GAINING JUBILEE INDULGENCE

"All the faithful, properly prepared, can fully enjoy, throughout the Jubilee, the gift of the indulgence," Pope John Paul II has decreed.

The Great Jubilee is a year of grace. Therefore, Christians can gain Jubilee indulgence. There are various ways for gaining an indulgence such as through charitable works or by making a pilgrimage to a designated holy site or shrine, either locally or abroad.

An indulgence is a decrease of the temporal punishment that resulted from sins you committed and sought forgiveness for. "Temporal punishment" means temporary time spent in the condition of purgatory (purging or purification) and may be accomplished in actual Purgatory after death or here on earth now.

Purification is needed even after receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation and obtaining God's forgiveness. Often, we still have to pay the consequences of our sins and learn to avoid returning to the same sin. The Pope has defined ways we can gain an indulgence in his Incarnationis Mysterium document.

In this papal bull, he says:

"The indulgence discloses the fullness of the Father's mercy, who offers everyone His love, expressed primarily in the forgiveness of sins. Normally, God the Father grants his pardon through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation....

"Reconciliation with God does not mean that there are no enduring consequences of sin from which we must be purified. It is precisely in this context that the indulgence becomes important, since it is an expression of the total gift of the mercy of God. With the indulgence, the repentant sinner receives a remission of the temporal punishment due for the sins already forgiven as regards the fault....

"Because it offends the holiness and justice of God and scorns God's personal friendship with man, sin has a twofold consequence. In the first place, if it is grave, it involves deprivation of communion with God and, in consequence, exclusion from a share in eternal life. To the repentant sinner, however, God in his mercy grants pardon of grave sin and remission of the 'eternal punishment' which it would bring.

"In the second place, every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the 'temporal punishment' of sin, and this expiation removes whatever impedes full communion with God and with one's brothers and sisters."

In other words, sin comes from preferring worldliness (the temporal) over holiness, and even after we've been absolved of the sin through seeking God's forgiveness, we still do not love Him completey. As long as we remain attached to one thing -- anything -- that is not God, we are not fully attached to God and we suffer from this disunity. This suffering is "temporal punishment." But God, in His mercy, provides us with opportunities to purify ourselves and overcome our worldly attachments; He indulges us with His mercy.

We gain the indulgence through acts of kindness, by being merciful to others, and by giving up our time and comfort to make pilgrimages to holy places. The indulgence removes whatever impedes us from fully loving God and our neighbor as ourselves.

In the Middle Ages, people gained indulgences by making a pilgrimage to the Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, but since the trip was long and difficult, it was impossible for most Christians to do. Therefore, simple replicas of the basilica were built throughout Europe and designated as official pilgrimage sites.

However, many could not travel beyond their own villages, so the Franciscans built groups of 14 wooden crosses, each representing an episode of Christ's Passion, and placed them at or in the village churches. People then gained indulgences by meditating at each cross. This has become known as the Way of the Cross.

For gaining the Jubilee Year indulgence, the pope names the following types of pilgrimages, with participation in Mass or other liturgical celebration and pious meditations:

1. to Rome
2. to the Holy Land.
3. to the local cathedral or designated shrines near home
4. any place, if you visit those in need or in difficulty (the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly living alone, the handicapped, etc.), as if making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them

The indulgence can also be gained through actions which express in a practical and generous way the penitential spirit. This would include abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption (e.g., from smoking or alcohol, or fasting or abstinence) and donating money to the poor; financially supporting works of a religious or social nature (especially those that benefit abandoned children, young people in trouble, the elderly in need, or foreigners seeking better living conditions); devoting personal free time to activities that benefit the community, or other similar forms of personal sacrifice.

CONDITIONS FOR GAINING
THE JUBILEE INDULGENCE
from the Decree issued by Pope John Paul II

"After worthily celebrating sacramental confession, which ... must be individual and complete, each member of the faithful, having fulfilled the required conditions, can receive or apply the gift of the plenary indulgence during a suitable period of time, even daily, without needing to go to confession again. It is fitting however that the faithful should frequently receive the grace of the Sacrament of Penance, in order to grow in conversion and in purity of heart. Participation in the Eucharist, which is required for all indulgences, should properly take place on the same day as the prescribed works are performed."

This process of purification must be "manifested by prayer for the intentions of the Roman Pontiff, and also by acts of charity and penance ... these acts are meant to express the true conversion of heart."