Indulgences

Out of all the things that the Catholic Church teaches, indulgences are possibly the most misunderstood. I think it is safe to say that statement would include most Catholics. If you are one of those Catholics, it doesn't have to be that way. First things first...definitions.

Indulgences

An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.¹

What an Indulgence Is Not

To facilitate explanation, it may be well to state what an indulgence is not. It is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin; neither could be granted by any power. It is not the forgiveness of the guilt of sin; it supposes that the sin has already been forgiven. It is not an exemption from any law or duty, and much less from the obligation consequent on certain kinds of sin, e.g., restitution; on the contrary, it means a more complete payment of the debt which the sinner owes to God. It does not confer immunity from temptation or remove the possibility of subsequent lapses into sin. Least of all is an indulgence the purchase of a pardon which secures the buyer's salvation or releases the soul of another from Purgatory. The absurdity of such notions must be obvious to any one who forms a correct idea of what the Catholic Church really teaches on this subject...²

So where is the definition of the definitions? If there are some words in there that you are not very familiar with, do not worry, we will get to them. To properly understand what the Church teaches about indulgences we only need to understand a few simple concepts.

The Two Consequences of Sin

Grave, or mortal, sin has two consequences; the first, which is called eternal punishment, and the second, which is called temporal punishment. The eternal punishment of sin is hell or an eternal deprivation of communion with our Creator. Eternal punishment is only a consequence of mortal sin. It is not a consequence of venial sin. "Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent."³ In other words it is a serious matter, you know it, and you freely choose to do it anyway. A sin is venial when at least one of the three conditions for mortal sin are missing. Temporal punishment is a consequence of both mortal and venial sin. Temporal punishment is a consequence that takes place in time. It is not eternal in nature, hence the name.

The Tale of Two Brothers

At this point an example might make things clearer. You and your brother like to play catch after school and every day you come home and go outside and throw the ball back and forth. You do it outside because your parents have told you that you are not allowed to do it inside. This particular day it is raining outside and instead of doing something else you decide to throw the ball around inside the house and end up breaking a window. In true sorrow and repentance you both confess to your parents what you have done when they come home and they forgive your disobedience towards them. Just as your parents have restored you and your brother to your previous place in the family, so does God restore us when we repent of our sins in true sorrow and confession. The theological term for this is justification. The normative way that man is justified by God is in baptism. If following baptism man separates himself from God through mortal sin he can be re-justified by God in in reconciliation. Justification is not what is going on with indulgences. When we are made just (or justified) our eternal punishment, that eternal separation from God, has been removed.

There are some people who would say that everything is good now. You are just in the eyes of God and if you were to die you would go to heaven. Well, almost. You might notice that it is still a bit breezy in here. There are some other things that resulted from your little foray into disobedience. The most obvious is that the window is still broken. That is an example of the temporal consequences of our sin. There are many other temporal consequences that might not be so obvious. There is the bad example we have set for our younger brother who we convinced to join us in the disobedience of our parents. There is the resultant lack of trust that our parents will have in us when we are home without them there to supervise us. There is the predisposition to commit this sin again because the more we indulge in disobedience the more likely it is to become a habit, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. As you can see our sins affect us and others in many different ways. These are just some of the ways that we can readily think of. Imagine the ones that we have no idea are going on.

The Treasury of Merit and the Keys to the Kingdom

Let's say the window is going to cost $100 to fix. You do not have any money because the unemployment rate for 12 year olds is pretty high. Since you do not have a job and it has been quite awhile since you spent the last of your birthday money, you are in quite the pickle. Although you desire to fix the window, you have not covered that in shop class yet and your piggy bank is completely empty. What is a boy to do? You ask your parents for help of course. They tell you that they recognize your desire to repair the window and would like to help you and your brother earn enough to fix it. They tell you that you can mow the lawn and earn $10 towards fixing the window. You could also help dad this Saturday rip out the old deck and install a new one to pay off the whole $100.

It is the same way with us when we sin. The Church, thanks to the infinite merit of Jesus Christ, has a vast, limitless treasury of merit that she has access to. Because our Lord granted Saint Peter (and his successors) the keys to the kingdom and the powers to bind and loose, the Church is able to give us ways to make satisfaction for our temporal debts. Even when we are forgiven of the eternal punishment due to our mortal sin by God's grace and through repentance, contrition, and confession, we still have the temporal consequences of it to deal with. The Church, through her access to Christ's infinite merit, attaches an indulgence to a particular pious act. In this way the penitent can really pay for the temporal consequences which he may have no earthly way of perceiving or simply cannot repair. The Church offers us two different kinds of indulgences. They are either partial (as in the $10 example above) or plenary (as in the $100 example).

Just as we can benefit from receiving from this treasury of merit, we can also contribute to it. As Christians united to Jesus Christ, acting in and by his grace, our good works, penances, and sufferings are also added to this treasury. Although the treasury is already infinite our additions are real because they are acquired through the merits of Jesus Christ.

The benefits of an indulgence may also be applied to those who are in Purgatory. Continuing the previous example, if the younger brother were to have died without having made restitution, the older brother could mow the lawn and use those benefits, the $10, to pay his brother's part of the debt.

Indulgences are consistent with both God's mercy and his justice, because he allows us to unite ourselves to him through Jesus Christ whose satisfaction to the Father more than fulfills the indebtedness man has caused by his sin. Indulgences are a wonderful gift to every Christian. We will be called to account for all the temporal consequences of our sin, in this life or in the next. As Saint Augustine tells us:

But temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But of those who suffer temporal punishments after death, all are not doomed to those everlasting pains which are to follow that judgment; for to some, as we have already said, what is not remitted in this world is remitted in the next, that is, they are not punished with the eternal punishment of the world to come.⁴

Further Reading

• Myths about Indulgences - Catholic Answers


• Primer on Indulgences - Catholic Answers


• Catechism of the Catholic Church on Indulgences (1471-1479)


• Indulgences in Canon Law (1983 CIC 992-997)


• Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina - Pope Paul VI (1/1/67)

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Footnotes
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church ¶1471 ^
[2] Indulgences - The Catholic Encyclopedia <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07783a.htm> ^
[3] Apostolic Exhortation Reconciliatio et paenitentia (17 § 12) - Pope John Paul II ^
[4] Saint Augustine, City of God - Book 21, Chapter 13 ^

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Cardinal Theodore McCarrick weighs in

Cardinal Theodore McCarrick has expressed his view that "he would rather work to persuade politicians to consider a pro-life view" then to refuse them Communion. He mentioned this in response to Archbishop Raymond Burke's wonderfully detailed article about denying Communion based on Canon 915.

What I do not understand is why the two things are mutually exclusive. Yes, persuade them that their support or lack of resistance to abortion is wrong. In fact persuade them at every possible point. In the meantime protect the would-be communicant from heaping judgment upon himself and protect our Lord from being profaned. (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)
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Denial of Holy Communion

Archbishop Raymond Burke of Saint Louis has published an article on the correct application of Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law on the denial of Holy Communion in regards to those who persist in manifest grave sin (the example being politicians who support abortion). If you have some time on your hands you can read it here. WARNING! It is a long article, but if you have been confused by this topic or are looking for the history of the Church's teachings in regards to this topic it is well worth the time invested. Ed Peters (a canon lawyer) comments on Archbishop Burke's article here.
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Why the Church refuses the Eucharist to non-Catholics

A cousin of mine recently called to tell me about a conversation he had with a non-Catholic friend about this topic. Things did not go as well as he would have liked, even though he has a decent handle on the reasons. This was probably one of the questions that I was asked the most when I was working with the RCIA program at Saint Brigid. It usually went something like, "Why can’t non-Catholics¹ receive communion in the Catholic Church? Do Catholics think they are better than everyone else?" As Catholics we need to step back and realize that these are reasonable questions. Most people who ask you this have no idea what the Church teaches that communion is. It is important to remember that the Catholic Church always has good reasons for what she does. She is not in the business of being mean or haughty. Her reasons are always biblically and logically sound.

Sometimes when you are confronted with a question like this it catches you off guard. Especially when it is accompanied with a comment about how this teaching of the Church seems stupid or mean. It is important to always say a quick prayer for the person and for yourself. That God would open their heart to the truth and that you will be given the grace to tell it to them in charity.

The first thing that the non-Catholic needs to understand is what, or more correctly stated, who the Eucharist is. The Catholic Church teaches that at the words of consecration, the bread and wine become the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Only the appearances of the bread and wine remain. Biblically the Church receives this truth from a few places. In the Gospel of Saint John our Lord states it as plain as it can be stated, “For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed.”² And again at the Last Supper he holds up what appear to be the bread and the wine and says, “This is my body…This is my blood.”³

Receiving communion brings you into union with Christ. The Church is Christ’s body and disunity with his body is a very serious situation. It is his Church, he built her and sustains her as the head. Saint Paul tells us, “The bread which we break, is it not a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”⁴ Those who have left Christ’s body or have never entered it cannot receive communion, because they are not in unity with his body.

A Catholic, who did not understand why the Church would refuse non-Catholics, once said when a group was discussing this topic, “The Church is not a fraternity.” I suppose he meant that the Church is not some exclusivist club. In one sense he is correct. The Church is catholic, which means she is universal. She is available to all men, of all races, in all times. In another sense he is dead wrong. The Church being available to all does not mean all avail of her. This means she must, as far as possible, make sure her Lord is not profaned and to those who come forward to receive, that they are not heaping judgment upon themselves. This is not some silly ritual, it can even be a matter of life or death.

Saint Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, puts it this way, “Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”⁵ Anyone who comes forward in an unworthy manner profanes the body and blood of the Lord. This is serious business, especially to anyone who calls Christ their Lord. The Catholic Church teaches that you must be a baptized Christian and in a state of sanctifying grace to receive communion. This is the very basic minimum requirement. This would be coming forward in a worthy manner. For those who, after examining their conscience find they are in a state of mortal sin, communion, in all but the rarest of cases (i.e. danger of death with perfect contrition, etc.), is not possible.⁶ For those who are not baptized it is simply forbidden.

Saint Paul continues, “For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drinks judgment upon himself.”⁷ Those who come forward to receive who do not believe that they are receiving Jesus are eating and drinking judgment upon themselves. What is this judgment? “That is why many of you are weak and ill, and some have died.”⁸ Saint Paul is speaking with the greatest urgency. Sickness and death can be the result of this. Not only physical, but spiritual also; as you have denied your Lord’s presence while still receiving him. I do not think there is any way to overstate the gravity of the situation as Saint Paul presents it to us. Doing this can cause your death. If nothing else moves someone, for those who take Scripture seriously, this is quite the wake-up call.

As you can see the Church has very good reasons for not allowing non-Catholics to receive. If we think about the reasons given above for a moment, it does not seem like such a bad thing to limit people who the Church knows (i.e. non-Catholics) do not fulfill these obligations from receiving the Eucharist. Another Catholic in the same previously mentioned discussion group said, “It isn't like all the Catholics are fulfilling the obligations either.” While that may be true, the difference is that from all outward appearances Catholics do fulfill these obligations. Non-Catholics, generally, either do not believe that the Body and Blood are really present, or do not confess their sins to a validly ordained priest (i.e. someone who has the authority to forgive sin.) They therefore can be kept from the Eucharist on those facts alone. The Church trusts her own members to obey these obligations and since to be Catholic they must believe in transubstantiation and are required to confess mortal sin, she must trust them.⁹

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All Scripture quotations taken from the RSV 2nd Catholic Edition.

Footnotes

[1] Non-Catholics except those stated in CIC 844 §3- “Catholic ministers administer the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing of the sick licitly to members of Eastern Churches which do not have full communion with the Catholic Church if they seek such on their own accord and are properly disposed. This is also valid for members of other Churches which in the judgment of the Apostolic See are in the same condition in regard to the sacraments as these Eastern Churches.” ^
[2] John 6:55 (Please read the whole discourse to see how emphatically our Lord stresses the truth of the matter - John 6:22-71) ^
[3] Matthew 26:26-29, Mark 14:22-25, Luke 22:14-20, and 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 ^
[4] 1 Corinthians 10:16-17 ^
[5] 1 Corinthians 11:27-28 ^
[6] CIC 916 - “A person who is conscious of grave sin is not to…receive the body of the Lord without previous sacramental confession unless there is a grave reason and there is no opportunity to confess; in this case the person is to remember the obligation to make an act of perfect contrition which includes the resolution of confessing as soon as possible.” ^
[7] 1 Corinthians 11:29 ^
[8] 1 Corinthians 11:30 ^
[9] There are exceptions of course, as listed in CIC 915 - "Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to holy communion." ^
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