We publish a commentary from the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem
The Holy Land was one of the destinations always coveted by pilgrims and visitors since the third century, in search of spiritual emotions and places dear to the faith: let’s think for example of the pilgrim from Bordeaux (333), to San Girolamo, who later settled there (386), to Egeria, who left us a Peregrinatio ad loca Sancta (383), to Elena and to the emperor Constantine (4th century), and then again to the empress Eudoxia (5th century), to Francis of Assisi ( 1219) and many others “.
In the Lectio Magistralis offered by Cardinal Fernando Filoni on the occasion of the conferral of the Boniface VIII international prize to the Grand Master of the Order, the reflection focused on the first historic Jubilee of 1300 announced by Pope Boniface VIII. If for a long time the first and favorite pilgrimage destination had been the Holy Land, in 1300 the political-military panorama made it a difficult destination. In fact, Cardinal Filoni continues, “the Holy Land of 1300, no longer protected by Christian principles, still the scene of wars and further attempts at conquest, became a difficult destination to reach and beyond the reach of the mass of the European faithful. Rome then became the center of pilgrimages for the great multitude of men and women on a journey of faith and in search of penitential grace, attracted by the Eternal City “.
It is interesting to note that the thrust for this first Jubilee did not come from above, that is from ecclesiastical or political hierarchies, but rather from the people who at the end of 1299 were asking to have the possibility of accessing God’s mercy at a time when it ended. a century and there were lively religious ferments.
«The Jubilee of 1300 – continues the Grand Master – then effectively remains the greatest ecclesiological act of Boniface VIII, all the more significant in the context of the numerous spiritual movements that demanded the reform of the Church and the papacy; the Jubilee was the attempted response that started from the faith of believers and Rome represented the new ‘Holy Land’, a less complicated destination for the pilgrim to reach, if one thinks of the seas and lands unknown and often enemies to cross. The tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul attracted the imagination of many and the presence of the Successor of Peter impressed the pilgrim’s faith ”.
The context today is certainly different, but even in this 2021 we feel so much in need of God’s mercy and the pilgrimage to the Holy Land, an experience so important for Knights and Dames and at the heart of belonging to the Order of the Holy Sepulcher, not it is easily achievable for the complicated health conditions of the world and of each country.
Yet, the experience of the Jubilee of 1300 which, starting from an objective difficulty, was able to follow the desire of the faithful and the impulse of the Spirit, teaches us that there are no boundaries to God’s mercy. Even if for many it will not be possible. going on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in these months, let us keep the desire high to let God meet us in the situations of our lives, leaving the doors open to his grace which always finds a way to reach us.
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