Reading about the Jubilee in The Good Works Reader and thinking of the poor of this world and those who are poor and suffering in spirit. How we long for that year of liberation, which will take away everything that tears and breaks our lives, our earth! This is what an old Patristic named “Bede the Venerable” (672-735) had to say about the Jubilee:In the law, the fiftieth year was ordered to be called [the year] of jubilee, that is, “forgiving” or “changed.” During it the people were to remain at rest from all work, the debts of all were to be canceled, slaves were to go free, [and] the year itself was to be more notable than other years because of its greater solemnities and divine praises. Therefore, by this number is rightly indicated that tranquility which provides the greatest peace. Then “the dead will rise and we shall be changed” [I Cor. 15:52] into glory. Then, when the labors and hardships of this age come to an end, and our debts, [that is] all our faults, have been forgiven, the entire people of the elect will rejoice eternal in the sole contemplation of the divine vision, and that most longed-for command of our Lord and Savior will be fulfilled: “Be still and see that I am God” [Ps. 46:10].
As quoted in The Good Works Reader by Thomas Oden. (p. 49)
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