So... Indulgences... are those still a thing?

“Every time the coffer rings, the soul from Purgatory springs!”¹ … Said no licit Priest ever. When Luther scripted his 95 theses, the abuse of indulgences was at the top of the list. And indeed many of the Church’s clergy (and laity) were in great need of reform on the subject. The history lesson and the ‘justification of Luther’ is a different topic altogether. But what is obvious is that an indulgence can easily be misstated and misunderstood. It is imperative to note that Luther never condemned the concept of indulgences, merely the extremely heretical sale of them. So, when it comes to indulgences, why did the Church need reform? Are we talking about a bad principle, or mal-practice?

The media has certainly made a circus out of Pope Francis and his various interviews, but nonetheless he still maintains a positive rating with the general public. But this “new-age” pope the media portrays still does some pretty archaic, backward, patriarchal stuff (sarcasm). In declaring the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis granted a Year of Mercy INDULGENCE! Here we go back to the Dark Ages again!! I mean seriously, do Catholics even believe in these things anymore? No, for real… what is an indulgence? The answers to these questions just might surprise you.

Like most Catholic doctrines, indulgences aren’t binary computations, neither are they a list of tasks that once completed are a ‘get out of Hell free’ card. They certainly CANNOT BE PURCHASED. Indulgences require a deeper intent and an inner conversion which spurs on the physical acts and prayers. Only in this symbiotic relationship, where our outward acts are true signs of our inner desire to grow in holiness, can an indulgence actually become an indulgence; otherwise, the physical acts required— even the licit reception of Sacraments—cannot be efficacious. In fact, indulgences literally cannot be without the observer’s heart being penitent and desiring conversion.

Indulgences are very closely tied to penance,² as its function is “the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”³ To understand what the Catechism is telling us, we must look to the dual effects of sin: the temporal and eternal consequences. At base level, sin is sin. It is a break in our communion with God, and makes us incapable of eternal life, which is eternal communion with him.³ No one is worthy of heaven on their own, but the eternal consequences of sin are forgiven through the sacrifice of Christ’s passion, a debt which we could never repay, nor any mere human achievement can match. This grace makes heaven attainable to sinners; however it does not loose us or others who are ensnared by our sins of the temporal consequences. The gossip which we have spread, the bloody nose after a fist fight, the words spoken in anger, all linger as traces of our sin which we must atone for. The struggle of Purgatory involves bearing the temporal consequences of sin as a grace⁴ that purifies us so that we can share in the communion of the heavenly kingdom. On his radio program Called to Communion Dr. David Anders often illustrates these two consequences of sin with the analogy of the boy who breaks a window. The boy’s father forgives him of the act immediately so that there is no rupture of their relationship (eternal consequences of sin are forgiven). However, the broken glass and the hole in the house must still be addressed! (there is still action required to erase the temporal consequences)

Within this framework we are touching on the deepest theological concepts of faith and works. Our faith should spur on good works, and our realization that we don’t need a ‘once for all’ conversion but a constant conversion to holiness should spur on our faith, and this cycle thus becomes the right ordered Christian life.

Without this right order, not even the most advanced theologian could keep straight the right relationship that our works have in the economy of salvation. Indulgences and the practice of obtaining them is very much bound up in this concept. The penitent (for indeed the one desiring to obtain an indulgence need be sorry for his sins and seeking an ever deeper conversion of heart) must have a proper frame of mind, without which he cannot hope to obtain the indulgence through any sequence of actions. Our inward desire to grow closer to Christ or to bring another before God’s mercy must be the first thought of the penitent, otherwise they are grasping at the imaginary. However, in right order to God, we can be in right order with the sequence of events which the Church provides to the faithful in order that we might be forgiven of even the temporal consequences for our sins. And, because the “holiness of one profits others”⁵ (which is the reverse of sin’s temporal consequences), we can even obtain an indulgence and offer up its efficacy for another member of the Body of Christ who is in Purgatory.⁶ It is even possible that, with the continuation of this right ordered offering, we might be freed from every effect of sin!⁷ That is, of course, if we are obtaining a plenary indulgence. There are two types, the other being a partial indulgence which, you guessed it, is efficacious in remitting only part of sin’s temporal consequence.

Perhaps one might question why the Church would sanction such a qualifying act that could so easily be misunderstood. But the same argument might be made about the whole Christian life! Thus, indulgences cannot be viewed as merely a ‘holy scavenger hunt.’ Obtaining an indulgence is the very real practice of daily conversion; it is the Christian life in miniature. In this light the Church’s dispensation of indulgences makes perfect sense as a loving mother’s response: “the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and Charity.”⁸

To learn how you may obtain the Year of Mercy Indulgence, visit the website below:

http://www.fisheaters.com/indulgences.html, you might be surprised at just how transformative it can be. And don’t worry, not even Luther will judge you as long as your heart is in the right place!

1 Vidmar, John OP The Catholic Church Throughout the Ages, quoting the illicit monk Tetzel, Paulist Press, Section 5
2 Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1471
3 ibid, paragraph 1472
4 ibid, paragraph 1473
5 ibid, paragraph 1475
6 ibid, paragraph 1471
7 ibid, paragraph 1472
8 ibid, paragraph 1478