Even Messina, like the other dioceses, will experience the opening of the Jubilee today. The rite, which RTP will follow live starting at 5.45pm, will begin in the co-cathedral of the Santissimo Salvatore at 5pm. The meeting is scheduled for 5pm in the Archimandrite co-cathedral; here after the proclamation of the Gospel and the reading of some passages of the Bull of indiction “Spes non confundit”, the procession will start with the Cross in the center which will be held and carried in procession by groups of eight people.
The Crucifix chosen by the archbishop for the Jubilee, recently restored under the supervision of the Superintendency, comes from the church of S. Chiara a Giostra, cared for by the religious Handmaids of the Sacred Heart of Jesus; it is a wooden work from the first half of the 16th century, probably coming from the ancient building destroyed in the 1908 earthquake. Once in the cathedral churchyard the archbishop will present the cross to the faithful for veneration and the procession will enter the basilica for the celebration.
As explained by Mgr. Costa, the etymology of the word “Jubilee” refers to the yobel, the ram’s horn used to indicate the beginning of the Day of Atonement; a celebration that occurred every year, but took on a particular meaning coinciding with the beginning of the Jubilee Year: the last ordinary Jubilee was announced and celebrated in 2000 by John Paul II, but there were also extraordinary Jubilees (for anniversary of the Redemption remembered by Pope John Paul II in 1983; for the Pauline Year, from 28 June 2008 to 29 June 2009, dedicated to the apostle Paul on the occasion of the two thousandth anniversary of his birth; in 2015, the Jubilee of Mercy, for the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council).
Symbolism of the Jubilee logo
The logo – chosen from 294 proposals from 48 different countries – was designed by Giacomo Travisani and personally chosen by Pope Francis. As explained by Mgr. Giuseppe Costa,, represents four stylized figures to indicate humanity coming from the four corners of the earth. They are embracing each other, to indicate the solidarity and brotherhood that must unite people. The leader, clinging to the Cross, is the sign not only of the faith he embraces, but of the hope that can never be abandoned, especially in moments of greatest need. The waves below are choppy to indicate that the pilgrimage of life does not always move in calm waters. Personal affairs and world events often impose a call to hope with greater intensity. This is why the lower part of the Cross, which extends and transforms into an anchor, appears as a force that imposes itself on the wave motion. The anchor of hope, in fact, is the name given in maritime jargon to the reserve anchor, used by boats to carry out emergency maneuvers to stabilize the ship during storms. The image also shows how the pilgrim’s journey is not an individual fact, but a community one, with the imprint of a growing dynamism that increasingly tends towards the Cross, which presents itself in a dynamic form, curved towards humanity as if to go towards it. meeting and not leaving her alone, offering the certainty of presence and the security of hope.