Primer on Indulgences
Those who claim that indulgences are no longer
part of Church teaching have the admirable desire to distance themselves
from abuses that occurred around the time of the Protestant Reformation.
They also want to remove stumbling blocks that prevent non-Catholics from
taking a positive view of the Church. As admirable as these motives are,
the claim that indulgences are not part of Church teaching today is false.
This is proved by the Catechism of the Catholic
Church, which states, "An indulgence is obtained through the Church
who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ
Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them
the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the
Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishment due for their
sins." The Church does this not just to aid Christians, "but also to spur
them to works of devotion, penance, and charity" (CCC 1478).
Indulgences are part of the Church’s infallible
teaching. This means that no Catholic is at liberty to disbelieve
in them. The Council of Trent stated that it "condemns with anathema those
who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the
power to grant them"(Trent, session 25, Decree on Indulgences).
Trent’s anathema places indulgences in the realm of infallibly defined
teaching.
The pious use of indulgences dates back into the
early days of the Church, and the principles underlying indulgences extend
back into the Bible itself. Catholics who are uncomfortable with indulgences
do not realize how biblical they are. The principles behind indulgences
are as clear in Scripture as those behind more familiar doctrines, such
as the Trinity.
Before looking at those principles more closely,
we should define indulgences. In his apostolic constitution on indulgences,
Pope Paul VI said: "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 defined conditions
through the Church’s help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses
and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ
and the saints" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 1).
This technical definition can be phrased more simply
as, "An indulgence is what we receive when the Church lessens the temporal
(lasting only for a short time) penalties to which we may be subject even
though our sins have been forgiven." To understand this definition, we
need to look at the biblical principles behind indulgences.
Principle 1: Sin Results in Guilt and Punishment
When a person sins, he acquires certain liabilities:
the liability of guilt and the liability of punishment. Scripture speaks
of the former when it pictures guilt as clinging to our souls, making them
discolored and unclean before God: "Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall
become like wool" (Is. 1:18). This idea of guilt clinging to our souls
appears in texts that picture forgiveness as a cleansing or washing and
the state of our forgiven souls as clean and white (cf. Ps. 51:4, 9).
We incur not just guilt, but liability for punishment
when we sin: "I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for
their iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and lay
low the haughtiness of the ruthless" (Is. 13:11). Judgment pertains even
to the smallest sins: "For God will bring every deed into judgment, with
every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl. 12:14).
Principle 2: Punishments are Both Temporal and Eternal
The Bible indicates some punishments are eternal,
lasting forever, but others are temporal. Eternal punishment is mentioned
in Daniel 12:2: "And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall
awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt."
We normally focus on the eternal penalties of sin,
because they are the most important, but Scripture indicates temporal penalties
are real and go back to the first sin humans committed: "To the woman he
said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain you shall
bring forth children (Gen. 3:16).
Principle 3: Temporal Penalties May Remain When a
Sin is Forgiven
When someone repents, God removes his guilt (Is.
1:18) and any eternal punishment (Rom. 5:9), but temporal penalties may
remain. One passage demonstrating this is 2 Samuel 12, in which Nathan
the prophet confronts David over his adultery:
"Then David said to Nathan, ‘I have sinned against
the Lord.’ Nathan answered David: ‘The Lord on his part has forgiven your
sin; you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by
this deed, the child born to you must surely die’" (2 Sam. 12:13-14). God
forgave David but David still had to suffer the loss of his son as well
as other temporal punishments (2 Sam. 12:7-12). (For other examples, see:
Numbers 14:13-23; 20:12; 27:12-14.)
Protestants realize that, while Jesus paid the
price for our sins before God, he did not relieve our obligation to repair
what we have done. They fully acknowledge that if you steal someone’s car,
you have to give it back; it isn’t enough just to repent. God’s forgiveness
(and man’s!) does not include letting you keep the stolen car.
Protestants also admit the principle of temporal
penalties for sin, in practice, when discussing death. Scripture says death
entered the world through original sin (Gen. 3:22-24, Rom. 5:12). When
we first come to God we are forgiven, and when we sin later we are able
to be forgiven, yet that does not free us from the penalty of physical
death. Even the forgiven die; a penalty remains after our sins are forgiven.
This is a temporal penalty since physical death is temporary and we will
be resurrected (Dan. 12:2).
Principle 4: God Blesses Some People As a Reward
to Others
In Matthew 9:1-8, Jesus heals a paralytic and forgives
his sins after seeing the faith of his friends. Paul also tells us that
"as regards election [the Jews] are beloved for the sake of their forefathers"
(Rom. 11:28).
When God blesses one person as a reward to someone
else, sometimes the specific blessing he gives is a reduction of the temporal
penalties to which the first person is subject. For example, God promised
Abraham that, if he could find a certain number of righteous men in Sodom,
he was willing to defer the city’s temporal destruction for
the sake of the righteous (Gen. 18:16-33; cf. 1 Kgs. 11:11-13; Rom. 11:28-29).
Principle 5: God Remits Temporal Punishments through
the Church
God uses the Church when he removes temporal penalties.
This is the essence of the doctrine of indulgences. Earlier we defined
indulgences as "what we receive when the Church lessens the temporal penalties
to which we may be subject even though our sins have been forgiven." The
members of the Church became aware of this principle through the sacrament
of penance. From the beginning, acts of penance were assigned as part of
the sacrament because the Church recognized that Christians must deal with
temporal penalties, such as God’s discipline and the need to compensate
those our sins have injured.
In the early Church, penances were sometimes severe.
For serious sins, such as apostasy, murder, and abortion, the penances
could stretch over years, but the Church recognized that repentant sinners
could shorten their penances by pleasing God through pious or charitable
acts that expressed sorrow and a desire to make up for one’s sin.
The Church also recognized the duration of temporal
punishments could be lessened through the involvement of other persons
who had pleased God. Scripture tells us God gave the authority to forgive
sins "to men" (Matt. 9:8) and to Christ’s ministers in particular. Jesus
told them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive
the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if
you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21-23).
If Christ gave his ministers the ability to forgive
the eternal penalty of sin, how much more would they be able to remit the
temporal penalties of sin! Christ also promised his Church the power to
bind and loose on earth, saying, "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind
on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall
be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18). As the context makes clear, binding
and loosing cover Church discipline, and Church discipline involves administering
and removing temporal penalties (such as barring from and readmitting to
the sacraments). Therefore, the power of binding and loosing includes the
administration of temporal penalties.
Principle 6: God Blesses Dead Christians As a Reward
to Living Christians
From the beginning the Church recognized the validity
of praying for the dead so that their transition into heaven (via purgatory)
might be swift and smooth. This meant praying for the lessening or removal
of temporal penalties holding them back from the full glory of heaven.
For this reason the Church teaches that "indulgences can always be applied
to the dead by way of prayer" (Indulgentarium Doctrina 3). The custom
of praying for the dead is not restricted to the Catholic faith. When a
Jewish person’s loved one dies, he prays a prayer known as the Mourner’s
Kaddish for eleven months after the death for the loved one’s purification.
In the Old Testament, Judah Maccabee finds the
bodies of soldiers who died wearing superstitious amulets during one of
the Lord’s battles. Judah and his men "turned to prayer, beseeching that
the sin which had been committed might be wholly blotted out" (2 Macc.
12:42).
The reference to the sin being "wholly blotted
out" refers to its temporal penalties. The author of 2 Maccabees tells
us that for these men Judah "was looking to the splendid reward that is
laid up for those who fall asleep in godliness" (verse 45); he believed
that these men fell asleep in godliness, which would not have been the
case if they were in mortal sin. If they were not in mortal sin, then they
would not have eternal penalties to suffer, and thus the complete blotting
out of their sin must refer to temporal penalties for their superstitious
actions. Judah "took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two
thousand drachmas of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin
offering. In doing this . . . he made atonement for the dead, that they
might be delivered from their sin" (verses 43, 46).
Judah not only prayed for the dead, but he provided
for them the then-appropriate ecclesial action for lessening temporal penalties:
a sin offering. Accordingly, we may take the now-appropriate ecclesial
action for lessening temporal penalties— indulgences—and apply them to
the dead by way of prayer.
These six principles, which we have seen to be
thoroughly biblical, are the underpinnings of indulgences. But, the question
of expiation often remains. Can we expiate our sins—and what does "expiate"
mean anyway?
Some criticize indulgences, saying they involve
our making "expiation" for our sins, something which only Christ can do.
While this sounds like a noble defense of Christ’s sufficiency, this criticism
is unfounded, and most who make it do not know what the word "expiation"
means or how indulgences work.
Protestant Scripture scholar Leon Morris comments
on the confusion around the word "expiate": "[M]ost of us . . . don’t understand
‘expiation’ very well. . . . [E]xpiation is . . . making amends for a wrong.
. . . Expiation is an impersonal word; one expiates a sin or a crime" (The
Atonement [Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1983], 151). The Wycliff
Bible Encyclopedia gives a similar definition: "The basic idea of expiation
has to do with reparation for a wrong, the satisfaction of the demands
of justice through paying a penalty."
Certainly when it comes to the eternal effects
of our sins, only Christ can make amends or reparation. Only he was able
to pay the infinite price necessary to cover our sins. We are completely
unable to do so, not only because we are finite creatures incapable of
making an infinite satisfaction, but because everything we have was given
to us by God. For us to try to satisfy God’s eternal justice would be like
using money we had borrowed from someone to repay what we had stolen from
him. No actual satisfaction would be made (cf. Ps. 49:7-9, Rom. 11:35).
This does not mean we can’t make amends or reparation for the temporal
effects of our sins. If someone steals an item, he can return it. If someone
damages another’s reputation, he can publicly correct the slander. When
someone destroys a piece of property, he can compensate the owner for its
loss. All these are ways in which one can make at least partial amends
(expiation) for what he has done.
An excellent biblical illustration of this principle
is given in Proverbs 16:6, which states: "By loving kindness and faithfulness
iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil"
(cf. Lev. 6:1-7; Num. 5:5-8). Here we are told that a person makes temporal
atonement (though never eternal atonement, which only Christ is capable
of doing) for his sins through acts of loving kindness and faithfulness.
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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