Indulgences (2017)
Fr. Martin Fuchs´s sermon on 12th November 2017, Prague,
Czech republic
***
Dear faithful,
Protestants reproach the
Catholic Church that she teaches subjects that are not found in Holy Scripture
such as the veneration of saints, the veneration of relics, the seven Sacraments,
the purgatory or the indulgence.
Let us talk today about the
indulgence! This subject is not explicitly mentioned in the Holy Scripture but only
implicitly.
If some people want to start a
company, they talk together and write down the most important things, not all
of them, but the most important things.
If they elect a manager, in his
contract there are only the most important duties present. It is not necessary
to write down all duties. It is not necessary to write down that he can buy new
houses that he can employ or fire employees that he can make contracts for the
company.
It is very similar with the
Holy Scripture. We can read that Our Lord gave the Apostles the power to
forgive sins. Nothing else! But with this power he gave them also the power to
remove all what is connected with the sins: not only the trespasses but also
the punishment.
“Amen I say to you, whatsoever
you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you
shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.“ (Matthew 18:18)
What is the indulgence?
The indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment due to sin
granted outside of the Sacrament of Penance by him who has the power to dispose
of the “satisfactory treasure“ of the Church.
The indulgence is the remission of the “temporal punishment“.
It does not therefore concern
the forgiveness of the sin itself but it concerns only one of its consequences.
Actually, there are three things in sin: the action by which we offend God, the
stain on the soul caused by this offence, the punishment deserved for this
offence and for this degradation.
In the Sacrament of Penance,
God forgives the offence and erases the stain but there can remain some part of
the chastisement. Eternal punishment (that is to say Hell) caused by mortal sin
is erased by this sacrament but in the place of this eternal punishment, it is
only right for sinner to suffer a temporal punishment. This punishment is
called temporal because the sinner has to suffer it in time, either in this
world or in the next, but not for all the eternity. There is also a temporal
punishment for venial sin.
We read about temporal
punishment after Adam and Eve sinned: “God spoke to Eve: I will multiply thy
sorrows, and thy conceptions: in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children, and
thou shalt be under thy husband's power, and he shall have dominion over thee. And to Adam he said: with labour and toil
shalt thou eat thereof all the days of thy life. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken.“ (Genesis
3:16-18) – God has taken away the sin but not the whole punishment.
We read also about the temporal
punishment after David’s adultery: “And Nathan said to David: The Lord also
hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die. Nevertheless, because thou hast
given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, for this thing, the
child that is born to thee, shall surely die.“ (2 Samuel 12:13 ff.)
This remission is made outside of the Sacrament of Penance. The Sacrament of Penance could undoubtedly remit all
temporal pain caused by sin if the penitent is extremely sorry for his sins.
Unfortunately, a few Christians are capable of experiencing in their souls pain
and hate for sin that would be sufficient to obtain such a result. This is why a
priest gives a few acts of penance (such as prayers or mortifications) to be
done after the Confession. The accomplishment of this penance is called “giving
satisfaction“ because it “satisfies“ the demands of divine justice which
requires of us to do our part in the reparation of our sins. However, most of
the time not even this is enough to pay off our debts to God. The indulgences
granted outside of the Sacrament of Penance solve this problem: through them we
can pay the rest of what we owe.
What is meant by “satisfactory treasure of the Church“?
This “treasure“ is the whole
of the sufferings endured by Our Lord and the Saints which has not yet been
used towards the reparation of sins. Our Lord and Our Lady did not have to do
reparation for their own sins, since they had none, and many Saints have made
more penance that what was necessary for the reparation of their own sins.
There is therefore a surplus of sufferings that can be used to appease divine
anger. So as not to lose the “satisfactory“ value of all these sacrifices, it
is gathered up in the treasure of the Church, so that it can be used by other
souls.
Let me answer other short
questions:
But what gives the Church the right to gather up in such a way in her
treasure all the overabundant satisfactions of Jesus Christ and the Saints?
The Church is the “Mystical
Body“ of Christ with Jesus as its head and all the faithful as the members. All
the members of the same body share in the same life; the good of one member is
profitable for all the others. In the Creed that we recite at the beginning of
the Rosary this intimate union between all the faithful is called the “communion
of saints.“
Who, within the Church, has the right to distribute this satisfactory
treasure?
Only the Pope and the Bishops
can establish indulgences.
If we can gain indulgences, do we have to continue to do the penance?
Yes, for it is rare that we
completely gain full indulgences. It is therefore prudent to continue
practicing mortifications. If we were to neglect this virtue, we would not be
the disciples of Jesus Christ. Furthermore, it does not only help to repair the
bad committed but it is also necessary to preserve us from sinning in the
future.
If it is still obligatory to do the penance, what then is the use of indulgences?
Indulgences remain very
useful. To start with, they help us by replacing certain penances that would be
quite severe and that would therefore frighten our weak nature. They give us
means by which we can practice charity towards the souls in the purgatory,
since many indulgences can be applied to them to bring relief to their
sufferings and in some cases to free them completely.
What is the meaning of indulgences of “a hundred days“, of “ten years“
etc.?
This refers to the remission
of penances that used to be imposed on sinners by the laws of the Church. In
the early days of the Christian society each sin had in a manner of speaking
its “dues“ in satisfactory works. To make up for such and such a sin, there was
an allotted amount of days of penance; for another, a certain amount of years
was needed. However, these punishments were very severe. The dues of one single
sin was at times of seven years, ten years, twenty years, or even a lifetime!
Therefore, when it is noted that an indulgence gives a remission of three
years, for example, it means that the faithful receives the same remission for
his sins as thought he had done three years of penance according to the old
rules of the Church.
The days and the years of penance forgiven to the sinners by the Church
do not therefore represent the days and years in the purgatory?
No, these indulgences do not
refer to the sufferings of the next world, but to those of the present life.
However, there is a certain proportion between the pains imposed by the Church
here on earth and the expiatory pains of the purgatory. For example, if someone
dies right after having received an indulgence of seven years, his pains in the
purgatory will be reduced as much as if he had suffered here on earth during
seven years according to the past practices of the Church.
Can the indulgences of the Church be applied to the souls in the purgatory?
Yes, on condition that this is
authorized by the person that established the said indulgence (the Pope or a
Bishop). As for the indulgences of the Rosary, the Church allowed for this
application. For example, the indulgence from 1st to 8th November that requires
a visit of the graveyard. It can only be applied to the souls in the purgatory.
Indulgences can only be
applied to the person who gains the indulgence or to the souls in the purgatory,
not to other living persons, because we do not know, if they are in the state
of grace.
What are the terms and conditions to gain a full indulgence?
The Church wants us to do good
works with every indulgence! The Holy Scripture mentions especially three kinds
of good works: to do alms, to pray, to fast (Matthew 6:3, 5, 16). And of course,
the Church wants us to work on our salvation: to go to the Holy confession, to
the Holy Communion, to pray with the intentions of the Church and to avoid sin.
So we have to go to the Confession
(8 days before or after the day we want to gain an indulgence); we have to go
to the Holy communion each day we want to gain an indulgence; we have to pray with
the intention of the Holy See. This intention is fixed by the Church. (We pray
for the exaltation of the Church, for the extermination of the heresies, for
the spread of the Catholic Faith, for the conversion of sinners, for peace
among the Christian kings and for all other goods of the Christian people) – it
is not the intention that there shall be peace among all religions; and we must
be free from any binding to sin, even venial sins.
What are the special conditions to gain a full indulgence?
To gain a full indulgence, we
must do a special work, fixed by the Church:
To say 5 decades of the Holy
Rosary, to read the Holy Scripture for half an hour, to say a special prayer
after the Holy communion, to go to the graveyard praying for the souls in the purgatory
and so on.
Let us appreciate more the
indulgences! Let us gain a lot of indulgences, especially for the souls in the
purgatory! Amen.
