Indulgences: Encountering the Mercy of God
Date published: April 6, 2020
The scenes from the Vatican have been striking. Pope Francis, standing before an empty Saint Peter鈥檚 Square, praying for the world while the storm literally pours down amid the darkening night sky. What light is there in the darkness? What good is prayer in the face of such an uncontrollable pandemic?
Francis has shown us the power of prayer, not only in his personal example, but more specifically through the exercise of the Church鈥檚 powers of forgiving sins in the name of Jesus Christ. Perhaps most strikingly, , to those suffering illness from coronavirus, their family and healthcare workers, and to the faithful who pray and have (most notably in his recent special Urbi et Orbi address). But what exactly is an indulgence and why has Francis tapped a practice that many Catholics might reasonably have thought abandoned or at least archaic?
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church summarizes, 鈥渁n indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven鈥� (搂1471). If we frequent the sacrament of reconciliation, we likely know the relief of receiving the forgiveness of our sins. The idea of the 鈥渢emporal punishment鈥� of sin, however, might be more foreign to us. Punishment sounds like the opposite of mercy. How could something like this be necessary, even after we are forgiven? As John Paul II explains it, beyond the forgiveness experienced in confession, 鈥渢he person must be gradually 鈥榟ealed鈥� of the negative effects which sin has caused in him.鈥�1 These 鈥渘egative effects鈥� point us to the reality that each and every sin has consequences beyond simply that of the guilt of the sinner himself.
What is emphasized in the idea of an indulgence, however, is the fundamental reality that sin wounds not only the sinner, but rather the unity and solidarity of the whole human race. As Paul VI taught in his Apostolic Constitution revising the teaching in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, 鈥渆very sin in fact causes a perturbation in the universal order established by God鈥� because humanity is bound together in 鈥渁 supernatural solidarity whereby the sin of one harms the others just as the holiness of one also benefits the others.鈥�2 Receiving an indulgence and applying the grace received to those in purgatory works on this logic, but even further it directs us to the mystery of our own fallen solidarity as a human race. The evil we do affects others, even if we can鈥檛 see it. The good news, however, is that the good we do can affect others as well, even if they don鈥檛 see it either. As Pope Francis never tires of reminding us, 鈥渆verything is connected.鈥�3
At the heart of the storm of this coronavirus pandemic, perhaps the reception of an indulgence seems a small, trivial act of piety. If it spurs us to recognize the damage caused by our own sins and the work of healing that even our smallest acts of charity can effect, however, it might just be the first steps in our recovery of a more just and merciful world.
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1John Paul II, 鈥淕eneral Audience: Wednesday, 29 September 1999,鈥� 搂2. http://www.vatican.va/content/john-paul-
ii/en/audiences/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_29091999.html. Accessed March 31, 2020.
2Paul VI, Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1967), 搂2,4. http://www.vatican.va/content/paul-
vi/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-vi_apc_01011967_indulgentiarum-doctrina.html.
Accessed March 31,
2020.
3Francis, Laudato Si鈥� (2015), 搂91. http://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/encyclicals/documents/papa-
francesco_20150524_enciclica-laudato-si.html#16. Accessed March 31, 2020.