Jubilee, between borders to be overcome and the issue of indulgences

“As if the borders had been overcome”. The Papal Bull of the ordinary Jubilee 2025 Spes Non Confundit refers to the jubilee pilgrimage in which we will pass from one Country to another. We all know the borders are not overcome, but the hope that “does not deceive and does not disappoint” is not a vague movement of the soul, but a prophetic act. It asks and allows borders to be overcome precisely because we know they exist.

What applies to the entire world also applies to the Church: borders certainly do exist. These are the borders between men and women, those concerning sexual minorities, economic borders, and even ethnic ones, in a world that is increasingly mixed but not at peace. It is for us to live and act as if they were overcome, in a journey that can be as tiring as going upstream, but which is already a good result in itself, and also a prophecy of truly open places, for which even doors are a bit excessive. This, without losing the evangelical image; in this sense, the door is Christ, and in this meaning, it is access without conditions, in which our conversion is not a prerequisite but a result. In this case, it is a true metaphor, a sign of a reality that precedes us, which declares that someone is continuously leaving it so that nothing may be lost and continuously invites us to share in his life, because we pass “from sheep to guests” (Hanz Gutierres Salazar, Beyond the Bible, Beyond the West).

However, despite the high reference and despite the fact that the Holy Doors open in unexpected places, their sashes continue to face different pressures, from the wind that flings them wide open and the air current that tends to close them. I like to imagine the Lord, like some door-to-door salesperson of the past, putting his foot in the doorway to keep it at least slightly ajar. Perhaps in complicity with the women who are the guardians of the thresholds of the Dwelling and who have “always” given their ornaments for it, the bronze mirrors, to recall the biblical image in Exodus 38:8.

Among the fragile elements in all this, I feel the need to mention one that remains truly embarrassing, which is indulgences. On one hand, they would seem to indicate that there is a “remnant,” a shadow of our actions, so why should we think we can eliminate them “ourselves” with a sacred swipe of a sponge, making them something to be earned? A historical legacy, one might say. However, it would be a great sign of collective jubilee conversion to eliminate them, a sign of repentance and ecumenical consensus, especially considering the conflictual role they played in the Reformation.

by CRISTINA SIMONELLI
Theologian, professor of Church History at the Faculty of Theology of Northern Italy, Milan