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The Decree of Indulgence for
Divine Mercy Sunday grants a plenary or full indulgence to those who
satisfy certain conditions established by the Church and a partial
(incomplete) indulgence to those who fulfill some but not all or the
conditions.
A plenary indulgence means that by the merits of Jesus Christ, the
Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, the full remission of the temporal
punishment due to sacramentally forgiven sins is obtained. The person
becomes as if just baptized and would fly immediately to heaven if
he died in that instant. A partial indulgence means that a portion of
the temporal punishment due to forgiven sin is remitted. Partial
indulgences are received either by doing some act to which a partial
indulgence is attached (e.g. praying a partially indulgenced prayer), or
by the incomplete fulfillment of the conditions attached to a plenary
indulgence.
Eternal and Temporal Punishment or Guilt
There are two kinds of punishment attached to sin, eternal and
temporal. If the sin is mortal (serious, grave) sin, the person loses the
friendship of God and with it the life of divine grace within. This
punishment is eternal. If the person is not restored to grace before death
he will be punished forever in hell, since serious sin is an infinite
insult to an All-Holy God and thus deserves a like punishment. It was to
repair for such sin that Jesus became man and was crucified. As God His
sacrifice was infinitely meritorious, as Man He was able to represent us.
He thus could expiate for our mortal sins, which are not just beyond our
power of expiation but infinitely beyond it.
Mortal sin, and also venial sin (which has no eternal punishment
attached to it), both disturb the right order within us and in the order
of justice in general. We all experience these temporal (or in-time,
in-this-world) consequences of sin, both both personally and socially. Sin
changes us (or rather we sin because we are not what we are supposed to
be), and like a pebble in a pond these changes have effects beyond
us. Not only must we be sorry for our sins, but we must be more thoroughly
converted to the Lord, and demonstrate that conversion (Acts 26:20) by our
actions. So, while sacramental absolution forgives the eternal guilt of
sin, which requires the infinite merits of Christ, it does not necessarily
remove all the temporal punishment, since they are somewhat within our
power to repair (and somewhat unknown to us). Depending on our degree of
sorrow, absolution may result in the expiation of all the temporal
guilt of sin. However, for that which it does not repair, we must offer
further expiation through prayer, penance, carrying the Cross etc., or
after death be purified in purgatory (Rev 21:27).
What an Indulgence does is to take an occasion of such expiation (a
certain prayer, penance, charity or other designated work) and add to its
intrinsic merit before God an additional value based on the
treasury of merits of Jesus Christ, and those perfectly united to Him in
heaven (the saints). This can either partially, or under certain
conditions, totally remit the temporal punishment due to sin. This
depends, naturally, on our openness to God's grace. A mechanical
performance of an indulgenced work would not have effect. Performing an
indulgenced work should have the consequence of fixing our will away from
our sins and entirely on God. This is why among the most important of the
conditions for receiving a plenary indulgence, and the hardest to satisfy,
is the complete detachment or detestation of our sins. By detesting our
sins we orient our will away from creatures (to the degree we love them
inordinately), towards God. In this way we open our will to the action of
His mercy flowing into our souls, which alone is able to effect the complete
remission of the temporal punishment to our sins.
An example will perhaps better illustrate these points. A boy playing
ball breaks a window of his home. Contrite and sorrowful he goes to his
father, who forgives him. However, despite the forgiveness the window is
still broken and must be repaired. Since the boy's personal resources are
insufficient to pay for a new window, the father requires him to pay a few
dollars from his savings and forego some of his allowance for several
weeks, but that he, the father, will pay the rest. This balances justice
and mercy (generous love). To ask the boy to do nothing, when it is
possible for him to make some reparation, would not be in accordance
with the truth, or even the boy's good. Yet, even this temporal debt is
beyond the boy's possibilities. Therefore, from his own treasury the
father generously makes up what the child cannot provide. This is
indulgence. Unlike the theologies that say "we are washed it the
blood of the Lamb and there is nothing left to do," Catholic teaching
respects the natural order of justice, as Jesus clearly did in the
Gospels, yet recognizes that man cannot foresee or undo all the temporal
consequences of his sin. However, God in His mercy will satisfy justice
for what we cannot repair.
Note on Partial Indulgences (days and years)
In the past partial indulgences were "counted" in days (e.g.
300 days) or years (e.g. 5 years). Catholics often mistakenly thought that
this meant "time off of purgatory." Since there is no time in
purgatory, as we understand it, it meant instead the remission of temporal
punishment analogous to a certain amount of penitence as practiced in the
early Church. This was a very generous standard, since the penitence
required for sacramental absolution in the early centuries was arduous,
indeed. However, with Pope Paul VI's 1968 revision of the Enchiridion
Indulgentiarum (Collection or Handbook of Indulgences), this confusing
way of counting partial indulgences was suppressed, and the evaluation of
a partial indulgence left to God.
There are many prayers still circulating on prayer cards and in prayer
books which have partial indulgences in days and years attached to them.
However, all grants of indulgence issued prior to 1968, unless re-issued
in the Enchiridion or specifically exempted by papal decree or privilege,
were suppressed by Pope Paul VI. Thus, these many specific prayers with
their attached indulgences, as well as the manner of measuring partial
indulgences, are no longer valid. Some of them may still receive an
indulgence, though, because of being re-issued in the new Enchiridion (e.g.
the Anima Christi, the Prayer before a Crucifix and many
other formal prayers). All other prayers previously indulgenced could,
nonetheless, receive a partial indulgence under the general grants
of indulgence which Pope Paul VI, and Pope John Paul II in his 1999
revision of the Enchiridion, established. These general grants establish
partial indulgences for devout prayer, penitence and charity, and are a
new and very generous inclusion in the Church's grants of indulgence. They
have made it unnecessary to grant specific indulgences to prayers and
other pious acts, as was done in the past. |