9 November, Antonio Cardinal Bacci: Meditations For Each Day

Indulgences

1. Indulgences are among the means by which we can help to satisfy the Divine Justice for our own offences and for those of the faithful departed.

Unfortunately, very few Christians understand the true nature of indulgences. As a result they neglect to fulfil the conditions necessary to gain them.

Canon Law defines an indulgence as "the remission in the sight of God of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven, which the proper ecclesiastical authority concedes from the treasury of the church, for the living by way of absolution, and for the dead by way of suffrage" (Canon 911). The main requirement is to be in the state of grace, which sinners can attain by means of the Sacrament of Penance, or by an act of perfect contrition. If properly made, Confession takes away sin and eternal punishment, but not temporal punishment. This may be cancelled by means of penance, prayer, and good works. In the early days of the Church the penitential system was most severe. According to the degree of gravity, different sins drew penances of days, weeks, or months of fasting on bread and water. As times changed, the Church reduced these penalties and granted indulgences instead.

What, we may ask, is the theological basis for these indulgences? It is the spiritual treasury which is at the disposal of the Church, made up of the infinite merits of our Redeemer and added to by the merits of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. These merits are communicated to us by the Church by reason of the consoling dogma of the Communion of Saints, according to which the Church militant, suffering, and triumphant constitutes one Mystical Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head.

The Church has power to dispose of this immense treasure by reason of the injunction given to her by her Founder when He said to St. Peter: “Whatever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” (Mt. 16:19) There are no reservations; the injunction applies not only to sin, but also to its punishment. It is clear that indulgences are not merely a dispensation from the penitential discipline in the eyes of the Church, as certain heretics held, but also in the sight of God. Indulgences reflect both the mercy and the justice of God. They reflect His justice because complete satisfaction is rendered by the merits of Jesus Christ. They reflect His mercy because these merits are applied to us poor sinners, and also by way of suffrage to the souls of our departed friends.

2. Throughout the centuries indulgences have been regulated by the authority of the Church, which in the course of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV, Decr. De Indulg.) sanctioned their lawfulness and usefulness for the faithful, both living and dead. There is no question of innovation. It can be said quite truly that the first indulgence was granted by Jesus Himself to the repentant thief. “This day,” He told him, “thou shalt be with me in Paradise.” By these words Our Lord remitted not only the sin and the eternal punishment due to it, but also all temporal punishment. In the same way an indulgence was granted by St. Paul when he mitigated the punishment inflicted on the offender at Corinth. (2 Cor. 6-8)

Indulgences are called plenary when they remit all the temporal punishment due to sin, and partial when it is the intention of the Church to release the sinner from whatever penalties would have been expiated if he had done penance for a certain period of time in accordance with the ancient discipline. No essential relaxation of practice is intended, because the Church always demands that the sinner should first ensure that he is in the state of grace by making a good Confession. As the Council of Trent insists, he should be sincerely repentant. The Church requires, moreover, that in order to gain a plenary indulgence the penitent should be detached from all affection even towards deliberate venial sin.

3. Indulgences, therefore, are an aid to repentance for sin, not a substitute for it. In granting them the Church is only imitating the merciful spirit of Jesus Christ, Who was always compassionate towards sinners. Let us do our best to make profitable use of the Church's generosity on our own behalf and on behalf of the faithful departed. Let us observe the necessary conditions in order to gain as many indulgences as possible. Every morning we should make the intention of gaining all the indulgences which we can during the day.