1 November 2014 A.D. Reformation Countdown Plus One: Remembering
Rome’s Indulgences
Let the Romanists put
forward their own definition of Jesus’ work as not quite adequate, sufficient
or finished.
No author. “What is an Indulgence?” ETWN. N.d.
https://www.ewtn.com/devotionals/mercy/what.htm. Accessed 31 Oct 2014.
What
is an Indulgence?
The
Decree of Indulgence for Divine Mercy Sunday grants a plenary or full indulgence
to those who satisfy certain conditions established by the Church and a partial
(incomplete) indulgence to those who fulfill some but not all or the
conditions.
A
plenary indulgence means that by the merits of Jesus Christ, the Blessed Virgin
Mary and all the saints, the full remission of the temporal punishment due to
sacramentally forgiven sins is obtained. The person becomes as if just
baptized and would fly immediately to heaven if he died in that
instant. A partial indulgence means that a portion of the temporal
punishment due to forgiven sin is remitted. Partial indulgences are received
either by doing some act to which a partial indulgence is attached (e.g.
praying a partially indulgenced prayer), or by the incomplete fulfillment of
the conditions attached to a plenary indulgence.
Eternal
and Temporal Punishment or Guilt
There
are two kinds of punishment attached to sin, eternal and temporal. If the sin
is mortal (serious, grave) sin, the person loses the friendship of God and with
it the life of divine grace within. This punishment is eternal. If the person
is not restored to grace before death he will be punished forever in hell,
since serious sin is an infinite insult to an All-Holy God and thus deserves a
like punishment. It was to repair for such sin that Jesus became man and was
crucified. As God His sacrifice was infinitely meritorious, as Man He was able
to represent us. He thus could expiate for our mortal sins, which are not just
beyond our power of expiation but infinitely beyond it.
Mortal
sin, and also venial sin (which has no eternal punishment attached to it), both
disturb the right order within us and in the order of justice in general. We
all experience these temporal (or in-time, in-this-world) consequences of sin,
both both personally and socially. Sin changes us (or rather we sin because we
are not what we are supposed to be), and like a pebble in a pond these changes
have effects beyond us. Not only must we be sorry for our sins, but we
must be more thoroughly converted to the Lord, and demonstrate that conversion
(Acts 26:20) by our actions. So, while sacramental absolution forgives the
eternal guilt of sin, which requires the infinite merits of Christ, it does not
necessarily remove all the temporal punishment, since they are somewhat within
our power to repair (and somewhat unknown to us). Depending on our degree of
sorrow, absolution may result in the expiation of all the temporal guilt
of sin. However, for that which it does not repair, we must offer further
expiation through prayer, penance, carrying the Cross etc., or after death be
purified in purgatory (Rev 21:27).
What
an Indulgence does is to take an occasion of such expiation (a certain prayer,
penance, charity or other designated work) and add to its intrinsic merit
before God an additional value based on the treasury of merits of Jesus
Christ, and those perfectly united to Him in heaven (the saints). This can
either partially, or under certain conditions, totally remit the temporal
punishment due to sin. This depends, naturally, on our openness to God's
grace. A mechanical performance of an indulgenced work would not have effect.
Performing an indulgenced work should have the consequence of fixing our will
away from our sins and entirely on God. This is why among the most important of
the conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence, and the hardest to satisfy,
is the complete detachment or detestation of our sins. By detesting our sins we
orient our will away from creatures (to the degree we love them inordinately),
towards God. In this way we open our will to the action of His mercy flowing
into our souls, which alone is able to effect the complete remission of the
temporal punishment to our sins.
An
example will perhaps better illustrate these points. A boy playing ball breaks
a window of his home. Contrite and sorrowful he goes to his father, who
forgives him. However, despite the forgiveness the window is still broken and
must be repaired. Since the boy's personal resources are insufficient to pay
for a new window, the father requires him to pay a few dollars from his savings
and forego some of his allowance for several weeks, but that he, the father,
will pay the rest. This balances justice and mercy (generous love). To ask the
boy to do nothing, when it is possible for him to make some reparation, would
not be in accordance with the truth, or even the boy's good. Yet, even
this temporal debt is beyond the boy's possibilities. Therefore, from his own
treasury the father generously makes up what the child cannot provide. This is
indulgence. Unlike the theologies that say "we are washed it the blood of
the Lamb and there is nothing left to do," Catholic teaching respects the
natural order of justice, as Jesus clearly did in the Gospels, yet recognizes
that man cannot foresee or undo all the temporal consequences of his sin.
However, God in His mercy will satisfy justice for what we cannot repair.
Note
on Partial Indulgences (days and years)
In
the past partial indulgences were "counted" in days (e.g. 300 days)
or years (e.g. 5 years). Catholics often mistakenly thought that this meant
"time off of purgatory." Since there is no time in purgatory, as we
understand it, it meant instead the remission of temporal punishment analogous
to a certain amount of penitence as practiced in the early Church. This was a
very generous standard, since the penitence required for sacramental absolution
in the early centuries was arduous, indeed. However, with Pope Paul VI's 1968
revision of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (Collection or Handbook of
Indulgences), this confusing way of counting partial indulgences was
suppressed, and the evaluation of a partial indulgence left to God.
There
are many prayers still circulating on prayer cards and in prayer books which
have partial indulgences in days and years attached to them. However, all
grants of indulgence issued prior to 1968, unless re-issued in the Enchiridion
or specifically exempted by papal decree or privilege, were suppressed by Pope
Paul VI. Thus, these many specific prayers with their attached indulgences, as
well as the manner of measuring partial indulgences, are no longer valid. Some
of them may still receive an indulgence, though, because of being re-issued in
the new Enchiridion (e.g. the Anima Christi, the Prayer before
a Crucifix and many other formal prayers). All other prayers previously
indulgenced could, nonetheless, receive a partial indulgence under the general
grants of indulgence which Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul II in his
1999 revision of the Enchiridion, established. These general grants establish
partial indulgences for devout prayer, penitence and charity, and are a new and
very generous inclusion in the Church's grants of indulgence. They have made it
unnecessary to grant specific indulgences to prayers and other pious acts, as
was done in the past.
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