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Show t S S$ $ $ $S S 4;, s DENVER. I ' f V $ t 4 -3 4 4- 4s ?- 3 S 3 S i Office of Intermountain. Catholic, 409 Charles Block, 15th and Curtis Cur-tis Streets. I ; 1 DAWN OF THE HOLY YEAB. Bishop llatz Explains the Cleaning cf the Pope's Proclamation. The letter of the Holy Father an-nouneinrr an-nouneinrr the holy year, the year ot jubilee, hae now been read throughout the Catholic world. It will be of interest inter-est to many, both Catholics and non-Catholics, non-Catholics, to know the origin and signification sig-nification of this jubilee celebration, ! . which extends far beyond the days of Christianity into Judaism, yea, to the vers' dawn of the Mosaic law. The name of jubih-.e from the Hebrew He-brew jobel, which means bring- together, with joy and exultation, was the name friven to the fiftieth year among the Jews, becaur-e it was a. year of universal univer-sal joy. "Wherein all slaves found their liberty; every indebtedness was declared de-clared liquidated alid all incumbrances were released. All values on immovables immov-ables were rated in view of the Jubilee year by 'the distance of time from the date j sale to the jubilee. This was a. vise jirovision, calculated to remind the Jews that their ownership of land v a? limited to the use; God was the :ibsolute ow ner. It prevented the accumulation, accu-mulation, of wealth in the hand: of a few; preserved a mode of eauality amongst them; preserved noble and honest families, ar.-d served to keep the tribes distinct. I confess, even in this c nlighten-ed age, a measure of that kind would be a grand panacea for eome of the worst evils under which, modern tociety is ailing. About the year 13CfO. a rumor started, Bio one knows hoAV, to the effect that every 100 years- a great indulgence is granted in Rome. In consequence of " this an enormous number of pilgrims Hocked to the Eternal city to gain the ; indulgence. Pope Boniface VIII ordered the archives to be searched for any foundation to wuetain this popular rumor. ru-mor. Nothing could be found. But, as the number of Pilgrims kiept on increasing, in-creasing, the Holy Father Avas moA-ed lo grant the indulgence, and by an cnpeeial bull of Feb. 22, A. D., livO, he established the jubilee indulgence for that year and every succeeding 100th year. And now ay as witnessed a spectacle spec-tacle never before eeen. Bishops and Abbots; princes and people, nocked to Home in such throngs, from all over Europe, that throughout the year the daily number of visitors was reckoned i ; at 200,000 for the city, not counting i cither the Romans or the pilgrims on their journey. Pope Clement VI, at the supplication of the Romans, shortened ihe time for the jubilee to the fiftieth year in January, 1349. The affluence of pilgrims in Rome ' from, all -over Christendom in the year 1210 far urpa-ssed the preceding one. I Their number was computed at 1.000,000 . daily attendance from Christmas 1349, Ilo Easier, 1350. It Avas Icps in the summer, sum-mer, but in the fall became enormous again. Now, when we remember that in those days there were no railroads i and few coaches; that the roads Avere Ilead, in many cases infested by robbers, rob-bers, and that these enormous distances dis-tances were mostly traveled by pilgrims pil-grims on foot, tstafC in, hand, and carry- i t ing their luggage on their backs. Ave - s - i may form an idea of that grand faith j ; which characterized Europe during the ' middle ages, since a. bull of the Pope , Avas -capable of moving such enormous masses of population, under such difn-: difn-: -- ; culties Pope Urban VI, in 13S9, shortened tti!l more the time for the jubilee to i every thirty-third year; in April, 13S9, . and Paul the II. in 1470, brought it ' iown to evcrv twenty-fifth year, as Ave i have it now. In the year ISftO there was ' . no jubilee, because, when Pius VI was about to publish it, he died at Valance, and the papal states had been invaded bv Napoleon. There was no regular ' jubilee, either, in 1S50, because Piue IX was an exile in Gaeta. In ITj the name Pontiff Avas a pris- , oncV in his own palace, and for ib-s reason the customary jubilee was again ' omitted. The last rerular jubilee was tin one proclaimed by Leo Nil, in - . 182.-.. Of this jubilee our Holy Father. J jj0'. XIII. speaks as an eye-witness in , his bull of indication, May 1, announc-! announc-! ' ing the present jubilee. Well do we remember, and even now ', Ave still can see the throng of pilgrims, Avalking in procession, from temple to t- n-pie; the Anostle men preaching in I .ublic: the public places of the city re bounding with the praises of God; the Pope himself, w ith a large following of Cardinal, giving a magnificent public example of charity and devotion. From these memories our mind wanders with sadr-:ss to the preient time. For mien practices of devotion, which in those davs could bc jierformed under the .-h!ir gaze, conaributed admirably to foment the piety of the people. Now that the conditions are changed, this cannot be d.me." Our Christian jubilee is a reproduction, reproduc-tion, in a ppiritual sense, ef the ancient ll'-e of th Hebrews, pir.ee it prom-t prom-t break the fetters of the bondage ,,f on and a clear receipt for our whole jud-btedr.i-rs to Ooi cs contracted by frin In a:: her word,?, the jubilee means v'mply a ph-narv indulgence granted by the H lv Father out of the Church s ifr,vW treasury of merits composed f the infinite merits of Jesus Christ; t ho" merits of iiis blessed Mother and of the Saints. It differs from the ordi-I ordi-I iir-rv plenary indulgence only by rea- ' son'nf tlv solemnity; the privileges an- jKAed and. the exuberance of e:traor- i c.inarv graces which accompany it. I w ere asked the Question but a frw dry ago: What is an indulgence? The meaning of 'the word indulgence, which -nrikt one first implies a forbearance for-bearance of restraint or control, and m''-ht !ad one to the idea that an m-dul-enp is a relaxation of the reins of morality. Some authors, prompted bv i-rorance or malice, have defined in indulgence in the Catholic sente V be an encouragement of. or permission to sin. Nothing could be further from the truth than this definition Before we denne, the nature of an indulgence. and illustration will very main an Sielp to make clear what we understand bv an indulgence. - .a "in Second Kings, chapter xi, Ae read that David fell into adultery with 3tLabe. the wife of Trias, Not finding find-ing any means to conceal his crime .he causetn Trias to be elain; then he mar-rie-s lU'thsabe, who bears him a son Ml had passed oft very ejuictly and Uavid might have liattered himself that he had Scaped all difflculty. He for-LU for-LU be had the Lord to deal with In fhe next chapter we read that the Lord s nt to him Nathan, the Prophet, , who. bv means of a parable, brought David io his senses. David did not recognize his own picture in the rich man who stole the poor man's ewe lamb Beth-sabe Beth-sabe and be became so incensed at the iniquity perpetrated, by the rich man .rMliJith. the man that has done this is a child of death." xu. o. Nathan then opened his eyes by eaj-Inei eaj-Inei "Thou art the man and after enumerating all the Ird had done for him he added: "Thus saith the Lord. AVhv. therefore, hast thou done evil in Tv "sight? With the sword of the children chil-dren of Ammon thou hast killed l.nas and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, , xii i The prophet concluded by grv-ng grv-ng him the sentence the Lord had pronounced pro-nounced against him on account of this crime. Whereupon the king acknowledged acknowl-edged hia crime, and in the anguish of his heart exclaimed: "I haA-e sinned against the Lord." Nathan then said to David: "The Tt:v jiI-st hnil IpVpu . ' away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Nevertheless, Nev-ertheless, because thou hat. given occasion oc-casion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme for this thing, the child that is born lo thee shall eurely die," xii 13 and 14. Not only did the child die as the prophet foretold, but all the calamities enumerated by him came upon the House of David, viz.: The incest of Ammon, Avhich led to his being killed by Absalom; Absalom's rebellion against his father. The abominations wherewith he polluted his father's hous:e .together Avith the slaughter of 20,000 men, who fell with him in his rebellion. re-bellion. In the above narration you have noticed no-ticed that as soon as DaAid realized how grieA-ously he had sinned and acknowledged ac-knowledged the same, that A-ery instant God forgave him his crime. "The Lord has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not die." Two things are evident here: God, moved by David's compunction, forgives him his sin and moves the capital cap-ital or eternal punishment he had de-ser-ed for his sin into temporal punishments punish-ments Avhich Ave haA-e enumerated aboA-e. The same system is pursued by God to this A-ery day, for the scales of diA-ine justice never A-ary. For mortal sin, which is a grieA-ous transgression against the law of God, Avhich is therefore there-fore called mortal, because it kills the soul, the punishment is hell, or eternal death. When the sinner repents, that is, returns re-turns to God, and detests his sin, does penance and promises amendment. God forgives him and commutes the eternal punishment of hell into A'arious temporal tempor-al punishments, such. as sickness, misfortune, mis-fortune, business failures, poA'erty and afflictions of all kinds, by means of which, in His'infinite mercy, God strikes the balance in the scales of divine equity; and, after purifying man, He lifts him to a higher moral standard by a more perfect conformity with His diA'ine model, Christ Jesus. For even as the gold is refined in the crucible, so man is purified and perfected in the crucible of adversity. So true it is that those Avhom God loves He chastises. But it must be plain to you before this that Avhen God has forgiven many mortal sins, the amount of temporal punishments accumulated by these iui mui: u in pennance Ave must atone, necessarily must become be-come very large in proportion to the number of mortal sins forgiven. Here Ave reach the grand field of indulgences. For an indulgence in the Catholic sense of the Avord is, not the forgiveness of sin. Sin is the deadly antagonist of an indulgence; Avhere there is mortal sin in the soul, an indulgence is absolutely impossible. Much less is it an inducement induce-ment to commit sin; ignorance and malice alone could invent such a slander. slan-der. We define an indulgence as the remission remis-sion of the temporal punishment, due to man for the sins already forgiven. In the case of King David, we haA-e shown how this temporal punishment originates, by a divine commutation of the eternal punishments, and how it accumulates ac-cumulates from the number of such sins forgiA-en us in the tribunal of Ged's mesrey. Now this remission is made by the application to us of the satisfactory satisfac-tory merits of Jesus Christ. That these merits of Christ, being infinite, even Aithout the accessory merits of the saints, Avere more than enough to offer of-fer full atonement for all the sins of men, eA-ery Christian admits. These merits, together Avith those of the mother of the So'vio "and the merits mer-its of the Saints, constitute the treasury treas-ury of the church, out of which, by means of indulgences, the chutch which is the constituted guardian thereof, grants to her children the remission of the temporal punishments still due the divine justice for sins already forgiven. When this remission is full, a clear receipt re-ceipt of all indebtedness, it is called a plenary indulgence. When it embraces a part of their debt, it is called a partial par-tial indulgence. How do we prove that the church has. the power to grant indulgences1.? By the following argumentation: All Christians admit that Christ came to offer atonement for the sins of the world, and this atonement, being infinite, in-finite, is more than sufficient to redeem the world and an infinite number of worlds like ours. All likewise admit that this same Christ founded a church whom He commissioned to go into all the world, preach the Gospel to all the I nations, assuring ner mat lie wouia oo with His church to the end of the world. This mission of His church is identical with His own. In the seventeenth sev-enteenth chapter of St. John, which embodies His prayer for His disciples, Ave read, "As Thou, Father, hast sent Me into the world, I al.;a have sent them." John XA-i;:18. And in the 12th chapter of St. John. A-ers.es 21-22, we read: "The Father hath sent Me. I also send you." When He said this He breathed upon them and said to them: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive thoy are forgiA-en them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." John xx: 21-22. Surely if Avords- mean anything this means that Christ gave unto His apostles apos-tles and to the church through thejn the power of forgiving sins. But it stand to reason that the power of forgiving for-giving sin is a power fax greater than that of remitting the temporal punishment punish-ment still remaining, due after sin has been remitted. For by forgiving sin -rhe-y likewise? reunite the eternal pun-iMunent; pun-iMunent; and surely they Avho can remit re-mit the eternal punishment can also remit re-mit what is much less; namely, the temporal punishment. This is eA-idemt from the words of Christ to Peter: "I Avill giA-e the.? the keys of the kingdom rtf heaven. Whatsoever What-soever thou shalt bind upon earth it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaA-cai." Matt., 16-19. If I haA-e "the keys to a house I can admit you; or, if I judge you unfit to enter, I may refuse you admittance. By saying that he would give to Peter the keys of hea-en, Christ evidently meant to giA-e to him power over the kingdom, to let tbs;? erter whom he should judgo, fit to emer and to keep out those that in his estimation were unlit lor it. But we know that nothing impure can enter en-ter there. "There shalt not enter into it anything any-thing dafiled." Apostles, 21-27. That Avhich keeps the soul out of heaven is not merely sin, but also the indebtedness indebted-ness consequent upon sin, for Avhich purgatory was created, which is noth- 4ner hut Vi ra vrwv'o rpfinlnff mnm u-hf.roin ing but heaA-on's refining room Avherein those souls that shall depart this life with dark stains upon their Avedding garment shall be detained and burnished burnish-ed in the cleansing fires of purgatory so a to be made fit for the embrace of the Lamb Avithout spot. Surely if by the power of forgiAlng sin Peter can lift souls out of hell for Avhich they were doomed, he certainly should be able to lift them out of purgatory and usher them into heaven, since He who can do the greater is able, naturally, tn do the lesser with far greater ease. This is, as briefly as I am able to state it. the church's leaching on the doctrine of indulgences. But to come back to the jubilee indulgence: This is simply a plenary indulgence granted with great solemnity. . At the time of the jubilee the Holy Father simply throws open the floodgates flood-gates of grace, OATer which he holds absolute ab-solute control. This is symbolized by the solemn opening of the jubilee door in St. Peter's basilica. It is just proclaimed pro-claimed from the city of Rome and lasts for one year; namely, from Christmas to Christmas. The conditions for gaining gain-ing the jubilee indulgence are, first, a fast of three days Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; second, alms proportioned proportion-ed to one's means; third, the A-isitation of some designated churches with pray-prs, pray-prs, according to the intention of the Holy Father; fourth, the confession of our sins with a sincere sorrow for them, and, fifth, a good holy communion. commu-nion. At the end of the year the jubilee doors are closed for the city and the jubilee extended to the Avorld. The conditions remain re-main substantially the same. In addition to the spiritual treasures the Church offers as in the indulgences she grants, there are also special powers granted to confession for the forgiven-ness forgiven-ness of some special sin, reserA-cd either eith-er to the Pope or to the bishop; powers to commute holy vows into other good works: to commute even the obligation for gaining the jubilee indulgence when for certain reasons they cannot be carried car-ried out, silch as1 sickness, poverty, confinement con-finement for those in prison, communion commun-ion for those not yet prepared to re-cei'e re-cei'e it. We belieAre enough has been said to make clear the Church's doctrine concerning con-cerning indulgences and the grounds Avhereon she bases her authority. These cannot be overthrown without overthrowing over-throwing the foundations Avhereon they stand. Against these Christ has said: "The gates of hell shall not prevail." Matt. 16, IS. N. C. MATZ, Bishop of Denver. |