Jubilee!

"Kids in Africa are starving - can't afford to cry
I'll pay interest for a car I can't afford to buy" - 'I've Seen' from the album 'Closer Than Veins' by Outlandish, feat. Sami Yusuf.
Since i was barely more than a toddler, and before i attended kindergarten, i saw photos of people in Africa and wanted to go there. I saw suffering, but i also saw smiles and dancing. I saw and was inspired by a resilience that had no apparent counterpart in the 'sophisticated' society of my birth.
How often do you use the word 'jubilee' or any of its cognates? When was the last time you responded to a "how are you?" with, "Jubilant!" ...?
I hardly ever use it unless i'm talking to an aging Hispanic man or woman. 'Jubilar' is a Spanish verb that translates 'to retire' in English. Far from the sense of sitting back, relaxing, retreating and atrophying i get when i hear most Americans talking about retirement, i get the potential for liberation of the heart and spirit.
In the Old Testament of the Bible there is a detailed plan for just such a time of liberation. It is called the "year or jubilee". Every 50 years (following a cycle of seven times seven years... sacred symbolism) there was to be a special year for the land and people of Israel. I think we could use one of those soon. Consider the possibilities if even one banking magnate were to declare a personal 'year of jubilee':
Let's pretend we're looking at a man who sits in meetings where the economies of the world get their direction. He hears a lot of anxiety and complaining, and it affects him, although he goes home to a veritable palace, and he owns free and clear a handful of businesses, jets, a helicopter, a car museum, and an island nobody has heard of unless they've been invited to visit.
One day he meets the Buddha in a bagelry and the Buddha tells him a story. It is about Scrooge, but from a perspective Dickens didn't offer. Instead of dwelling on the monstrosity of this familiar character, Buddha illustrates with profound compassion and wisdom how an idealistic and sensitive young man gradually slipped into a life that estranged him from society, family, and even the warmth and vitality available within his own heart.
In tears over his latte, he comprehends it all at once and knows he must do something to unburden himself and seek that joy Scrooge found.
Furthermore, he knows just where to start: He calls his mother in the hospital and says he's on his way over to see her. On the way he hashes out plans of what he could give away/give up. The cars? Yes, but not nearly enough. The yacht and island? Definitely. How about the businesses... no, most of his relationships happen through these interactions in the economic world, and now he really has something to offer these people...
At his mother's bedside he gets an urge to open the Bible sitting there, though he never was a particularly pious man. As if in someone else's voice he reads beginning at Leviticus 15.
"At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts. This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD's time for canceling debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you." Phew! he was starting to worry that he'd have to give up a lot. He kept reading:
"However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you..."
Yes. He had been richly blessed. In fact
-to be continued after i forgive a debt or two.