Indulge Me, Please, in a Little Revolt

The Protestant Reformation, I answered confidently.

Our youngest was grilling me on some of the things he'd learned in his religion class. 

That's not what this says, he countered. What is r-e-v-o-l-t?

Revol-- Revolt?! I exclaimed in dismay. I was clearly offended. Our son attends a school that does not align entirely with our beliefs. And before I catch any hate, we have personal reasons. Additionally, do public schools attended by millions of children across the country teach creationism in their science curricula? 'nuf said. 

So, as I've pointed out, one of the ways we are misaligned is with regard to the Protestant Reformation and its nomenclature. But another way is with regard to one of the Reformation's more infamous catalysts, the practice of indulgences. I bring this up because I recently heard a teaching on indulgences from a Catholic perspective. I've noticed an uptick in videos "clarifying" Catholic doctrine. This is not what you've always heard it is. We don't do the things you've always been told we do. That sort of thing. And the recent teaching I heard with regard to indulgences was that indulgences never gave license to sin; indulgences do not forgive sin. 

I'll be honest, I know very little about the history of the Catholic church. What little I recall was taught within the framework of a Protestant school and a teacher who, each year, dressed as Johann Tetzel. Every class eagerly anticipated her performance and I, like many others, paid little attention to any other lecture she gave. But I'm willing to concede for the sake of argument, Protestant teaching about indulgences are a long-held myth (despite what could be the most honest title I've come across when searching for an explanation of indulgences, The Catholic View on Indulgences and How They Work Today, from Myriam Renaud of the Department of Religious Studies, DePaul University. Note the Today). So, assuming indulgences were never intended for the forgiveness of sins, assuming one could not purchase an indulgence in anticipation of committing some sin, assuming indulgences never existed as a Get Out of Jail FREE card (with regard to purgatory), what does the Catholic church teach is their purpose today?

In a word, it's complicated. I'm providing a link to the Catholic Encyclopedia here: CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Indulgences, and giving you what seems to be the most popular, abbreviated version here:

An indulgence is a dispensation or grant of God’s mercy that removes the temporal punishment due to one’s sins whose guilt has already been forgiven—normatively through the sacrament of penance (commonly known as confession). This dispensation is made possible through the Church’s treasury of merits, which “is the infinite value . . . which Christ’s merits have before God,” plus the prayers and good works of the faithful, which have merit in Jesus (CCC 1476-1477).

In short, after God forgives one’s sins, there typically remains temporal punishment due as a result of that sin. An indulgence is what lessens, or removes, that remaining punishment. It’s kind of like the kid who breaks his neighbor’s window. The neighbor can forgive the child for the offense, and yet the kid still needs to help pay for the broken window.

Similarly, even if one has repented and received forgiveness for his sins, that doesn’t necessarily mean he has fully detached from the bad habits associated with his sins. Thus the need to do penance, and benefiting from the merciful remission of the related punishment granted though an indulgence.

In short, the saints who have gone before us and Christ Himself have left us with a surplus of merits stemming from their good works. Those merits are granted by the church to "the faithful," those who have by some means earned the indulgence, discharging their debt during their life on earth. These "acts of mercy" are, according to current Catholic teaching, valid both in the tribunal of the Church and in the tribunal of God (I'm not thoroughly convinced they checked with Him on this) and purify the "marks left on the soul" by sin.

So, does God require us to pay for the broken window? Well, if the wages of sin is death, as Romans 6:23 tells us, none of us would have been able to play ball more than once. But we have a Mediator; One who paid our debt and "purchased" a new life for us; One who enables us to walk righteously (yes, in God's tribunal); One who sanctified us, is sanctifying us, and will sanctify us; One who cleanses our conscience and has done all this once for all! That being said, I'm not sure what's left for a self-respecting indulgence-granting church to do. I'm not sure any further payments need to be made. I'm not sure the "marks left on the soul" are beyond the purview of the Holy Spirit's sanctifying work. And I'm not so sure a little revol-- Oops! --reform isn't necessary now and again.

Happy Reformation Day!!