Living Catholic with Father Don Wolf
Father Don Wolf, a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, offers a Catholic perspective on the issues confronting each person today.
Living Catholic with Father Don Wolf
"God Doesn't Check His Calendar (But Maybe We Should)" | April 6, 2025
The Jubilee Year stands as a powerful invitation to renewal, drawing us into the heart of God's extraordinary mercy. Father Don Wolfe unravels the rich tapestry of this sacred time, explaining how this celebration extends from Christmas 2023 through Epiphany 2026, offering unique opportunities for spiritual transformation at designated pilgrimage sites like the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother.
Many pilgrims ask practical questions about this special time—wondering which doors they should enter or what makes this period different from ordinary time. Father Wolfe addresses these wonderings with wisdom and clarity, revealing that while symbols like holy doors matter, what's truly significant is the interior journey of the heart. A true pilgrimage isn't merely geographic but spiritual, preparing the soul through confession, Eucharist, prayer, and works of mercy.
The Jubilee Year proclaimed by Pope Francis invites Catholics to a time of extraordinary grace, offering spiritual renewal through pilgrimage, prayer, and sacraments. This celebration, rooted in biblical tradition, provides a sacred opportunity to encounter God's mercy in fresh and transformative ways.
In this episode:
• Jubilee Year runs from Christmas 2023 through Epiphany 2026
• The Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother serves as an official pilgrimage site for the Archdiocese
• True pilgrimage involves interior preparation through confession, Eucharist, prayer, and works of mercy
• Plenary indulgences offer unlimited grace to those who fulfill spiritual requirements
• Setting apart sacred time helps us recognize God's ever-present grace amid our daily distractions
• The biblical Jubilee represented a reset—canceling debts and returning land to original owners
• This designated time invites us to trust in God's providence and abundance
Join us during this special time to experience the fullness of God's mercy and grace. Visit your local pilgrimage site and open your heart to the extraordinary spiritual gifts being offered.
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Father Don Wolf is a priest of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City. Living Catholic also broadcasts on Oklahoma Catholic Radio several times per week, with new episodes airing every Sunday.
This is Living Catholic with Father Don Wolfe. This show deals with living the Catholic faith in our time, discovering God's presence in our lives and finding hope in His Word. And now your host, father Don Wolfe.
Speaker 2:Welcome Oklahoma to Living Catholic. I'm Father Don Wolfe, pastor of Sacred Heart Parish in Oklahoma City and rector of the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother. As you know, we're now in the middle of the Jubilee year proclaimed by Pope Francis. It began on Christmas Eve last year with the opening of the Holy Door at St Peter's in Rome, and ends on the Feast of Epiphany in 2026. In case you don't remember, that's the beginning of the Christmas season all the way through the year 2025 and through Christmas of 2026. It's a time of extraordinary graces and the opportunity to celebrate the gift of God's goodness in our lives. This celebration has an interesting history and an even more impactful treasure encapsulated in the promise extended to us as we enter into it.
Speaker 2:By now, we all know that the Shrine of Blessed Stanley Rother has been designated as one of the places of pilgrimage here in the Archdiocese. The person in the benches of the church on any given Sunday might be one of the pilgrims who has availed himself of this openness to God's extraordinary graces poured out on us in this time. Remember, we are all to keep those pilgrims in mind and in our prayers. Who knows, it may be just the case that our prayers provide the moment of grace this whole year is purposed for, for the stranger who has come among us depending on our prayers, sunday after Sunday at the shrine. Oddly, I've been asked if there is a particular door through which pilgrims should enter in order to receive the promised graces of this time. The Pope symbolized the opening of this time of grace by passing through the great holy door at St Peter's Basilica reserved for these moments. Is there a particular door through which the sincere pilgrim should pass in order to duplicate the action of the Pope? And the good, simple answer is no, putting a premium on the order of grace, the best answer is that it's not the pathway into the church that's most important to the pilgrim. It's to pass into the church. That's the most important. It's what's inside that counts most. Each pilgrim is invited to receive what the church offers. It's inside where the promise of grace dwells and the opportunity of God's encounter waits. Any door into the church is equally holy, so everyone should just pass on in.
Speaker 2:But this highlights one aspect of the Jubilee year that we have to mention. This year is a symbol of the deeper realities we're urged to invite into our lives. Passing through a doorway is purely a symbol of arriving at the place you desire to be. It's not as if there's a magical power associated with arriving at and then coming into a church. Any tourist can walk into St Peter's in Rome through the great open doors that are open 12 hours a day. Every day of the year, the holy door stays closed except in the jubilee year, when it's open for those pilgrims who want to pass through Its access is a symbol of having arrived, of having come to the place where the promises of God's goodness can be accessed to the fullest extent. It's not just real estate or architecture that makes the holy door or one of the doors of the shrine into a special moment. It's the journey that does.
Speaker 2:The Jubilee year is a pilgrimage toward grace. It exists in order to invite us to take advantage of a special time in which we open ourselves to the graces God pours out upon all the people of His church. We're invited to journey toward the moment in which these graces can begin to take root in us and begin to grow so as to sustain us, root in us and begin to grow so as to sustain us. They're present to us always, but in this time set aside for making these graces come alive in us. They're operative in a special way. That's the purpose of the Jubilee year.
Speaker 2:A pilgrimage is a journey toward a particular holy place. A person or a group of people set out to travel from their homes toward this different place that is acknowledged for its special status as a site of holiness and blessing. Whether it's a journey of a day or a month, or whether it's an exotic and unknown locale where it's simply a well-known place, and whether it's a journey filled with difficulties and suffering or is one filled with all the comforts of a tourist bus, it's a pilgrimage nonetheless, because the focus of a pilgrimage is not just the destination but the journey. Getting there is the purpose of going, and in the getting there the purpose of the trip discloses itself. When a pilgrim begins the journey, she's preparing herself for the holiness she is to encounter at her destination During the holy year. This means the pilgrim begins the journey. She's preparing herself for the holiness she is to encounter at her destination During the holy year. This means the pilgrim is invited to go to confession, receive the Eucharist and deepen her prayer life. She's invited to be generous to the needs of the poor and to join her prayer with fasting and works of mercy. In short, she's asked to prepare herself to receive the graces God has for her and wishes to extend to her. The journey she's on isn't just geographic, it's a journey of grace. By doing these things, the soul of the pilgrim is open to the blessings of the moment and the gift of holiness set the place toward which she is journeying, that is to say, by going to confession and being merciful. She isn't just traveling the miles on the road necessary to finally arrive at her destination and step through a door. She's traveling the journey of opening her life to God's gifts and making her soul available for transformation as she goes toward her goal, transformation as she goes toward her goal. The true pilgrim notes the changes in the scenery of her soul, not just in front of her eyes.
Speaker 2:This is the time also when we talk about plenary indulgences. Historically, the notion of indulgences hasn't been treated very well, especially when talking about the history of the Reformation and all that came of it in the subsequent centuries. Truthfully, it's a translation problem, not from one language to another, but from one mindset to another. An indulgence is a way to talk about the graces we receive when we turn our hearts to the Lord's goodness in our lives. That's all, in fact. The substance of the practice is contained in the Word. It's the Lord's indulging, our need for His graces. We're offered all that's necessary for our salvation because of God, who is profligately generous to us. We're indulged by God's mercy and forbearance. Some people want to have more graspable language when talking about such things, though they're uncomfortable using terms like grace or opportunity or even generosity, because those terms don't really communicate in substantive ways for them. They're too soft for the hard imagination to grasp. For those who don't like vague-sounding concepts, we have another language of definiteness and certainty, and that's where the language of indulgences come from.
Speaker 2:Certain practices of spiritual growth and discipline were denominated according to how helpful they would be if a person practiced them. To many people, it sounds much more accurate and much more hopeful to talk about an indulgence of quote five years in purgatory, unquote than to say that this will be good for your growth in God's love, and so this system of spiritual accounting began to be used. Saying the rosary, for example, could be denominated in terms of how helpful it might be to the struggling soul. It's a laudable practice and an easy way to enter a life of prayer. It could be marked as, say, a one in the indulgence it earns. Fasting for Lent and praying the rosary. In terms of awakening a person's soul to the goodness of God in his life, that might be what a five on a scale of usefulness and benefit.
Speaker 2:In the Jubilee year, if a pilgrim satisfies the requirements of going to a full confession, giving alms, attending Mass and praying the Jubilee prayers, a plenary indulgence is offered, that is, an unlimited indulgence of graces is provided. Of course, it's a way of trying to communicate how helpful any particular practice is for the person who's invited to participate in it. A practice that rates one is probably less helpful or maybe less comprehensive than a practice that rates five, for example. A plenary indulgence is a way to say that this particular practice could have the fullest possible impact on the life of a person. There's nothing more full than unlimited and, as I said, it's a kind of accounting talk. Many people are more comfortable with that kind of talk than other more squishy ways of speaking. But think about it, it is a way of speaking ways of speaking. But think about it, it is a way of speaking, for example, if a person is invited to make a full confession and make a sincere commitment to alter his life in response to the offer of new life in Christ, and if that acceptance of a new life is reinforced by upright practices like supporting the poor in their need and changing one's life to fulfill God's will, then a person will have set his life on a pathway of true salvation. There would be no impediments to the fullest life God offers in his gift to us. Whether we describe this in the language of plenary indulgence or simply affirm that God offers us the gift of salvation. What's being described is the same thing and what's being offered is is the same thing and what's being offered is exactly the same. It's a convention of how to use language.
Speaker 2:The Jubilee year is a time in which we're all offered to come to know and then to accept the gift of God's goodness in our lives. Many people have asked about what makes this time so special. Is there really a unique time now not available at other times? Does God really conform to the calendar we establish, or is this purely an invention of the church in order to get people to pay attention in some contrived way? Those are good questions deserving of good answers.
Speaker 2:But first of all, think about a wedding day. We all rightly understand that weddings should be celebrated. A couple gets married and they're about to change their lives in significant ways That'll make their lives truly different and cause us to think about them differently for the rest of their lives and for the rest of ours. So making this commitment is something important. It makes sense to celebrate the decision and mark its importance in the lives of everyone, the couple especially, but all the rest of us as well.
Speaker 2:Certainly, all the choices we make about how to celebrate are contrived. Wearing a white dress rather than, say, a red one or a purple one is all about style and the conventions of weddings. In our age, no bride has to wear a white dress if she doesn't want to, just as no groom has to dress up for the ceremony. But doing what we expect, wearing the clothes and saying the things we all know are part of the celebration, is what makes it special. There are no laws written about bridesmaids and groomsmen, ring bearers and flower girls or a father who has to walk his daughter down the aisle. All of these practices have been invented and have, in fact, changed all through the years. Red, in fact, was the preferred color for wedding dresses until the Victorian era, for example, all of those customs could be different and the wedding could still be a celebration, and we would all mark it as an important and life-changing event in equal measure, as long as we all understood that these conventional practices indicate the change in life. A permanent free choice of matrimony really is in life. A permanent free choice of matrimony really is so, just as in the Jubilee year.
Speaker 2:Picking the time for the Jubilee year is arbitrary. It doesn't have to be every 25 years. When the Jubilee was first established in Rome by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, it was to be celebrated every 100 years. Later, paul II, in 1470, made the Jubilee year every 25 years, a practice that has remained intact since then. The year is a time of focus and of remembrance, a time of celebration and a reminder of what God offers to us. Remember God's offer of new life, and a new beginning comes to us all throughout our lives. We don't have to pick a particular time or a separate day. God's graces are offered continually. But a year dedicated to the specific offer, a time set aside in which we're invited to step outside of our usual days and months in order to say yes, is a special way to invite us to open our eyes in a new way and respond in a more complete way than we normally do. That's what a jubilee year is for, but by picking a particular time we particularize God's offer. We set it apart from the normal and the everyday. That doesn't sound like much and it does sound artificial, but that's how we do everything that matters to us.
Speaker 2:Setting aside a day to celebrate our birthday is artificial. There's nothing of itself that makes that particular day any different than any other day Not really. After all, we're going to be that age all year from that date on. There's nothing forcing us to uproot the ordinary and the common in order to celebrate a particular day, and yet we do, because it matters to us. In fact, we make it matter by way of celebration. It's the same with the 25th or a 50th anniversary. No one celebrates their 13th or their 47th anniversary with the same focus or intensity as they do their silver and golden ones. We pick completely artificial goals in order to recognize the beauty and power of a commitment made and honored.
Speaker 2:These quarter-century and half-century marks are convenient times to celebrate a commitment that's valuable and worthy of being honored, setting aside a specific time, one that's notable because of its place in our imagination and its mark on the calendar. That's a way to make all the days of that commitment notable. Those years 25, 50, whatever are artificial. There's nothing in them all of themselves setting them apart from any other dates, but by celebrating them we celebrate the whole duration of the commitment. Remember, artificial just means it's made, constructed. We've constructed these dates just so that we can make them special, so that we can celebrate them. So we shouldn't be surprised that we do the same with the life of the faith. By setting aside a time, by surrounding it with the reminders and the invitations of a special time, we allow our imaginations the chance to recognize and respond in ways that they would not otherwise. Yes, god loves us always and yes, god's graces are available everywhere and in every way. But for our sakes, we invite a celebration of graces and a wideness in loving that helps us recognize and accept that we might otherwise leave behind in the regular buzz of our busy and forgetful lives. We fill this year with the invitation to pilgrimage because there's nothing more powerful in celebration than by going somewhere, by moving from one place to another.
Speaker 2:The oldest story, literally the oldest story in the world, is the story of a man who goes on a journey prompted by a search for meaning in his life. He goes to find what he doesn't have at home. When he finds it, he finds out there is no secret that isn't already present in his life. But without going to find out, he would never have found it in his life. That might sound familiar, but it's the story of all of our searching. What we need is seldom obscure, as much as it is hidden from us by the layers and layers of our ordinary busy, distracted, bothered lives. Leaving the complicated life we know behind and striking out to find what we haven't found before is the pathway to discovering what we haven't had here yet.
Speaker 2:We all know how special a place can be. We might consider that, say, paris is simply one more place on the face of the earth. It has no inherent claim to be special or set apart from all the other places. There is a whole globe, after all. It's just one X on the face of it is a whole globe, after all. It's just one X on the face of it.
Speaker 2:But we also know that go to Paris and to stand at the Eiffel Tower is something special. It matters to the one who does it? Of course, all of us have seen a thousand pictures of the Eiffel Tower and know it stands as the one great symbol of all of France. And so we could go there and imagine it's just another place, just one more site, and add it to the list of places. Just one more time. A place and its picture are put together in our imagination. Or we could go there and see in person the whole panorama of the Trocadero, the entire sweep of the Champs-Élysées, and glory and the stark beauty of being in this famous place, just because it is so famous. We set places aside in our imagination and we glory in going there. We travel there to be a part of the experience of being present there, of marking our lives there and being a part of everyone's imagination of Paris. That place matters to us. Getting there becomes an important part of the experience and the glory of our lives.
Speaker 2:If this journey to Paris has been a dream we've had for all the years we've been an adult and we finally were there in Gay Paris, we might even say we've been on pilgrimage to France for 40 years. On pilgrimage to France for 40 years, every step was a step toward this great place and every decision helped to form that moment. So this is all the same. In the Jubilee year, we're invited to go forward, to go onward to the full life that we're offered and to make every part of our journey one in which God's graces have been waiting for us. Going on pilgrimage to the shrine or going through the holy doors is a symbol of the journey we've been on, just because what we're arriving at the encounter with God's great graces is so important and so valuable to us.
Speaker 2:We should also note the Jubilee year is part of the description of how all Israel is to conform themselves to the law of God from the scriptures. It's a bit complicated, but Jubilee was a time in which the whole people were to return to the original blessing God gave as they entered the promised land. Every seven years, the people were to let their land rest. Just as they were to rest on the seventh day, so the land was to rest every seven years, and on the seventh cycle of seven years, that is, after 49 years, everyone was to experience the Jubilee year. Not only was the land to rest, all debts were canceled so that everyone would be free and all the land would be returned to its original owners.
Speaker 2:In the Jubilee year, everything went back to the beginning arrangements and everything that had happened to place one person or one group or one tribe above all the others was undone. It was time to start over. At the beginning of the 50th year, a yobel would be sounded and everything would revert. By the way, that's the word for ram's horn in Hebrew. It's where jubilee comes from. Just say the word quickly and you can hear how we got from yobel in Hebrew to jubilee in English. All would go back to its start line in that Jubilee year and the machinery of life and commerce would begin again. It was a powerful notion, remember. This was also a sign of practical confidence in God's providence. To go every seven years without cultivating the land meant everyone had to save and plan in order to be provided for. In a world in which everyone scraped a living out of the land just to survive, the Hebrews could trust that God would provide them the abundance necessary in order to have what they needed. Even for the year without cultivation, and in a world in which people struggled to make the practical machinery of ownership and governance work, the return to the starting conditions challenged everyone to know that all possession and power was temporary. The Jubilee year was an amazing investment by all the people in the goodness of God and in their trust in God. It wasn't simply a random arrangement of time and tradition. It was a blood, tears and sweat linkage to the work of God in the world.
Speaker 2:In the Old Testament, the Jubilee year was a breakthrough of faith and trust. Our time of Jubilee is the ultimate invitation to make room for God's graced presence in our lives. God stands ready to enter our lives at any moment. We open ourselves to him and to his promise. We surround this time with the necessary leverage, so important for us to be able to remove the barriers of our closed hearts and open our eyes, normally closed, to the gifts of God. Now that we're in the midst of this time, we should take advantage of it. What better time would there be than this time? What better chance do we have than now? The Lord of all simply awaits us.
Speaker 2:As CS Lewis struggled to explain his own conversion, he wanted to explain how it was that he came to faith while so many others did not, and he admitted he really had no answer other than to confess that, in his eyes, what God was doing with others didn't matter nearly as much as what God was doing with him in his life. The ultimate truth was that God had touched him and gave him the grace to respond. What God might do at any other time or with any other person is not nearly as important as what God is doing now, and now is the time set aside for all of us. It's the Jubilee year. Back in just a moment. We return now to our final segment, faith in Verse.
Speaker 2:We have a poem today called In the Beginning.
Speaker 2:In the beginning, the Lord said Let there be light, and there was light, and so thus all began in the great act of the creation, and thus also there was night, for the gift of light is to pierce the night.
Speaker 2:According to the act of God given to us by this inspired revelation, we live now in the days we've been given according to God's ways. Each upon each of us are given the illumination sufficient to our trust so as to enjoy the fruit of all God's generosity that all around us, in brute form, lays, that our lives might be filled in all God's ferocity. For us, though, we are all but dust, for God has willed for each and all his way, a part in the divine play a true part in the intricate working of God's own clever heart, so that each man and woman can their gifted place in their gifted days and all is right in creation's days and all is right in creation's sight and all are true in every part. That's in the beginning. The invitation to encounter Christ more closely comes to us at all times. We hope that you can join us again in the weeks to come.
Speaker 1:Living Catholic is a production of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City for Oklahoma Catholic Radio. To learn more, visit okcrorg.