Jubilee of MercyTheological Issues

Difficult Terms

• Indulgence

• Temporal Punishment

• Jubilee

Indulgences

• Best way to understand and explain is within the context of RELATIONSHIPS

• Use the example of relationship between husband and wife• Needs constant attention

• Needs constant nourishment

• Needs constant strengthening and healing

• Involves God and the person

Indulgences

• When a relationship is broken or hurt and forgiveness is extended, the relationship is not automatically restored to its former status

• Healing and strengthening of the relationship must occur

• This usually happens by acts of special acts of love

• Indulgences are the special acts of love that heal our attachment to sin and strengthen our relationship with God

Indulgences

• Must realize the consequences that sin and neglect have on a relationship with God

• After forgiveness a relationship needs to be restored, strengthened and healed

• Indulgences are sacrificial and penitential acts of love that express faith in God

Indulgence

• strengthening of our relationship with Christ

• and our resolve to turn away from sin

Indulgences

• Role of the Church

• For many: Christ saves, not the Church

• Church is the Body of Christ: Christ is the Head

• Exercise of the Keys of St Peter

• Church’s mission is to proclaim salvation and be an instrument of salvation

Indulgences

• Our relationship with Christ is both personal and corporate

• In the Sacraments, the Church acts in the name and person of Christ

• In the case of Indulgences the Church acts in the name and person of Christ

• The Church “super-sizes” our sacrificial and penitential acts through the merits of Christ

Indulgences

• Our relationship with Christ is through the Church• Christ through the Church baptizes in Baptism

• Christ through the Church forgives sins in Reconciliation

• Christ through the Church heals and strengthens our relationship with God through Indulgences

Indulgences

• Pope Francis in Misericordiae Vultus, no 22: “In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, which he truly blots out; and yet sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. But the mercy of God is stronger even than this. It becomes indulgence on the part of the Father who, through the Bride of Christ, his Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.”

Temporal Punishment

• Awkward term: • “Temporal” and “Punishment” give negative connotation

• Might give the impression God is punishing us!

• Is the weakening of our resistance to sin

• Is the strengthening of our attachment to sin

• Is the consequences of sin: damaged relationships with God and others

• Is the lessening of the image of Christ in the person

Temporal Punishment

• It is this inner resistance which is our attachment to sin that we call temporal punishment.

• This is what we can only overcome by the grace of Christ, the desire/action of the person and the power of the Church in an indulgence.

Transformation into the Image of Christ

• This is our destiny and Baptismal vocation

• This has to be the goal of every Christian• Begins with Baptism

• Continues in all the Sacraments: esp. Penance and Eucharist

• Continues in prayer, penance and acts of charity of the Christian

• Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy helps us to think and act like Christ

Jubilee

• Jewish Jubilee: Book of Leviticus (Chapter 25)

• Year of restoration of what God had given in the Promised Land• Land and Freedom restored, debts forgiven

• Christian Jubilee began in the year 1300, with Pope Boniface VIII• time of joyful spiritual restoration and renewal

Catholic Jubilee

• first Jubilees were every 50 years,

• so popular held every 33 years

• in 1470, decided to be held every 25 years.

• Extra-ordinary Jubilees: Redemption, Trinity (new millennium) and Mercy

Catholic Jubilee

• Main practice was pilgrimage to St. Peter’s or a shrine

• In conjunction with the Jubilee was entering through the Holy Door

• Holy Door symbolized entering into a new of life in Christ and leaving behind an old way of sin.

• It was a sign of the person’s repentance for sins committed throughout life and desire for conversion.

• It meant abandoning a sinful life or practices to embrace the forgiveness of Christ in order to enter into a life of grace

Holy Door

• Based on two Scripture passages:

• John 10, when Jesus said, “I am the door.”

• Psalm 118. 20: “This is the door of the Lord where the just may enter.”

Holy Door

• Practice based on the memory of public penances

• Sinners went to the bishop to confess their grave sins

• Bishop imposed a public penance of several years

• The person stood between the outer and inner doors of the church, dressed in sack cloth, pleading for the prayers of the people as they entered the church.

• When the time of public penance was completed, they were permitted to enter the church through the door to receive absolution, usually preceding the celebrations of the Easter Triduum.

Uniqueness of this Jubilee

• Extra-ordinary

• Holy Door in every diocese

• Indulgence gained only in Cathedral, except for sick and prisoners, etc.

The End