Y2K And the Great Jubilee

The coming of the millennium has brought jitters to some people who believe some preposterous ideas such as three-day darkness or end of the world will happen when the year 2000 comes around. Some well-meaning individuals justify this theory by giving as example the millennium bug or Y2K. They claim that the so-called three-day darkness may happen after all if a computer glitch (not necessarily jelly fish) cause power outages and plunge the whole city in total darkness. No wonder why there was a shortage of candles sometime ago.

Banks everywhere and other computer-generated corporations constantly assure (us) the public that they are Y2K ready and we need not fear. Meaning, our money (if we have any) in the bank will remain intact and continue to grow in interest. There is no need to withdraw and get held up in the process. Other basic services will also continue to be rendered to us, so the government entities assure us. Even one simple sari-sari store got the idea of putting up a streamer with bold letters screaming: We are Y2k ready!

The year of the jubilee is a time of joyful celebration and not of fear or useless worrying, Y2K or not. We usually celebrate a twenty-fifth or fiftieth jubilee with meticulous preparation and great aplomb at least outwardly. But this 2000th year of the birth of Jesus is an extraordinary jubilee. Our celebration should not only be focused on the external preparation and activities but greater weight should be given on the spiritual aspect of this great event. We rejoice at the gift of salvation, which Jesus by his coming has gratuitously bestowed upon us. At the same time, we are invited to look deeply into ourselves and heed the call to conversion of heart, personally and as a community.

The Association of the Major Religious Superiors of the Philippines came up with a five-point Jubilee Action Plan as a response to the prophetic challenge of the great jubilee. Two of the five-point action plan is the cancellation of the national debt and the return of ancestral lands belonging to indigenous peoples and the implementation of genuine land reform. These two issues have been gnawing into our social consciousness for already a long, long time. Let us hope those rich countries as well as individual people concerned will finally heed the call of the great jubilee. Great Britain has already promised it will cancel the debts of poor countries. Are there other countries, which will follow suit? Let’s hope so.

Pope John Paul II, in his bull of indiction Incarnationis Mysterium laments the reality of “some nations oppressed by a debt so huge that repayment is practically impossible.” He said that unless effective cooperation between the peoples of every language, race, nationality and religion is achieved, there could never be real progress in the world. The Holy Father further stressed the need “to create a new culture of international solidarity and cooperation, where all – particularly the wealthy nations and the private sector – accept responsibility for an economic model which serves everyone.”