Indulgences: A Sign of God's Infinite Mercy
An explanation of a misunderstood Catholic tradition (yes, it's Biblical)
Indulgences are a topic I’ve avoided due to their controversial past, but after encountering more about what they really are, I grew eager to do a deep dive into what the Church has to say about the practice of indulgences. What I found is that they are a beautiful testament to God’s merciful love.
Around the time of the Protestant Reformation, indulgences were being misused. In Indulgentiarum Doctrina, an Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI, the improper use of indulgences is spoken of: “Unfortunately, the practice of indulgences has at times been improperly used either through ‘untimely and superfluous indulgences’ by which the power of the keys was humiliated and penitential satisfaction weakened, or through the collection of ‘illicit profits’ by which indulgences were blasphemously defamed.” It continues on to say that “…the Church, in deploring and correcting these improper uses ‘teaches and establishes that the use of indulgences must be preserved because it is supremely salutary for the Christian people and authoritatively approved by the sacred councils; and it condemns with anathema those who maintain the uselessness of indulgences or deny the power of the Church to grant them.’”1
When we sin, our lives are affected, along with the lives of those around us. “Every sin…causes a perturbation in the universal order established by God in His ineffable wisdom and infinite charity, and the destruction of immense values with respect to the sinner himself and to the human community.”2 Sin, when left unchecked, can create a snowball effect in our lives. Before we know it, we have sinful habits. Many times, we don’t even recognize that some of our habits are sinful. When we die, our attachment to sin must be purged away, for nothing unclean can enter Heaven (Revelation 21:27).
"The God who created you without your cooperation will not save you without your cooperation." - St. Augustine
A Case for Purgatory
Indulgences are linked to Purgatory, so a discussion on indulgences must include a discussion on Purgatory.
The general idea behind Purgatory is…
Nothing unclean can enter Heaven (Revelation 21:27).
Many die with an attachment to sin but still connected to the grace of God.
Those souls must be purified and made clean before entering heaven…we call this “Purgatory”.
To this, one might say that someone unclean cannot enter Heaven, but this means they go to Hell; however, some sins can be forgiven after death. Matthew 12:32 says, “And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” An “age” can be thought of as a length of time. Purgatory is not a place, but a state in our existence. We remain there for a length of time. To say that someone who “speaks against the holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come” seems to insinuate that some sins can be forgiven “in the age to come”, which we would call Purgatory, since sin does not exist in Heaven and there is no forgiveness in Hell.
Our sin incurs what the Church calls “the debt of temporal punishment”. In one of his General Audiences, John Paul II speaks on this, saying that a “…person must be gradually "healed" of the negative effects which sin has caused in him (what the theological tradition calls the "punishments" and "remains" of sin).”3 This healing may occur during our life on “…earth through the sorrows, miseries, and calamities of this life”,4 or after death.
In the same General Audience, John Paul II continues to speak about temporal punishment:
“God's fatherly love does not rule out punishment, even if the latter must always be understood as part of a merciful justice that re-establishes the violated order for the sake of man's own good (cf. Heb 12: 4-11).
In this context temporal punishment expresses the condition of suffering of those who, although reconciled with God, are still marked by those "remains" of sin which do not leave them totally open to grace. Precisely for the sake of complete healing, the sinner is called to undertake a journey of conversion towards the fullness of love.
In this process God's mercy comes to his aid in special ways. The temporal punishment itself serves as "medicine" to the extent that the person allows it to challenge him to undertake his own profound conversion. This is the meaning of the "satisfaction" required in the sacrament of Penance.”
Sin harms our relationship with God. This relationship must be repaired before we can fully enter into His glory in Heaven.
The Beautiful Practice of 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."5 They can be acquired by a Baptized Catholic in the state of grace.
Indulgences are intended to lead us to a deeper level of intimacy with Christ. All actions done to receive them must be done with a sincere aim to further convert to living a life for Christ.6 The actions themselves are not a magical potion to decrease the amount of temporal punishment due to sin. “The Church’s longstanding tradition of granting and obtaining indulgences inspires within us a desire to live more virtuously as Christian disciples. In drawing closer to Jesus, we renew our hope for reconciliation, and we bear witness to our trust in our merciful Father.”7
“…the religious practice of indulgences reawakens trust and hope in a full reconciliation with God the Father, but in such a way as will not justify any negligence nor in any way diminish the effort to acquire the dispositions required for full communion with God.” - Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 10
Indulgences encourage us to grow in charity towards the whole body of Christ, whether they be in Purgatory or on Earth. Just as “…the sin of one harms the others”, “…the holiness of one also benefits the others”8 We are able to ask God, through prayer, to apply an indulgence we have obtained to an individual who has passed, hoping that the individual’s temporal punishment will be remitted so they can enter Heaven.
In his book Signs of Life, Scott Hahn offers a Biblical case for indulgences:
“Abraham was a just man who lived by faith, and his faith was manifest in many deeds. God tested him repeatedly, and Abraham consistently responded with faithful obedience. In Genesis 22, he faced the ultimate test: God commanded him to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. Abraham demonstrated his willingness, and he went with Isaac to Mount Moriah. But God spared Isaac and rewarded Abraham with a promise of blessing to his descendants.
Yet his descendants forfeited that blessing in the most horrific way: by fashioning a bull-calf out of gold, and then worshipping it as an idol. It was a sin of catastrophic enormity, an act of senseless ingratitude toward the God who had, quite recently and quite miraculously, delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt. By committing such a sin, the Israelites merited death.
How did Moses deliver them from the punishment they deserved? By invoking the merit of their ancestors. He told the Lord: ‘Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it for ever'‘‘ (Ex 32:13).
Moses did not try to plead the cause of the current generation, except insofar as they were offspring of the great patriarchs. In this story, we can see the temporal remission of punishment. God is going to destroy the Israelites; but he doesn’t. We can see Moses’ intercession, based upon the treasury of merits, the merit of the fathers.”
This is just one example from the Bible where the merits of one, or many, benefits others. This article by Jimmy Akin includes more Biblical evidence for the principles that make up the teaching on indulgences.
There are two types of indulgences: partial, or plenary. A partial indulgence would rid one of some of the temporal punishment due for sin, while a plenary indulgence would rid one of all temporal punishment due for sin. However, as expected, there are hefty requirements for a plenary indulgence. One must, at the moment the plenary indulgence is obtained, have no attachment to sin, even venial sin. Additionally, one must go to Confession, receive the Eucharist, and pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.
“To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent.” - Indulgentiarum Doctrina, Norm 7
Some examples of indulgences:
“A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who read sacred Scripture with the veneration due God's word and as a form of spiritual reading. The indulgence will be a plenary one when such reading is done for at least one-half hour [provided the other conditions are met].”9
A partial indulgence is granted “to the Christian faithful who, while carrying out their duties and enduring the hardships of life, raise their minds in humble trust to God and make, at least mentally, some pious invocation.”10
A partial indulgence is granted “to the faithful who, led by the spirit of faith, give compassionately of themselves or of their goods to serve their brothers [and sisters] in need.”11
In God's infinite mercy, He has made it “…so that sincerely repentant sinners may participate as soon as possible in the full enjoyment of the benefits of the family of God.”12 “In receiving indulgences, we should not think that we have earned them. Our efforts express our openness to receiving God’s mercy. As a result, we grow closer to Jesus and so are able to reap the benefit of his salvation.”13
What Indulgences Are NOT:
They are not buying our way to Heaven
They are not a 1:1 transaction (if I do “x” number of prayers, I spend “x” less time in purgatory)
They are not a magical potion “to decrease time in Purgatory”
They do not forgive sins
What Indulgences ARE:
They are encouragement to grow in charity
They are meant to deepen our belief in God
They are one way God shows His mercy to sinners
They are meant to continue one’s conversion of heart
They do remit the temporal punishment due for sin
Indulgences are an infallible teaching of the Church, meaning no catholic can, in good faith, disbelieve them. They are a gift from our good Father! I hope, by reading this, you have more clarity on what indulgences are, or look into one of the resources I used to write this post.
Thanks for reading!
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 8
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 2
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 2
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, Norm 1
c.f. Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 11
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 4
Manual of Indulgences, 25
Manual of Indulgences, 28
Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 5
Thanks for writing this, we need to talk about Catholic things, because so many today don't know of these things. I know people do all kinds of gymnastics to get that plenary indulgence of Divine Mercy, but they don't know that praying the holy Rosary will get them a plenary indulgence every day, ( if they are in a state of grace, prayed for the intentions of the pope, if they pray in a Church, or with a group (can be family). Good to see a Catholic mom writing here.
Yes, indulgences are a gift. We cannot earn anything, but through participation in charity/love, we can cover a multitude of sins. Our cooperation with God’s freely given grace benefits the whole Body of Christ. By gaining an indulgence for ourselves or for others, we are lifting our gaze to Christ and obeying the Church—which has the power to bind and loose—to edify the Body. “Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.” (Col i. 24, RSVCE)