and lucid stance is much needed in that, as the third millennium draws near, many false teachings are beginning to lead astray a troubled humanity in search of a "New Age." The prospective of the Great Jubilee is entirely different: rather than a flight into the unknown, it marks a return to the font of salvation. The Door of this Holy Year will open onto the "little light" of Bethlehem, the "light" that illumines all those who are standing in the shadow of death. And if the Holy Door is to be symbolically larger than in the previous Jubilees, it is because humanity will advance a millennium and not just a century. The Pope sees the passage into the new millennium as a new exodus through the Red Sea, a great Passover. The Church must help humanity not to move backwards into the third millennium but make the year 2000 an extraordinary year of grace. During a meeting with cardinals convened for the preparations of the year 2000, the Pope used a bold but beautiful expression, "Jesus, so to speak, belongs to everyone."
Five years from the Jubilee, the road ahead seems both near and far. Certainly, we don't mean to exhaust the local Churches by putting them into overdrive. However work has to begin soon: 1995-1996, two years aimed at an increased sensitivity to the Jubilee, then three years of intense spiritual labor focusing in order, on the Son of God made man, the Holy Spirit, and God the Father before we face the year 2000 and the glory of the Blessed Trinity with the celebration of International Eucharistic Congress: "The Savior, who took flesh in Mary's womb twenty centuries ago, continues to offer himself to humanity as the source of divine life" (n. 55).
For the first time in the history of Jubilees, this Holy Year will have two great centers, Rome and the Holy Land and it will simultaneously embrace all the local Churches (cf n. 55). In this way, the great wave of pilgrims, faithful, and penitents will be universal and uniform. In the midst of such a giant leap, and maintaining always before him the unity of the entire human family, the Holy Father offers everyone, with tranquil certainty, the grace of the Jubilee which is the joy of true salvation. "The Year 2000 invites us to gather with renewed fidelity and ever deeper communion along the banks of this great river: the river of Revelation, of Christianity and of the Church; a river which flows through human history starting from the event which took place at Nazareth and Bethlehem two thousand years ago. This is truly the 'river' which with its 'streams,' in the expression of the Psalm, 'makes glad the city of God'" (Ps 46:4).
With this Apostolic Letter, each one of us truly discovers the penetrating thoughts of John Paul II which unfold in a spiral and touch us with the powerful and joyous breath . . . of the Great Jubilee! It is an indispensable guide for the great encounter of the year 2000.Contents: Preface Introduction The Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente (As the Third Millennium Draws Near) His Holiness Pope John Paul II I. Biblical-Historical Section Chapter 1 "Christ Jesus is the Same Yesterday, Today and Always": The Holy Year As a Celebration of the Mystery of Salvation Albert Vanhoye Chapter 2 The Jubilee Years in the History of the Church Alessandro Galuzzi Chapter 3 The Second Vatican Council: A "Providential Event" Rosemary Goldie II. Theological Section Chapter 4 Jesus Christ, Center of the History of Salvation and of the Life of the Church Angelo Amato Chapter 5 The Jubilee Year: Sign of a Faith that Never Grows Tired of Seeking Rino Fisichella Chapter 6 The Church in the Face of Conversion: The Most Significant Fruit of the Jubilee Year Georges Cottier Chapter 7 Mary: Perennial Model for the Church's Action Antonio Miralles Chapter 8 The Martyrs: A Witness Never to Be Forgotten Salvador Pie-Ninot Chapter 9 The Holy Spirit, Principal Agent of the New Evangelization Yannis Spiteris Chapter 10 That Everything May Be for His Glory: The Paternity of God in the Light of Christ Paul O'Callaghan III. Pastoral Section Chapter 11 The Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 in the Local Church Walter Kasper Chapter 12 The Jubilee: A Commitment to the Search for Unity Cardinal Edward Idris Cassidy Chapter 13 The Jubilee Year: An Incitement To Overcome Divisions and Indifference Cardinal Francis Arinze Chapter 14 The Third Millennium: A Challenge to Believers to Renew Their Faith and Witness Cardinal Camillo Ruini Contributors: Angelo Amato Professor of Christology at the Salesian Pontifical University; Member of the Theological-Historical Commission of the Jubilee Year Francis Arinze President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue; Member of the Presiding Council of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 Edward Idris Cassidy President of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity; Member of the Presiding Council of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 Georges Cottier Theologian of the Pontifical Household; Member of the Central Committee of the Jubilee Year and President of the Theological-Historical Commission Roger Etchegaray President of the Pontifical Council Justice and Peace; President of the Presiding Council and of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 Rino Fisichella Professor of Fundamental Theology at the Gregorian Pontifical University; Member of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 and Vice President of the Theological-Historical Commission Alessandro Galazzi Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the Lateran Pontifical University Rosemary Goldie Consultor to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity and to the Pontifical Council for the Laity Walter Kasper Bishop of Rottenburg-Stuttgart Antonio Miralles Professor of Dogmatics at the Roman Athenaeum of the Holy Cross Paul O'Callaghan Professor of Dogmatics at the Roman Athenaeum of the Holy Cross Salvador Pie-Ninot Professor of Fundamental Theology at the University of Barcelona; Member of the Theological-Historical Commission of the Jubilee Year Camillo Ruini Vicar General of the Holy Father for the Diocese of Rome and President of the Italian Bishops' Conference; Member of the Presiding Council of the GreatJubilee of the Year 2000 Sergio Sebastiani Secretary General of the Presiding Council and of the Central Committee of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 Yannis Spiteris Professor of Oriental Theology at the Pontifical Oriental Institute; Member of the Theological-Historical Commission of the Jubilee Year Albert Vanhoye Secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission; Member of the Theological-Historical Commission of the Jubilee Year Cover photo: Grzegorz Galazka |
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