LESSONS FROM LITURGY: Indulge Yourself (and others) this Jubilee

By Father Thomas Pressley

The Jubilee Year of Hope is underway.  Pope Francis opened the St. Peter’s Basilica Holy Door on December 24, 2024, and Bishop Golka welcomed the Jubilee for our diocese on December 29, the Feast of the Holy Family.

As indicated by the name, this Jubilee emphasizes the need for hope.  In his Jubilee Bull “Spes Non Confundit” (Hope Does Not Disappoint), Pope Francis encourages engagement with those who need a boost of hope: parents and grandparents, the young and the elderly, prisoners, the sick, migrants and refugees. 

One favored group of the Church bears special attention and seeks our help: the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

During this Jubilee Year of Hope, the faithful can obtain not just one, but two plenary indulgences a day for the Holy Souls!

I. Jubilee Year

The Church has celebrated the Jubilee year with pilgrimage and indulgences since Pope Boniface VIII in 1300, but the God of Israel established the Jubilee two and half millennia earlier.

After liberating the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, the Lord established a series of feasts and celebrations to strengthen Israel against falling into slavery and idolatry. The greatest was the Jubilee Year: “hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you” (Lev 25:10). Jesus announced the definitive Jubilee Year with his coming (Lk 4:16-21). 

The Church, carrying on this divine tradition, began offering the Jubilee Year to aid the faithful in breaking free from captivity to sin. The first Catholic Jubilee Years were celebrated every fifty years, but in 1475 the practice changed to every twenty-five years.

Each Jubilee Year, the Church offers a plenary indulgence for those who fulfill the required work and have a true conversion of heart.

II. Purgatory and Indulgences

All Christians are united in Christ’s body through the Holy Spirit: “for by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body” (1 Cor 12:13). This bond of charity makes Christians inseparable from Christ and each other. 

This bond does not end with death.  In heaven, removed from any unhelpful attachment, our love for each other will increase through our intimacy with the Lord and the intensity of his power. The Communion of Saints bears witness to the unending power of love and inseparable union of the Body of Christ.

Even in this life, united in the Body of Christ, every virtuous act benefits the whole body, but every sin damages the whole body. Justice demands restitution, satisfaction for harm caused by sin.

The opportune time to make restitution and satisfaction for our sins is now, in this life. Acts of penance, prayer, and charity begin to remedy the harm we have caused.

For those of us who do not make sufficient satisfaction in this life (probably most of us) but still die in God’s grace, the “temporal punishment” of purgatory cleanses us (1 Cor 3:12-15).  Once in purgatory, we can no longer help ourselves but rely on the prayers and merits of those on earth (2 Mac 12:45).  Enter the indulgence.

(As an aside, in questioning the necessity for purgatory, some people ask: Isn’t God’s grace enough?  Pope Benedict XVI responds in “Spe Salvi,” his encyclical on hope: “Grace does not cancel out justice.  It does not make wrong into right.  It [does not wipe] everything away, so that whatever someone has done on earth ends up being of equal value.”)

The Church, through the “Power of the Keys” given by Christ to St. Peter (Mt 16:19), is generous with what is called the “Treasury of Merit” — she may distribute the infinite merits of Christ’s passion and the merits of Mary and the saints as a means of satisfaction for sins, remitting the punishment and overwhelming with good the evil caused by sin.  One means is through an indulgence.

An indulgence, as explained by Pope St. Paul VI in his Apostolic Constitution “Indulgentiarum Doctrina,” is “the remission before God of the temporal punishment due sins already forgiven.”  A partial indulgence remits some of the punishment; a plenary remits all punishment.

A person who faithfully fulfills the requirements of the indulgence may obtain remission of the punishment due their sins, or they may offer the indulgence for a soul in purgatory.

One of our greatest acts of charity is offering indulgences for our brothers and sisters, to whom we are still connected through the bond of charity, suffering the purifying fire of purgatory.

III. Obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence

The requirements for any plenary indulgence are:

• Eucharistic Communion
• Sacramental Confession (within eight days)
• Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (an Our Father and Hail Mary is sufficient)
• Have no attachment to any sin, even venial (This is probably the hardest part.)
• Perform the work to which the indulgence is attached

During the Jubilee Year, the normal work is a pilgrimage to a Jubilee Holy Site, such as St. Mary’s Cathedral, to participate in the Church’s liturgy or prayer (something many of us can do regularly).

The exceptional part of this Jubilee is the opportunity for a second daily plenary indulgence offered for a soul in purgatory.  The requirements are:

• Receive Holy Communion a second time in the context of Holy Mass
• Perform an act of charity on behalf of the souls in purgatory

This act of charity could be a corporal or spiritual work of mercy, even visiting sick friends and relatives, checking up on neighbors, and acting towards each person as if he were Christ.

The ultimate purpose of any indulgence is our own conversion of heart and departure from sin. In her mercy, the Church offers aid to our suffering brothers and sisters in purgatory through our own journey to Christ. 

This Jubilee year, each of us should make a commitment to seek conversion and intimacy with Christ and to pray for the Holy Souls, obtaining indulgences on their behalf and doing our part to empty purgatory. They will thank us in heaven.

(Editor’s note: More information about pilgrimage sites in the Diocese of Colorado Springs will appear in the Feb. 7 issue of the Herald.)