IV

THE JUBILEE OF THE YEAR 2000

A STAGE IN THE BATTLE AGAINST HUNGER

The Jubilees: rendering to God what is God's

54. In his Apostolic Letter Tertio millennio adveniente, Pope John Paul II, in looking forward to the celebration of the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ, recalls the very ancient practice of Jubilees in the Old Testament, rooted in the concept of the sabbatical year. The sabbatical year was a time dedicated in a special way to God and it occurred every seventh year according to the law of Moses. During it, the earth was left fallow, slaves were set free and all debts were cancelled. The Jubilee Year fell every 50 years, and during it the customs of the sabbatical year were broadened still further. Israelite slaves were not only freed but they were also given back their ancestral land. "You shall hallow the 50th year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a Jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family" (Lev. 25:10).

The theological basis of this redistribution was the following: "(Israelites) could never be completely deprived of the land because it belonged to God; nor could the Israelites remain for ever in a state of slavery since God had "redeemed' them for himself as his exclusive possession by freeing them from slavery in Egypt(⁷⁸)."

Here also we find once more the demand for the universal destination of goods. The social lien on the right to private property was thereby regularly expressed in public law in order to make up for the individual failures to comply with this demand. These failures include: the excessive desire for wealth, ill-gotten profits and so many other ways of exercising ownership, possession, and knowledge, along with the denial of the fact that created goods must always serve everyone equitably.

This legal framework associated with the Jubilee and the Jubilee Year formed the general blueprint for the Church's social teaching which was fashioned around the New Testament. Unfortunately, few concrete achievements accompanied the social ideal attached to the Jubilee. What was needed was a just government, capable of imposing earlier precepts with the purpose of re-establishing a degree of social justice. The social teaching of the Church, which has mainly developed since the 19th century, has partly transformed these precepts into a exceptional principle, essentially relating to the duty of the State and designed to restore to everyone their right to enjoy part of the goods of creation. This principle is regularly recalled and proposed to those who wish to heed it.