VATICAN (CWN) -- In his weekly catechetical audience today, Pope John Paul II said that the approach of the Jubilee Year 2000 gives Christians an occasion to reflect on the need to make good use of time. The coming of the millennium, he said, should also lead believers to "deepen our desire for eternal salvation."

      The Jubilee, the Holy Father continued, is a time to seek a better knowledge of Jesus Christ in his humanity; the year 2000 "invites us to turn toward Christ, to contemplate his Nativity and the mystery of his Incarnation."

      That event, the Pope said, marked a "radical change" in human history, as "eternity entered into time." Now, he added, humanity is on the path of eternity, because "to participate in the life of Christ means to participate in his eternity."

      Thus, the Pope concluded, the significance of the Jubilee is as "a door opening to eternal life."

December 11, 1997 volume 8, no. 50          DAILY CATHOLIC