Indulge Me for a Moment
The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has gotten permission to offer a “plenary indulgence” to Philadelphia-area Catholics who visit shrines or do other faith-affirming things. I admit, I went to a Catholic parish grade school in Philly, I went to a Catholic prep school in Philly, and then I went to a Jesuit university in New York, and I’ll be damned if I can figure out how this is supposed to work, despite the Inquirer writer’s valiant attempt to explain what a contemporary indulgence does and why Lutherans are still, let’s say, less than thrilled with the whole thing.
If I’m following this, the doctrine runs like so:
- When you commit a sin, you’re forgiven because of God’s grace, not because of any good work you perform. (The act of accepting Catholic/Christian doctrine, apparently, does not count here – that’s still faith, not a work that justifies oneself.)
- However, even though the sin is forgiven, you’re still gonna have to spend some time in purgatory to atone for it. (How one would perceive time after becoming an eternal being is a topic we’ll also leave to the side.)
- On special occasions, the Church can offer an indulgence, which reduces the aforementioned amount of time one’s now-eternal spirit must spend in purgatory before moving on to a presumably-infinite existence in Heaven.
I really wish I had seen a rate sheet while I was in school, so I would know how much time in purgatory I’ve racked up and whether or not these indulgences are worth the effort.
Of course, the somewhat mocking tone I’ve taken here has probably added some time to my sentence. But it does strike me that this story illustrates the major tension I’ve always felt running through Christian thought: on the one hand, there’s the notion that it’s all in God’s hands and we should trust that things happen for a reason and it will all work out. And on the other hand there’s the notion that what we do with our lives matters. Take that paradox, throw in a bureaucracy, and the result is me sitting here scratching my head
About Dave Thomer
Born and raised in Philadelphia. Studied philosophy at Fordham University in the Bronx, where I made many great friends and met my wonderful wife. We moved back to Philadelphia, where I studied philosophy some more and became a teacher. Online and off, I'm looking for ways that we can be better citizens and build stronger communities.
Friday, July 6th 2007 at 5:45 pm |
Hi Dave,
It’s Rak, late of Holy Ghost Prep, now seminarian. Stumbled upon this providentially.
Re indulgences, let’s backtrack to the basics:
God created us to have a never-ending, totally-satisfying, joyful relationship with Him. He created us with free will. Earthly life is where we choose for or against having this relationship with God. (What good is a relationship if it’s not freely chosen?) We’re naturally incapable of reaching up to God, plus we’re damaged from the consequences of our own sins and those of people before and around us, so our ability to relate to God is further hampered. So He reaches down to us — not just to rescue us (salvation) from the eternally futile state (hell — the state of no love) our sins will lead us to, but to make us capable — if we want it — of intimacy with Him. This reaching down supernatural help that God gives us is called grace, and the primary way of getting it to us us through the Sacraments. However, there are secondary ways, among them indulgences. Indulgences are basically the results of the good things others have done being applied to your own case — sort of like getting the extra 5 percent for your grade from a classmate with a 105% average. It’s a gift — like the relationship with God mentioned above. We don’t earn it, but rather receive it by willingly cooperating with grace (it’s not forced upon us.)
God bless you!
Ademar
Friday, July 6th 2007 at 10:54 pm |
It’s taking considerable willpower not to begin this comment with “Mr. Rakowsky.” Old habits die hard. (Rak was my physics teacher in high school, for those coming in late.) It’s good to hear from you.
Before I proceed, it occurs to me that while the Inquirer piece does provide a link to the Archdiocese’s explanation of the indulgence, I didn’t repeat that here, so let me recommend that anyone wanting to see the exact statement go here.
If I can strain the test grade analogy – and what’s a strained test grade analogy between teachers – the idea of the indulgence seems more like the extra credit assignment you give to students who want to boost their grade. There are strings attached – if you do X, you get Y.
It occurs to me that the difference in interpretation may be that I am thinking of the person who obtains an indulgence for his/her own benefit, and someone who obtains it for the benefit of someone else. In which case it’s still an extra credit assignment where I have to do something to “earn” the extra points, but I can then give them to someone else. In that case, though, it seems like the Church is still demanding a quid pro quo, and the individual who gives the indulgence to another is the person who is acting generously and with a compassionate spirit.
And I do have some trouble visualizing the temporal purification that Purgatory is supposed to represent. If a person is responsible for getting himself/herself into a state of being capable of the relationship with God that you mention, then I can understand the role of Purgatory as the place where the soul would be able to finish that work. But if that capability is a state that God can impose by extending grace, then I see no need for any soul to spend any time in Purgatory.
And all of that is just one reason I have plenty of trouble these days wrapping my brain around the idea of a benevolent and omnipotent creator.
Monday, February 25th 2008 at 8:41 pm |
Hi Dave,
Not being a regular blog participant (I normally just read blogs), it didn’t occur to me that you may have replied to my comment above via your blog, hence my 7.5-month-belated response.
You touch upon two issues:
First, the quid pro quo aspect of indulgences.
Second, the natrure of Purgatory and how one comes to perfection therein.
At the heart of both is God’s respect for our free will and His desire that we actually own what He gives us.
Because of His respect for our free will, He asks us for some action on our part, however token, to indicate — primarily to us — that we’re serious about receiving what He’s offering us. He won’t give us anything without our cooperation with it. That’s why indulgences require some action of response, and why Purgatory is a process: processes rerquire responding.
But that’s only part of the picture. Being omniscient and omnipotent, God can give us indulgences and Heaven in a flash if He so desires. However, just as anyone who’s worked hard and is resting satisfied with the results will tell you, there’s a deep satisfaction in owning something that you’ve worked for — a deeper satisfaction than in simply receiving it as a handout — that’s the effectiveness of the token prices in thrift stores. That’s why indulgences require some at least small action to obtain them, and that’s why God’s grace doesn’t simply lift a soul out of Purgatory as soon as he or she enters it.
Related to the ownership is how we come to own — our effort creates. Being made in God’s image, we’re capable of creation (from pre-existing stuff, though, unlike God).. That’s why when you look back on 50 years of marriage with 5 grown children and 11 grandkids, your satisfaction is not only from the ownership that came from all that struggle and sacrifice that made your relationship with your wife last as well as the maturing of your kids possible, but all that effort was an act of creation — doing what God does — something that wasn’t there before you got to work on it now is there.. Purgatory is such a state, too: He allows you to change yourself — it’s an active, not passive state — so that you can be ready to live the life of joy in Heaven.
Now it’s important to remember that our ability to create and to cooperate with God are His gifts — no Pelagian nonsense here — but His desire is that we, in receiving His gifts, come to own them as our very own.
I hope that answers a few questions.
God bless you, Dave!
Ademar
Monday, February 25th 2008 at 8:41 pm |
Hi Dave,
Not being a regular blog participant (I normally just read blogs), it didn’t occur to me that you may have replied to my comment above via your blog, hence my 7.5-month-belated response.
You touch upon two issues:
First, the quid pro quo aspect of indulgences.
Second, the natrure of Purgatory and how one comes to perfection therein.
At the heart of both is God’s respect for our free will and His desire that we actually own what He gives us.
Because of His respect for our free will, He asks us for some action on our part, however token, to indicate — primarily to us — that we’re serious about receiving what He’s offering us. He won’t give us anything without our cooperation with it. That’s why indulgences require some action of response, and why Purgatory is a process: processes rerquire responding.
But that’s only part of the picture. Being omniscient and omnipotent, God can give us indulgences and Heaven in a flash if He so desires. However, just as anyone who’s worked hard and is resting satisfied with the results will tell you, there’s a deep satisfaction in owning something that you’ve worked for — a deeper satisfaction than in simply receiving it as a handout — that’s the effectiveness of the token prices in thrift stores. That’s why indulgences require some at least small action to obtain them, and that’s why God’s grace doesn’t simply lift a soul out of Purgatory as soon as he or she enters it.
Related to the ownership is how we come to own — our effort creates. Being made in God’s image, we’re capable of creation (from pre-existing stuff, though, unlike God).. That’s why when you look back on 50 years of marriage with 5 grown children and 11 grandkids, your satisfaction is not only from the ownership that came from all that struggle and sacrifice that made your relationship with your wife last as well as the maturing of your kids possible, but all that effort was an act of creation — doing what God does — something that wasn’t there before you got to work on it now is there.. Purgatory is such a state, too: He allows you to change yourself — it’s an active, not passive state — so that you can be ready to live the life of joy in Heaven.
Now it’s important to remember that our ability to create and to cooperate with God are His gifts — no Pelagian nonsense here — but His desire is that we, in receiving His gifts, come to own them as our very own.
I hope that answers a few questions.
God bless you, Dave!
Ademar