‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH’

New Zealand Tablet, 17 June 1915, Page 11

‘STAND FAST IN THE FAITH ’

(A Weekly Instruction : specially written ; for ; the N.Z. Tablet by Ghimel.) J '■:''. '-. '-'"} p v r INDULGENCES. * ! ~ Cardinal Newman once had occasion to investigate 7 „, a story to the effect that on the door .of the Church of St. Gudule, Brussels, " one Could read a list . of - sins ,; with the price for having them forgiven// There was indeed a list, and a list of prices, but the prices were j for ■ the use of chairs in the church. As great ah exhibition'. of ignorance has lately been given (if report be true) by T ' a high-placed lecturer. The - subject-matter was the hoary old one of Indulgences, and the lecturer informed : his audience that an indulgence was a permission to com-J mit sin. Let us explain for the forty-second millionth time what our penny catechism teaches in this matter. An indulgence is not the remission of sin at all. We hold "that sin is taken away by the infusion of sanctifying grace in or at least in connection with the sacrament of Penance. An indulgence, however, 'is ■ given outside this sacrament. I might easily gain heaps of indulgences though I had not been to confession for fifty years. , . - ■• ' • /:■ V : . It is not a remission of venial sin. Venial sin may be taken' away by the sacrament of Penance, and with, that an indulgence has nothing to do. Or,-it may be taken away outside that sacrament, but then he who has sinned must have some measure of hatred for his fault : when he does his part, God alone intervenes and directly takes away the guilt. "An indulgence comes directly from the Church.

Most emphatically an indulgence is not a permission to commit sin. Outside lunatic asylums, no Catholic could possibly hold such an idea: the expression of it sounds in Catholic ears like rank blasphemy, and it is time we had a rest from the odious calumny. Catholics above all men in the world have too exalted an idea of God to imagine that Tie could possibly- allow us to commit sin.

Nor is an indulgence even an easy way of obtaining" forgiveness of past sins. It would be heretical for any Catholic to say so. The sacrament of Penance was set up in the world to forgive sins; an indulgence has nothing whatever to do with that matter.

An indulgence, then, is the remission not of sin (let us repeat it for the last time), but of the whole or part of the temporal punishment due after the sin has itself been forgiven. The Church grants indulgences, but it does so by making use of the overflowing merits of Christ and His saints. And what the Church does here below, God, its Founder, ratifies in heaven.

To explain a little : Take the case of one who commits a grievous sin. That sin at once involves the withdrawal of grace from his soul and exclusion from the love and friendship of God. This exclusion from God’s love is the punishment for the sin, and if the person died in that state the punishment would become eternal. There surely ought not to be any difficulty in seeing that sin deserves punishment. But now let the sin be forgiven owing to the sinner’s change of heart. That forgiveness implies that the sinner is restored to God’s favor. Is that to be the end of the whole transaction Hardly. An earthly parent ordinarily punishes a disobedient child even when the disobedience is past and forgiven, for it is justly felt that the child will thereby become more sensible of its offence, and will make some satisfaction for it according to its powers. God Himself: we read in our Scriptures—forgave the very serious sin of our First Parents, and thereby removed the eternal punishment that otherwise would have fallen on them. Yet He still thought it wise to punish them—nay, it was part of His .plan to punish us as" well, who had in a sense nothing.to do with that first sin. The greater punishment was removed at the bidding of . God’s” gracious mercy, but the same sweet and wise mercy thought it well to inflict a less punishment. Our First . Parents—and we, too —would thereby learn the much-'

needed lesson that we cannot offend God with impunity, and that if wo do commit sin we should do something /more than. turn around and tell our Creator we are sorrywe should be prepared to make some satisfaction. ' - Now this is the principle underlying the whole scheme of indulgences. Sin is committed; then forgiven but after the forgiveness it is only fit that the sinner should make some reparation in time. . , • What an indulgence has to do with this reparation shall be explained in another article.