Jubilee Duet With The Bridegroom

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, we receive a great gift from the Bridegroom: a new outpouring of graces, a fresh invitation, and a season of abundant blessing. An ordinary jubilee year in the Church occurs every 25 years. Its origins arise from the Old Testament. This year of favor for the Israelites was characterized by four beautiful traits:

1) debts were forgiven, 2) captives were set free, 3) people returned home, and 4) the people and land rested.

The Bridegroom not only fills us with hope, but He Himself is our sure and secure Hope.

“It is you yourself who are my prize.” (Psalm 16:5)

As we dance through the Song of Songs, we can find these four Jubilee themes melodiously offered. Let’s embark on this pilgrimage of hope with the Bridegroom, carried aloft by our favorite love duet.

Debts are forgiven: 

When the bride returns, she may expect reproach; instead the Bridegroom only says,

“How beautiful you are, my love! How beautiful you are!” (1:15)

This is what His bountiful, all-embracing mercy sounds like. How is the Bridegroom inviting me to receive His mercies anew this year? Do I have any debts to forgive? Is there someone whose forgiveness I am being invited to
seek? How am I being called to reconcile with the Bridegroom, myself, and others?

Captives are set free:

“Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of spring has come, and the voice of the turtledove is heard in our land . . . O my dove . . . let me see your face, let me hear your voice . . . Catch us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vineyards, for our vineyards are in blossom.” (2:10-15)

The bride hears the call to freedom, to a time of plenty and goodness, a time of beauty and lushness. Her Bridegroom desires the release of her face and voice.

“Eat, O friends, and drink: drink deeply, O lovers!” (5:1)

He wants us to be free in the riches of love’s delights, to rejoice in the manifold expressions of true love. How is the Bridegroom calling me to more freedom? What corners of my heart are still held captive by fear, waiting for release and permission to be loved and to love with more abandon? How is the Bridegroom inviting me to share His freeing love through spiritual and corporal works of mercy in this Jubilee Year of Hope?

People return home:

“Return, return, oh maidens of Shalom!” (6:13) “Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.” (1:16-17)

It is no longer my home, but our home, where the Bridegroom and the bride dwell together as one.

“He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.” (2:4)

He returns us to the heart of our hearts, where we find the Bridegroom knocking, waiting as a Gentleman for our yes to His entrance, so He may dine with us, nourish us, and love us ever more deeply and tenderly. How is the Bridegroom calling me home in this season of my life? Home to my family and community, to my loved ones, home to the Church, home to the heart of my heart, the vineyard garden that belongs always to my First Love?

The people and land rest:

“Tell me then, you whom my heart loves: where will you lead your flock to graze, where will you rest it at noon?” (1:7)

We seek rest and we find it with the Bridegroom.

“In his longed-for shade I am seated and his fruit was sweet to my taste. . . Feed me with raisin cakes, restore me with apples.” (2:5)

The Bridegroom takes joy in our resting in Him:

“I adjure you, O daughters of Jerusalem, that you stir not up nor awaken my love until it pleases to awake.” (2:7)

How is the Bridegroom inviting me to rest in Him during this new year of hope? How can I trust in Him more, surrender to His love for me more, and allow Him to take care of everything as I let my mind, body, heart, and soul rest in His steadfast love?
Mercy
Freedom
Home
Rest

This is what the Bridegroom offers us in this new year of favor. As pilgrims of Hope, may we ask Mother Mary to share her bridal Yes with us to these personal invitations in our own hearts, lives, and circumstances. Together, we sing our Jubilee love duet with the Lover of our souls, radiant with Him who is our Hope.

Marian West, Copyright 2025