AS THE THIRD MILLENNIUM of the new era dawns our thoughts turn spontaneously to the words of the Apostle Paul: "When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman" (Gal 4:4). The fullness of time coincides with the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, of the Son who is of one being with the Father, and with the mystery of the Redemption of the world. In this passage, Saint Paul emphasizes that the Son of God was born of woman, born under the Law, and came into the world in order to redeem all who were under the Law, so that they might receive adoption as sons and daughters. And he adds: "Because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying "Abba! Father!" His conclusion is truly comforting: "So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir" (Gal 4:6-7).

Paul's presentation of the mystery of the Incarnation contains the revelation of the mystery of the Trinity and the continuation of the Son's mission in the mission of the Holy Spirit. The Incarnation of the Son of God, his conception and birth, is the prerequisite for the sending of the Holy Spirit. This text of Saint Paul thus allows the fullness of the mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation to shine forth (T.M.A. 1)

This year's Christmas takes on a special significance. This is because the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 will begin on Christmas Eve 1999 with the opening of the Holy Door in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, whereas in the particular churches the Jubilee will begin on the most holy day of the Nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ. The year 2000 will be much more than a usual "Happy New Year" because this new year we are proclaiming and celebrating The Great Jubilee which is in fact, the greatest of all Jubilees (T.M.A. 16) for it is the year of favour, the year of freedom in Christ Jesus (see Lk, 4:18-19).

The Pope will be the first to pass through the holy door on the night between 24 and 25 December. Crossing the threshold, he will show to the Church and to the world the Holy Gospel, the wellspring of life and hope for the coming third millennium (I.M. 8).

To focus upon the door is to recall the responsibility of every believer to cross its threshold. To pass through that door means to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord: it is to strengthen faith in Him in order to live the new life which he has given us.

When Jesus said "I am the Door" (Jn 10:7) He made it clear that no one can come to the Father except through Him. There is only one way that opens wide the entrance into the life of communion with God: this is Jesus, the one and absolute way to Salvation. He alone is the Saviour sent by the Father. Jesus of Nazareth, who reveals the Father, has fulfilled the hidden desire in every human heart to know God. What the ancient prophets had announced as a promise is disclosed in the revelation of Christ. Jesus reveals the face of God the Father "compassionate and merciful" (Jas. 5:11). Through the Holy Door, symbolically more spacious at the end of the millennium, Christ will lead us more deeply into the Church, His Body and His Bride.

Christians feel strengthened in the knowledge that they bring to the world the true light, Christ the Lord. Proclaiming Jesus of Nazareth, true God and perfect Man, the Church opens to all peoples the prospect of becoming more human, since Christ is the perfect man who has restored to the children of Adam, the divine likeness which had been deformed by sin. By His Incarnation, the Son of God, united Himself in some sense with every man. In the encounter with Christ, every man discovers the mystery of his own life. Jesus is the genuine newness which surpasses all human expectations and as such, He remains forever. His birth at Bethlehem is not an event which can be consigned to the past. Human history stands in fact in reference to Him; our own time and the future of the world are illumined by His presence.

The Great Jubilee of the year 2000 will focus on Christ, an aspect which needs to be emphasized, for it will celebrate the Incarnation of the Word of God and the coming into this world of the Son of God. It is the mystery of Salvation for all mankind. In the Bible it is the Heavenly Father Himself who reveals Himself to us in love and who dwells in us. He discloses to us the nature of His only begotten Son and His plan of Salvation for humanity. In Jesus Christ, God not only speaks to man but also seeks him out.

For twenty years, Pope John Paul II has prophesied the Great Jubilee of international justice and freedom. We have been called to prepare for the Great Jubilee. Nevertheless, many don't see how the Great Jubilee will actually be the turning point when the culture of death is displaced by a civilization of love and life. As we begin the long-awaited Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, we hope it will bring us international justice and freedom. We, as disciples of Christ, are called to displace the culture of death with a civilization of love and life in the new millennium.

May Christmas 1999 be for everyone a feast filled with light, the prelude to an especially deep experience of grace and divine mercy, which will continue until the closing of the Jubilee Year on the day of the Epiphany of our Lord Jesus, January 6, 2001 (I.M. 6).

Wishing you all a Blessed Christmas and the Happiest of New Years!

After years of preparation, we find ourselves at the threshold of the Great Jubilee. Much has been done during these years throughout the Church to plan for this event of grace. The Great Jubilee is not just a series of functions to be held, but a great interior experience to be lived. External factors make sense only in so far as they express a deeper commitment which touches people's hearts. It was in fact this inner dimension that I wished to point out to everyone in my Apostolic Letter Tertio Millennio Adveniente and the Jubilee Bull of Indiction Incarnationis Mysterium, both of which were well received by a great many people. This special Jubilee of the Year 2000 will inevitably take my thoughts to the places which are closely linked to the Incarnation of the Word of God, the event which the Holy Year of 2000 directly recalls.

Our meditation therefore turns to the "places" in which God has chosen to "Pitch His tent" among us (Jn 1:14; cf. Ex. 40:34-35; 1 Kgs 8:10-13), thus enabling man to encounter him more directly. This spatial dimension is no less decisive than the temporal in the concrete accomplishment of the mystery of the Incarnation.

At first sight, it may seem puzzling to speak of precise "spaces" in connection with God. No less than time, is not space completely subject to God's control? Everything has come from His hands and there is no place where God cannot be found: "The Lord's is the earth and its fullness, the world and all its people. It is he who set it on the seas, on the waters he made it firm" (PS 24: 1-2). God is equally present in every corner of the earth, so that the whole world may be considered the "temple" of His presence.

Yet this does not take away from the fact that, just as time can be marked by kairoi, by special moments of grace, space too may by analogy bear the stamp of particular saving actions of God. Moreover, this is an intuition present in all religions, which not only have sacred times but also sacred spaces, where the encounter with the divine may be experienced more intensely than it would normally be in the vastness of the cosmos.

In relation to this common religious tendency the Bible offers its own specific message, setting the theme of "sacred space" within the context of the history of salvation. On the one hand, Scripture warns against the inherent risks of defining space of this kind, when this is done as a way of divinizing nature: here we should recall the powerful anti-idolatrous polemic of the Prophets in the name of fidelity to Yahweh, the God of the Exodus. On the other hand, the Bible does not exclude a cultic use of space, in so far as this expresses fully the particularity of God's intervention in the history of Israel. Sacred space is thus gradually "concentrated" in the Jerusalem Temple, where the God of Israel wishes to be honoured and, in a sense, encountered. The eyes of Israelite pilgrims turn to the Temple and great is their joy when they reach the place where God has made His home: "I rejoiced when I heard them say, `Let us go to God's house'. And now our feet are standing within your gates, 0 Jerusalem!" (Ps 122:1.2).

In the New Testament, this "concentration" of sacred places reaches its summit in Christ, who is, in His person, the new "temple" (cf. Jn. 2:21), in which dwells the "fullness of Godhead" (Col 2:9). With his coming, worship was destined radically to surpass material shrines in order to become worship "in spirit and truth" (Jn 4:24). In Christ, then, the Church too is considered by the New Testament to be a "temple" (cf. I Cor 3:17), as is the individual disciple of Christ, since each is inhabited by the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Cor 6:19, Rm 8:11). Clearly, this does not mean that Christians cannot have places of worship, as the history of the Church well shows; but it must not be forgotten that these are intended only to serve the liturgical and fraternal life of the community, at the same time knowing that the presence of God, by its nature cannot be restricted to any one place, since his presence, which has its fullest expression and communication in Christ, pervades all space.

The mystery of the Incarnation therefore reshapes the universal experience of "sacred space", on the one hand relativizing it, and on the other hand underlining its importance in new terms. The very "taking of flesh" by the Word (Jn 1:14) is in fact a reference to space. In Jesus of Nazareth, God has assumed the features typical of human nature, including a person's belonging to a particular people and a particular land. "Hic de Virgine Maria Jesus Christus natus est" - these words It therefore only remains for me to extend a warm invitation to the entire Christian community to set out spiritually upon the path of the Jubilee pilgrimage. This can be done in the many ways that I suggested in the Bull of lndiction. But it is certain that many will also do so by actually journeying to the places that have been particularly important in the history of salvation. In any event, we must all make that inward journey which seeks to move us away from whatever, in us and around us, is contrary to Cod's law, so as to be able to encounter Christ fully, professing our faith in him and receiving the abundance of his mercy.

In the Gospel, Jesus seems always to be travelling about. He seems to be in a hurry to move from one place to another in order to proclaim the imminent coming of God's Kingdom. He proclaims and he calls. His "Follow me" prompted the Apostles' ready response (cf. Mk 1:16-20). Let us all feel touched by his voice, his call, his summons to a new life.

I say this especially to young people, before whom life is opening up like a journey full of surprises and promises.

I say it to everyone: let us set out in the footsteps of Christ!

The Church has received from Christ the power to forgive sins in His name (Mt 16:19). Every grave sin deprives us of communion with God. Consequently, it excludes us from eternal life. A venial sin does not separate us from God, but obscures our full friendship with Him. Every sin - mortal or venial - pardoned through repentance and sacramental absolution, requires a purification here on earth or in purgatory. Practically for each sin, there is a price to pay, called by theologians "temporal punishment". Reconciliation with God does not mean there are no enduring consequences of sin from which we must be purified. It is in this context that the Church, with the theology of indulgence based on the total gift of the mercy of God, helps us to pay the temporal punishment for sins already forgiven. We are thus brought back to full communion with God and with our brothers and sisters In the mystical Body. The indulgence discloses the fullness of the Father's mercy who offers everyone His love, expressed primarily in the forgiveness of sins.

As the body has many members, and all of them, even though many, are united in harmony in one body, so all of us, as members of the Church and nourished by the Holy Spirit, are united in Christ, and through Him, with each other. We share all spiritual goods. This communion of saints comprises not only the militant Church on earth, but also the triumphant Church in heaven, and the Church in the process of purification in purgatory. The spiritual value of indulgences cannot be underestimated. They are not necessary, but it is important to stress their spiritual usefulness. Indulgences are not the only means of obtaining the remission of temporal punishment due to sin. All penitential acts, freely and sincerely undertaken to make reparation for our sins, can purify us. The Church has instituted indulgences, based on the great mercy of God, to help her sons and daughters in their weakness and frailty. Faith in the communion of saints and the sense of solidarity inspired by the Mystical Body, increase their confidence. Indulgences are not easy ways to avoid the necessity of doing penance for our sins. They are helps that enable the faithful to understand our frailty, and the comforting assurance of the doctrine of the Mystical Body of Christ.

The Church, through the power given to her by Jesus Christ (Jn 19:29), opens the treasures of Christ and the saints to each Christian, so that he may obtain from the Father of mercy the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin. The grant of indulgence is, therefore, a ministry performed by the Church with authority. By the power of this authority, the Church establishes the conditions for gaining indulgences. Among these conditions, the most essential is a sincere sorrow for all the sins committed and confessed, and a sincere attitude of detachment from any sin, mortal or venial. Without this personal commitment of sincere detachment, it is not possible to gain an indulgence.

The conditions for gaining indulgences, as indicated in the Bull of lndiction of the Jubilee Year, are:-

1. Sacramental Confession, leading to a genuine conversion of heart.

2. Holy Communion "The year 2000 will be intensely Eucharistic".

3. A pilgrimage, to recall that "The whole of the Christian Life is like a great pilgrimage to the house of the Father".

4. Prayers: The Creed, Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory, according to the Pope's intention.

5. A visit to a Church designated by appropriate ecclesiastical authority. In Kuwait, the Churches designated are the Holy Family Cathedral in Kuwait City and the Church of Our Lady of Arabia, Ahmadi.

6. Charitable works towards the sick, those in prison, the elderly who are alone, abandoned children, young people in trouble, and all who are in need, because Christ is in each one of them (Mt 25: 34-46).

JESUS CAME TO NAZARETH, WHERE HE WAS BROUGHT UP; AND HE WENT TO THE SYNAGOGUE, AND HE STOOD UP TO READ; HE OPENED THE BOOK OF ISAIAH AND FOUND THE PLACE WHERE IT WAS WRITTEN:

"THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE HAS ANOINTED ME TO PREACH GOOD NEWS TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES AND RECOVERING OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET AT LIBERTY THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM A YEAR OF FAVOUR FROM THE LORD." (Is. 6:1-2). THE EYES OF ALL IN THE SYNAGOGUE WERE FIXED ON HIM. AND HE BEGAN TO SAY TO THEM, "TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING." (cfr. Lk. 4:16-21)