Go ahead and indulge
Opinion
When life gets tough, we often turn to creature comforts – a double scoop of gelato, a relaxing massage, some retail therapy – things in excess of what we use daily for our health and wellbeing. We might say we are ‘indulging’ in a little self-care. The kindness we show ourselves when we indulge is not based on merit but on generosity.
One characteristic of a Jubilee Year is the offer of a plenary indulgence attached to pilgrimage to a designated Jubilee site. Given that the doctrine of indulgences is closely linked to the sacrament of Penance, what does this have to do, if anything, with the indulgence mentioned previously?
People’s reaction to this opportunity runs the gamut from indifference to incredulity that indulgences are still ‘on the books’! In the later Middle Ages, indulgences were offered in exchange for participation in the crusades or for financial donation to building projects. These questionable practices were an important catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The Council of Trent responded by condemning abuses and urging moderation while reaffirming the doctrine’s spiritual benefit for the faithful.
Four hundred years later, Pope St Paul VI refined the explanation of the doctrine as a generous act of God’s mercy and articulated the role of works of charity, penance, and exclusion of attachment to sin. Yet, most of us don’t really understand how indulgences work. After all, why do we need indulgences when we have the Sacrament of Penance?
When we sin, we separate ourselves from God in a way which blocks us from eternal life. This is called the ‘eternal punishment of sin’. By participating in the sacrament of Penance, we are reconciled to God and the possibility of eternal life opens to us again. However, absolution does not magically erase the effects of sin on earth. Vestiges remain, like suffering, loss, and guilt but also through our memory of the sin, a continued desire to sin again! These are known as the ‘temporal punishment’ for sin. As the Catechism explains in no.1472, every sin must be purified either here on earth or after death in a state called Purgatory.
An indulgence is part of an economy of generosity offered by the Church to relieve us of the temporal punishment of sin that remains after absolution. Much like the indulgence in rest and relaxation that is mentioned at the start, an indulgence in the Church is not earned but granted out of excessive generosity.
The merits of Jesus Christ and the entire communion of saints make up what is called a ‘treasury’ of infinite merits. As people baptised into the Body of Christ, we can become beneficiaries of these merits and draw from this treasury. By fulfilling the conditions of the indulgence – a pilgrimage in this Jubilee Year (or other acts of mercy and charity, prayer, and penance), confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intention, and being free from attachment to sin – instead of being purified and healed by the temporal punishment for our sins, we experience this purification and conversion through the practice of the indulgence.
Just as we come back to work after a holiday looking and feeling like ‘a new woman’ or ‘a new man’, after receiving an indulgence, we are not only forgiven, but also, we put off our old sinful nature and clothe ourselves in a new nature in likeness of God (Eph. 4.22-24).
So, in this Jubilee Year of Hope, go ahead and indulge!
Archbishop O’Regan will offer pilgrims the Apostolic Blessing associated with the plenary indulgence at each of the three Archdiocesan pilgrimage sites on these dates: June 28, 12.30pm – St Aloysius, Sevenhill; August 23, 4.30pm – St Joseph’s, Penola; October 11, 11.30am – St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, Adelaide.
Simone Brosig is pastoral leader of Community Life and Worship
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