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Jubilee and the Future Generations
Baccarini, Emilio

We begin this reflection with the last words in Hans Jonas’ book The Imperative of Responsibility (Das Prinzip Verantwortung), the book which perhaps best underlines the ethical responsibility for future generations: “Humanity’s mandate outside of paradise is exacting: To preserve the integrity of humanity as well as that of our natural environment. To safeguard this trust through the perils of the times, primarily the perils of humanity’s own overambitious actions, is not a utopian goal but rather the challenging responsibility to ensure the future of humanity on earth.” 1

To ensure the future of humanity: What does this imply for a new ethical perspective on our moral responsibility for future generations - an imperative hitherto unknown? Indeed, the future of humanity has become an enigma generating anguish and concern which cannot simplistically be ascribed only to the approach of the end of the millennium. Broadly understood, the future of humanity – which includes the future of the earth on which we live – is in our hands. And this new situation creates fear.

It is impossible to cite here all the statistical data which scholars, organizations and international reports are providing on this issue. I choose instead to reflect on this situation with the passage from Leviticus on the Jubilee and relate it to the Great Jubilee of the third millennium. Then we will reflect on this passage as a blueprint for “an ethic for future generations.” We read in Lv 25: “And you shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land unto all the inhabitants thereof; it shall be a jubilee unto you; and you shall return every man unto his possession, and you shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you; you shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of the undressed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy unto you; you shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In this year of jubilee you shall return every man unto his possession. And if you sell aught unto your neighbor, or buy of your neighbor’s hand, you shall not wrong one another.” (10-14) “And you shall not wrong one another; but you shalt fear your God, for I am the Lord your God.” (17) “And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the land is Mine; for you are strangers and settlers with Me. And in all the land of your possession you shall grant a redemption for the land.” (23-24) And regarding personal freedom, which it was not possible to redeem, we read: “And if he be not redeemed by any of these means, then he shall go out in the year of jubilee, he, and his children with him. For unto Me the children of Israel are servants; they are My servants whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.” (54-55)

I have chosen these excerpts to enable us to reflect on some fundamental issues to help us understand, no, to measure the degree to which our world has moved away from the paradigm of the Jubilee. Let us begin our reflection with the last verse which promptly recalls the meaningful beginning of the ‘Ten Words’, the Decalogue. The Jubilee functions as a reminder to us of the priority of God and the covenant He established with humanity. I do not think it is coincidental that the biblical text ends by forbidding an image of the deity, and with a statement about the lordship of the one God. In light of this the expression: “the land is Mine, for you are strangers and settlers with Me” carries significant weight, almost an accusation. The land in which we live is not ours. It does not belong to us. It was made available to us, but we cannot dispose of it at our will. We are accountable for it. It is a heritage which we are to leave as a heritage. The fruits of the land symbolize an attitude of gratitude which we have lost. We have replaced it with the mentality of ownership. The attitude of gratitude means blessing, and only in this manner can God stay in the midst of His people, a people which takes pride in itself. Blessing is another word for freedom. But blessing is also a call to holiness, though in the Western world we have to a large extent lost the biblical meaning of this word.

If we would attempt to apply the message of freedom and liberation to our economic and social context, our lives – dominated by a mentality of competition and exploitation – would literally be turned upside down. Personal liberation and annulment of debt are necessary conditions for re-establishing justice and guaranteeing a different future: “He shall go free in the year of the Lord.” They are comprehensible in light of gratuity. Thus, demands for a moratorium of the death penalty are legitimate. We must also remember that there is a divine sign on the face of Cain, a sign forbidding the murder of the assassin. The ethical commandment “Do not kill” applies also to him. Requests for the cancellation of the debt of the poorest countries, a request frequently made by Pope John Paul II, are also fully justified. If the land belongs to God all have the right to receive, with equal advantage, the gifts that are meant for all of humanity. The experience of freedom is possible only in a situation of true justice. And justice is the guarantee of the future. Perhaps this is the most tragic dimension of the end of this millenium.

The Jubilee is an invitation and a reminder, an invitation to remember the sabbatical experience. In addition to the Shabbat of God during the creation process, there is also the Shabbat of human beings. It is a space of eternity within time and also a Shabbat of the land since the earth also needs freedom and liberation from exploitation and abuse. The land must also rest and human beings are responsible to ensure this rest.

These biblical perspectives are quite alien to our normal attitudes and mentality. Nonetheless they are particularly important today, even more urgent than yesterday. The economic and cultural realities of our lives are not the same as those of the time of the ethical monotheism of the Bible. The long process of secularization has distanced us from the perspective of the absolute lordship of God. Human beings have become the architects of their lives and of their environment. We have lost the sense of gift in that which we receive and that which we offer. But our current experience of globalization – especially its economic dimension – provides us with the possibility to better grasp these biblical imperatives. We are able to understand that the gap between the rich and poor is an unbearable scandal, and we cannot continue to think about progress if it cannot be sustained by the earth. The earth cannot become more and more ‘exhausted.’

We are truly being forced to consider a new dimension of ethics, an ethic for future generations. Concretely this means the continuing right of those yet to come to enjoy the goods of the earth. We are responsible for them today. At the beginning of the new millennium, the Jubilee is a prime occasion to rethink and to ‘translate’ the co-existence of all people of the earth into new paradigms. Perhaps we will hear this new understanding in the prayer which Jesus taught us: “Our father in heaven, hallowed be Your name, Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors” (Mt 6:9-12).


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* Emilio Baccarini is professor of Philosophy at ‘Tor Vergata’ University of Rome and Direttore Responsabile of the SIDIC periodical. The essay has been translated from Italian.
1 Translated by Hans Jonas with David Herr, (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press 1984), p. 202.