Please explain plenary indulgences and purgatory! – Part I

Q: Dear Father John, Please explain Plenary Indulgences. If one confession fulfills the requirement of plenary indulgences 8 days before and 8 days after, it seems to me that if someone went to Communion everyday, prayed for the intentions of the Holy Father everyday and prayed the rosary before the Blessed Sacrament everyday, that she could release 17 souls from purgatory in 17 days. Is that right?

A: Aside from the problem of mathematical piety which we will discuss later, you are basically right, if indeed this person had the intention of obtaining an indulgence as she performed those acts of piety, and if this person were truly detached from personal sin. But we do have to be a bit careful here, so as not to have a simplistic view of indulgences. Let’s review.

An indulgence is simply a favor granted by the Church – to which, remember, Christ gave the “keys of the Kingdom” and the “power to bind and loose on earth and in heaven” (see Matthew 16).

By means of this favor, the Church applies the merits won by Christ and the saints to repair the damage that sins cause to our soul. We don’t obtain God’s forgiveness through an indulgence, rather we obtain the remission of what is traditionally called “temporal punishment” for sin. This is an important concept to consider. It connects both to the doctrine of indulgences, and also to that of purgatory.

A Trip to Purgatory

C.S. Lewis explained purgatory with a memorable image. Imagine that a young man leaves home to go off and fight in a war. He is gone for a long time, and when he finally returns, his clothes are tattered, he’s half-starved, he is caked with mud and covered with blood, his head is bandaged, both his legs are broken and one arm is in a homemade sling.

But, he is alive, and he has made his way home. Will he go right into the dining room where the family is having a birthday dinner? No. He is not fit for such a celebration, and he wouldn’t even want to make an appearance in his unpleasant condition. He has to go and get cleaned up, and the doctors will have to look at him and set those broken bones and change those bandages, and he’ll have to get his strength back, and he’ll have to undergo physical therapy to recover from his injuries.

The process may take a while, and it will probably be uncomfortable, even painful. It may take a full year before he’s 100% healthy and able to participate fully in family affairs. But in the end, he’ll take his rightful seat at the family feast.

That temporary recovery period is like purgatory. Our life on earth is a spiritual war. Our selfishness and sins not only offend God (the offense that confession removes, as God grants us his forgiveness), but they also do damage to our souls. They form and deepen spiritual habits, tendencies, and attitudes that are contrary to the gospel. And that damage needs to be repaired; every last scrap of selfishness and sinfulness has to be removed, or purified, before we are able to live in the perfect intimacy with God that heaven requires.

This purification can happen either in this life, or after we die. If it happens after we die, it is called purgatory – the state in which all remaining selfishness is purged from our souls.

Understanding that concept of purification lays the groundwork for understanding the value of indulgences, which we will look at next time …

Yours in Christ, Father John Bartunek, LC, ThD

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Seek Him – Find Him – Follow Him

Dan

Why are so many “successful” people so unhappy?

Q: Dear Father Todd, Popular culture says you’re successful when you have a huge house, a couple of late model cars in the driveway, wear designer clothes, and take luxury vacations to exotic places. If this materialistic vision is the definition of success, why are so many “successful” people so unhappy?

A: It is so easy for us to get caught up in the material world as if that is all there is. We can find ourselves basing our happiness on the things we possess as opposed to who we are in God; i.e., his adopted sons or daughters. To seek security in material success (money, affluence, popularity, empowerment, etc) is to place our hope in something so fragile, yet the temptation is great because it all seems so tangible and measurable. Materialism draws us into its grip and holds on to us tightly.

What does this do to us internally? When all is well and according to our liking, we feel happy; however, what happens to this happiness when things take a turn for the worse or even spiral out of control? We become anxious, upset, miserable, and feel like a failure. The things of this world are fleeting and so are their momentary joys. We can’t build our lives on shifting sand (Matthew 7:26-27).

St Augustine wrote in his famous autobiography Confessions, “Our hearts are restless until they rest in you, Lord!” How true this is! We seek to satisfy our appetites and passions because they are so easily appeased, and we push aside the harder task of feeding our spirits with the life-giving and life-changing grace of God.

Our hearts were created with a God-sized hole, and only he can fill it. Most of us spend so much time and energy trying to force other created things into this hole, even though none of them quite fit. We might think they do for a time, but eventually we realize that they don’t. The heart of man was created for love; as we read in 1 John 4:8, “God is love.” Only God can truly give us happiness in the deepest, most meaningful sense of the word. No amount of earthly success can equal this, because real love and happiness are not earned. These are given to us as a gift from God himself, not just to be received by us but in order that we can give love and happiness to others as well. Happiness is not found in the amount of things we have or being able to do as we please. Instead, happiness is found in the presence of God in our souls and the detachment from everything else.

Those who believe in the lie that money and success buy love, happiness, and purpose will eventually discover that created things can never fully satisfy us. Why? Because we are not only corporal (possessing a material body), we are also spiritual (possessing a soul). If we only satisfy our corporal side, we’ll never be truly happy. We are incomplete when we only give emphasis to one aspect of our personhood. We need God above all to truly fulfill the deepest longings of our human existence; herein lies true happiness. Christ told us in Luke 16: 13 that we can not serve both God and mammon (money or possessions). We are not meant to have two masters. Christ wants to lead us to the true harmony of life, where his Spirit reigns in our lives and helps us to put all spiritual and material realities into perspective. This is true success.

Yours in Christ, Father Todd Arsenault, LC

PS from Dan: A great and hard hitting book on the topic of poverty and materialism is Happy Are You Poor by Father Thomas Dubay. I highly recommend it.

Shouldn’t we go to confession more frequently than just the minimum required?

Q: Dear Father John, In the Catechism (CCC 2042) the second precept states: “You shall confess your sins at least once a year.” The qualification of having knowledge of a mortal sin is gone. (Or is it still mentioned somewhere else?)  It makes sense to me that the precept is correct as stated because, as I believe St. Teresa of Avila teaches, a soul can be lost due to the multiplication of venial sins. If this is true, then the Church, as any good Mother would do, establishes guidelines to help protect us from ourselves. I see confession as a spiritual ‘teeth cleaning’. Daily examination of conscience is brushing & flossing… and helps to prevent decay, but we still need to visit the dentist a couple times a year to make sure nothing builds up in places we can’t see…

A:  Thank you for requesting a clarification on this point.  Let’s resolve the technical issue first, then I would like to respond to your insightful comments.

Clarifying the Precept

The footnote to Catechism paragraph 2042 (the one you mention) references the Code of Canon Law, #989, which states:

All the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound faithfully to confess their grave sins at least once a year.

The term “grave” sin is used in this case almost synonymously with “mortal sin,” as is evident when the Catechism quotes that same number from Canon Law in paragraph 1457.  So, the strict obligation is indeed limited to annual confession when one is aware of having committed a mortal sin. For a more detailed discussion of this, I recommend the article found here.

Nevertheless, your observations about the utility of more frequent confession are right on target.  All spiritual writers agree that frequent confession fosters spiritual strength and maturity, even when we don’t have any mortal sins to confess.  Your dentistry analogy is helpful here.  St Teresa wasn’t alone in observing that frequent venial sins weaken the soul and prepare it for graver and graver falls, paving the way to habitual mortal sin, just as frequent neglect of one’s teeth leads gradually to serious dental problems.  When practiced with humility and a lively spirit of faith, regular confession – not just annually, but monthly or twice a month – can help us identify and repent from our common, venial sins, so that they don’t fester and grow.  Together with the grace of the sacrament, this fortifies us against more dangerous temptations and strengthens our friendship with Christ so that even our venial sins become less frequent.

That’s why anyone who is sincere about spiritual growth will make the commitment to regular, frequent confession.

Double-Layered Protection

As you say, we do need to be protected from ourselves.  But we also need to recognize that our culture is no longer friendly to Christian values.  Behavior considered normal by today’s popular culture is actually corrosive and sinful.  It’s as if we were living in an acid bath, and our protective covering is constantly being eroded by the acid of unhealthy social norms.  It needs to be regularly refurbished.

Perhaps the most glaring example of the subtle, corrosive force of a secularizing culture is seen on college campuses.  Good Catholic students show up on campus full of determination to take advantage of their educational opportunity.  They have no intention of abandoning their faith or forming habits of sin.  But when they are thrown into a campus culture with co-ed dorms, fraternity parties four nights a week, popular and charming professors who glamorize individualism and relativism… Is it any surprise that so many students are no longer going to Mass, praying, or striving for moral integrity by the end of freshman year?

The challenge doesn’t end when college ends.  When it’s normal for businesses and law firms to wine and dine potential clients by taking them to strip clubs, how long can normal Catholic guys keep up their moral standards?  When it’s normal for 44-year-old women to buy their way to looking like they’re still 24, how long can they stay content cultivating their inner beauty as their outer beauty fades?  Not very long, unless they recognize their ongoing need for God’s grace and nourish an awareness that they have a mission to spread Christ’s Kingdom in this fallen world.  And few spiritual practices foster that recognition and that awareness as effectively as confession.

Yours sincerely in Christ , Fr John Bartunek, LC, ThD