The Jubilee in the Holy Land

In the Grotto where Jesus was born

Graziano Motta

All eyes turned towards Bethlehem, the second “pole” of the Great Jubilee, because the event that is celebrated – the birth of Jesus and with it humanity’s Redemption – happened precisely here, two thousand years ago. Therefore a great religious and civilian feast, rich in lights and events, which was particularly felt by local Christians and by the many pilgrims who arrived from all parts of the world: while there were less than two thousand participating in the Franciscan church, adjacent to the Basilica of Nativity, to the celebration of Midnight Mass and the proclamation of the Jubilee, there were over five thousand taking part in the vigil at the Field of Pastors, where the Angels proclaimed “Glory to God and peace on earth to men of good will”. Coming from 80 different countries, they took up the invitation to spend the “Night of peace” there launched by the French “Notre Dame” association. Special liturgical rights were held in Bethlehem: meanwhile the proclamation of the Jubilee took place with the Mass celebrated by the Latin Matriarch Michel Sabbah and the traditional procession to the Grotto, with the Child Jesus in his arms. The Patriarch was accompanied throughout by the archbishops and bishops of the Catholic churches of Jerusalem of other rites – the Greek-Melchite, Maronite, Syrian and Armenian – because their communities have been preparing together for the Jubilee for the past four years with a Synod that will end in February. There was no Holy Door to be opened, like in Rome, but a symbolic door to be crossed: it connects the exterior of the church, where the Eucharistic celebration was held, to the Basilica erected on the Grotto where Jesus was born; a door adorned in palms to signify the eternity of salvation. And during the procession to the Grotto the Psalm 117 was sung (“Celebrate the Lord because he is good”, the same that accompanied, in the first centuries of the Church of Jerusalem, the procession that from the Field of the Pastors reached the Anastasis, that is, the Basilica of the Resurrection; and the same Psalm is still being sung today on Palm Sunday: this to signify the link between Christmas and Easter, that is that Easter begins in Bethlehem and ends in Jerusalem. But another link was felt in Bethlehem, the one with Rome: thanks to television link-ups via satellite, the opening ceremony of the Jubilee in the Basilica of Saint Peter’s was followed live from the church, the adjacent “St. Francis Millennium Hall” (where thousands more pilgrims had found a place) and the Field of Pastors.