A. The First Moment of Pilgrimage: Reconciliation and Purification

The first step of the Jubilee pilgrimage is to encounter the reconciling love of the Father that comes to us through Christ His Son. Reconciliation with Christ means the forgiveness of our sins and the restoration of our communion with God. Forgiveness is a divine gift freely given through the merits of Christ's death and resurrection. Our heavenly Father is infinitely merciful and seeks all sinners to be saved and come to the knowledge of truth. Saint John teaches us that the saving truth that leads to eternal life is "to know you, the only true God and him you have sent, Jesus Christ"[2]. Thus, through the mystery of grace, we believe that all mankind is called to participate in Christ's death and resurrection and be freed from sin and death forever.

In order for us to accept God's gift of reconciliation, we must fulfill three requirements. First, we must show true contrition for our sins. "Contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again." Second, when guilty of serious sin, we must make a sincere confession of our sins. We must be willing to admit our sins, take responsibility for them and place ourselves before divine mercy for pardon. Sacramental confession which includes the mediation of a priest is necessary for all grave and mortal sin to be forgiven. Finally, justice demands that we do penance to make amends for the wrong we have done. Such penance is a gift no different than the medicine we take when we are physically sick. It serves as spiritual medicine that strengthens our spirit against the power of sin.

After we are reconciled with God, we also need to be healed from the wounds that our sins have caused in our lives and those whom we have offended. We can never forget that our sins alter the very fabric of our lives. The effects of sin last long after the actual sin is forgiven. For example, just as a small rock that is thrown into a lake creates ripples that slowly move over the entire surface of the water, so too do our sins, seemingly individual and isolated, have an effect upon the entire fabric of our lives. Our sins deform us and prevent us from enjoying unity and peace with God.

How do our sins deform us? First and foremost, our sins slowly mold us into selfish people who cling to the material world over the spiritual values that should guide us. Repeated sinfulness also makes us more likely to sin again, violating our conscience more freely with every passing transgression. Second, our neighbors are cheated of our true love and devotion. Rivalry, jealousy and envy replace true friendship, charity and self-sacrifice. Finally, sin deforms our world, making it increasingly inhumane, subjecting human life to a crass materialism and consumerism. The human person becomes valued more in terms of what it possesses rather than who we are as children of God created in the divine image. It is no wonder that the atrocities that attack humanity, such as abortion, racial hatred and poverty, have become commonplace in our world

Recognizing the devastating effect of sin in our lives, the Church teaches that all grave sin has a doubleconsequence. Since serious sin deprives us of communion with God, it can lead to eternal punishment. This eternal punishment is removed by the forgiveness of sins and the restoration of our communion with God. "On the other hand, every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth or after death in the state of purgatory."[3] This purification frees one from the temporal punishment of sin. Only when a sinner is totally purified has all punishment, both eternal and temporal, been eliminated.

There are many graced actions that can help to purify us and remit the temporal punishments of sin. They include works of mercy and charity, patient suffering, prayer and various actions of penance, including almsgiving and fasting. The reception of indulgences can also remit the temporal punishment of sins. "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church. . . "[4] In other words, indulgences remit, that is, remove the temporal punishment that is due to the sinner.

Where do indulgences come from? In order to answer this question, we must remember two important points. First, we affirm that the church is a community of believers whose members are intimately connected to one other. This community includes those living on earth, those who have "gone before us marked with the sign of faith"[5] and the saints of heaven. Between all the members of the Church there is an enduring link of charity that binds the living and the dead, allowing an exchange of "all good things."[6] For example, the holiness of the saints can profit those who live in this world in their search for holiness and purification. Thus, all the spiritual goods and gifts, including the prayers and good works of the saints and our Blessed Mother, that are shared with the living is the Church's spiritual "treasury".

Second, unlike any material treasury that can be measured or weighed, the Church's spiritual treasury is of infinite value because the merits of Christ are included within it. There is no way we can measure the liberating power of Christ's death and resurrection upon the sins of the world. It is beyond price and limit. Thus, the Church's treasury of spiritual gifts is also beyond measure.

By an indulgence, the Church opens its spiritual treasury to the life of a sinner, obtaining for him the remission of the temporal punishment of sin. In this way, the Church not only helps believers but also spurs them on to greater works of devotion, penance and charity. In order to obtain an indulgence, the believer must be properly disposed and fulfill the required conditions that help to manifest true conversion and repentance. In this Jubilee year, the Holy Father has decreed that all the faithful may receive the Jubilee Indulgence, whose conditions include the reception of the sacraments of penance and Eucharist, acts of charity and penance and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father. By this extraordinary gift, we hope to stand before Christ reconciled and purified through our cooperation with His grace.

In summary, our Jubilee pilgrimage begins by leading us to seek reconciliation and purification in Christ. We ask God's grace to be forgiven of sin and be freed from its distorting power in our lives. Through penance and the spiritual treasury that is Christ's gift to us, we can begin to enjoy spiritual healing that will reach perfection in the glorious coming of Christ at the end of time. Only then will our pilgrimage have reached its final destination.

B. The Eucharist: Reception in and of the Body of Christ

Once we are reconciled and purified in Christ, our pilgrimage next brings us before the sacrament of the Eucharist, "the source and summit of the Christian life."[7]

As Catholics we believe that the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist is the sum and summary of our faith. The entire prayer of the Church finds its center and most intense expression in the Eucharist. In fact, the Church realizes its true nature most clearly in the Eucharistic celebration, when the faithful united around their bishop and priests, form the living Body of Christ.

The Eucharist is the "mystery of faith" wherein Christ Himself is made really present as food for believers, under the form of bread and wine. Christ's presence is the Eucharist is unique because "the body and blood, together with the soul and divinity, of our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore, the whole Christ is truly, really and substantially contained."[8] To speak of the Eucharist as the real presence of Christ is not to imply that Christ is not really present in other ways in the Church. Rather, it is real in that it is "presence in the fullest sense: that is to say, it is a substantial presence by which Christ, God and man, makes himself wholly and entirely present."[9] Thus, when we participate in the Eucharist or stand before its reserved presence, we are encountering the true and living Christ in our midst.

The Eucharist also allows us to participate through grace in the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection. This is possible because each time we celebrate the Eucharist, we commemorate and make real in an unbloody fashion the sacrifice of Christ that was offered once and for all time on the cross. As such, the Eucharist is truly a sacrifice because it re-presents (makes present) the unique sacrifice of the cross. It allows the same Christ who offered Himself on Calvary to be present to us in an unbloodly manner. In other words, the Eucharist is the memorial of Christ's death and resurrection which makes present the unique sacrifice of Christ for the forgiveness of sins. 

The Eucharist also nourishes the communion of the Church by strengthening our communion with Christ begun in baptism. "Communion with the flesh of the risen Christ . . . preserves, increases and renews the life of grace in baptism."[10] Our membership in the Church, which began in baptism, is renewed, strengthened and deepened by the reception of the Eucharist, itself a sacrament of initiation. Thus, we eat the Body and Blood of Christ to become more fully the living Body of Christ which is the Church. Our unity as believers is deepened each time we receive the Eucharist.

Finally, "we unite ourselves to Christ, who makes us sharers in his Body and Blood to form a single body"[11], so that we can anticipate our future participation in the eternal banquet of heaven. We receive the Lord in this life with the hope of reaching the end of our earthly pilgrimage and having a seat in the eternal banquet of heaven. For this reason we pray at Mass "to share in your glory, when every tear will be wiped away. On that day, we shall see you our God as you are. We shall become like you and praise you forever through Christ our Lord."[12]It is our certain hope that those who worthily receive the Eucharist will one day look upon the face of God forever.

Since the Eucharist is so great a gift, it must be our constant concern always to receive it worthily. Once reconciled with the Father, we can approach the altar with minds and hearts ready to receive the Lord's Body and Blood. I urge you, my dear brothers and sisters, to receive the Eucharist so that our unity may be strengthened in Christ. Receive the Lord worthily as food for the journey of life whose destination is the eternal glory of heaven!

Each time we receive the Eucharist, the Lord invites us to be transformed more completely in His image. During this Jubilee year, I pray that the Eucharist will transform us in at least three ways. First, the Lord challenges us to grow in unity with each other as brothers and sisters. All believers are called to the table of the Lord without distinction of class, race or worldly honors. We must begin to see each other as the Lord sees us, as equal sons and daughters of the one true God. There can be no room in our hearts for racism and discrimination of any kind. Rather, as we gather to share the one bread and one cup of Christ, we must begin to see our cultural, ethnic and linguistic diversities as gifts given by God to strengthen our lives of faith.

Second, the Eucharist calls us to deepen our prayer and contemplation of the Lord. The busy pace of our lives must stop before the mystery of the Eucharist because it invites us to look deep within ourselves in our communion with the Father. It prompts us to acknowledge and adore the Lord who comes to us as the Savior and Redeemer of the world with reverence and awe. In fact, prayer before the Blessed Sacrament is a powerful way by which we can be transformed more fully into the image of the Lord. Such prayer can take many forms. For example, the ancient practice of adoring the Blessed Sacrament is a powerful way by which the Lord comes to us as a physician and healer. When we approach the Eucharistic Lord in prayer, He speaks to our hearts, lifts our burdens and grants us the strength to follow in His footsteps. Such adoration can include recited or spoken prayer as well as meditation on the mysteries of Christ's life, death and resurrection. For some, it can also take the form of contemplation that moves from words and images to silent presence before the Lord.  However, no matter what form we choose, prayer before the Eucharist will bring us a renewal of faith and witness.

Finally, the Eucharist empowers us to live our baptismal call to be missionaries and evangelizers in the world. This will be vividly illustrated during the next few months in our diocese when many of our parishes will participate in outdoor Eucharistic processions. These processions will link our communities in a tangible way through the presence of the Blessed Sacrament. I encourage all the faithful to participate in these processions with reverence and joy. As we process with the Lord, we will carry the Eucharist down streets and walkways filled with men and women who may have lost direction and hope. The Lord wishes to lead them back to Himself. This will occur if we are prepared to return to those streets long after the processions are finished and preach the Gospel to all men and women through our words and deeds. We can never forget that we receive the Lord's body and blood to become his messengers. Thus, the Eucharist calls us to become missionaries and evangelizers in our communities. Wherever the Lord leads us, we must go with courage and hope.

Conclusion

The Great Jubilee of the Lord asks each of us to walk a pilgrimage of faith. This pilgrimage begins with repentance, confessing our sins, reconciliation and purification.  It leads us to receive the Lord's Body and Blood as food that sustains our daily journey in unity with the Lord and one another. May we walk this pilgrimage with courage and faith. I pray that the grace of Christ will lead and transform us as He wills.

As always, we can look to the example of Our Blessed Lady, the Mother of God and Mother of the Church to guide our steps. Through her prayers, may we one day come to the end of our pilgrimage and enter the presence of God!