The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 203: The Purpose of Indulgences (2024)

Episode Date: July 21, 2024

Fr. Mike expands on the purpose of indulgences and clarifies why the Church has the authority to provide indulgences. We also learn about the role of the Communion of Saints in our strive for holiness and the different liturgical forms and elements of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1474-1484. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down to the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 203. Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 203.

We're reading paragraphs 1474 to 1484, taking our way all the way to the nuggets at the end of this section on reconciliation. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. You can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism with the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y and you can click follow or subscribe in your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications.

As I said, today's day 203, reading paragraphs 1474 to 1484. Today, we're gonna talk about some more stuff about the communion of saints and obtaining indulgences. We started indulgences yesterday, but we're also gonna go through, like what's the actual celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation, the sacrament of penance?

Like what's the form, what's the matter? Like what's going on during that celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation? So two things here. Again, indulgences, finishing up indulgences, and then how do we actually go to confession? How does that take place both here in the West as well as little kind of notes

about how it might happen in other liturgies or other liturgical traditions Not just the Latin right, but maybe the Byzantine liturgy We might have a little sprinkle of some some flavor in there So as we launch into today, just call upon God and just place ourselves In God's presence knowing that he is the father of mercies He is the God of all goodness and he is the one who forgives our sins through his son in the power of the Holy Spirit Let's pray Father in heaven we praise you and glorify your name. We thank you so much

Again, let our time begin with praise. Let thanksgiving and praise go up first Help us to praise you when we are Thriving and when it's easy to forget you Help us praise you when we are struggling and when it's easy to forget you. Help us praise you when we're struggling and it's difficult to see you. Lord God, help us to praise you when we need your mercy and help us to praise you when we have received your mercy. Help us in this day to walk in grace,

help us this day to recognize that we're not alone. We're surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses, the church, and help us take that next step, whatever that next step is, to grow closer and closer to you and your sacred heart, your merciful heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. It is day 203, we're reading paragraphs 1474 to 1484. In the communionion of Saints The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone. The life of each of God's children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the mystical body of Christ, as in a single mystical person.

In the Communion of Saints, a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory, and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good things. In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others. Thus recourse to the communion of saints lets the contrite sinner be more promptly and efficaciously purified of the punishments for sin. We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the church's treasury, which is not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. which is not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary, the treasury of the Church is the infinite value which can never be

exhausted which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer Himself, the satisfactions and merits of His redemption exist and find their efficacy. This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by His grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission the Father entrusted to them.

In this way they attained their own salvation and at the same time cooperated in saving their brothers in the unity of the mystical body. Obtaining Indulgence from God Through the Church An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus, the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.

Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted. The Celebration of the Sacrament of Penance Like all the sacraments, penance is a liturgical action. The elements of the sacrament of penance Like all the sacraments penance is a liturgical action The elements of the celebration are ordinarily these a greeting and blessing from the priest Reading the word of God to illuminate the conscience and illicit contrition and an exhortation to repentance The confession which acknowledges sins and makes them known to the priest

the imposition and acceptance of a penance the the priest's absolution, a prayer of thanksgiving and praise and dismissal with the blessing of the priest. The Byzantine liturgy recognizes several forms of absolution in the form of invocation which admirably express the mystery of forgiveness. The priest prays, May the same God, who through the prophet Nathan forgave David when he confessed his sins, who forgave Peter when he wept bitterly, the prostitute when she washed his feet with The tribunal without condemnation, He who is blessed forever and ever. Amen. The sacrament of penance can also take place in the framework of a communal celebration in which we prepare ourselves together for confession and give thanks together for the forgiveness received. Here, the personal confession of sins and individual absolution are inserted

into a liturgy of the Word of God with readings and a homily, an examination of conscience conducted in common, a communal request for forgiveness, the Our Father, and a thanksgiving in common. This communal celebration expresses more clearly the ecclesial character of penance. However, regardless of its manner of celebration, the sacrament of penance is always, by its very nature, a liturgical action, and therefore an ecclesial and public action. In case of grave necessity, recourse may be had to a communal celebration of reconciliation with general confession and general absolution. Grave necessity of this sort can arise when there is imminent danger of death without

sufficient time for the priest or priests to hear each penitent's confession. Grave necessity can also exist when, given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions properly in a reasonable time, so that the penitents, through no fault of their own, would be deprived of sacramental grace or Holy Communion for a long time. In this case, for the absolution to be valid, the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their grave sins in the time required The diocesan bishop is the judge of whether or not the conditions required for general absolution exist a

Large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feasts or pilgrimages does not constitute a case of grave necessity Individual integral confession and absolution remain the only ordinary way for the faithful to reconcile themselves with God and the Church, unless physical or moral impossibility excuses from this kind of confession. There are profound reasons for this. Christ is at work in each of the sacraments. He personally addresses every sinner, My Son, your sins are forgiven. He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need

him to cure them. He raises them up and reintegrates them into fraternal communion. Personal confession is thus the form most expressive of reconciliation with God and with the Church. Right? And then we are up to a 203 paragraphs, 1474 to 1484. That's a chunk. We sometimes have the very brief Paragraphs, but today we did not today. We got to go through a lot of stuff including recognizing that When we seek to be forgiven of our sins when we seek to become holy with the help of god's grace We're not alone so important paragraph 1474 highlights this the christ Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and become holy with the help of God's grace is not alone.

And this paragraph, 1474, connects us profoundly with paragraph 1484, the very last one we heard. Why? Because we recognize that we're not just individual Christians, kind of automatons. We're not on our own. We are individuals, yes, of course, and God loves us as if we were the only one to exist.

And yet, what has He done? He has brought us not only into individual personal relationship with Him, He's brought us into communion with His church. He's brought us into the community of the faithful. He's brought us into the communion of saints. And so this recognition is, ah man, but what we do affects other people. And so it goes on to say, 1475, in this communion of saints, a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those saints in heaven,

those who are expiating their sins in purgatory, obviously those in purgatory, and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them, there is an abundant exchange of all good things, recognizing, oh my goodness gracious, not only can the saints in heaven intercede on behalf of us, not only the saints in heaven can they pray for those souls in purgatory, but we can also pray for the souls in purgatory. In fact, let's highlight this. I mentioned yesterday, I think it was yesterday, that yes, if we're the body,

when one member suffers, we all suffer with them, when one member is strengthened or rejoices, we all rejoice. That's true, 100% true. But even more, pointedly, we need to understand, it says in 1475, in this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause the others. Does that make sense? So recognizing that, that yes, the holiness of the saints in in heaven in growing holiness of the holy ones in purgatory right the suffering ones in purgatory that Benefits us more than

Like a sinner rejecting God can hurt us that makes sense There's limits to the way an individual can hurt the body But in some ways there's almost no limit to the ways that a holy person could benefit the body Does that make that make sense? That's just so beautiful. Again, to say it like this, in this wonderful exchange that we're all linked, right? The whole body of Christ in heaven,

in purgatory and on earth, they call that the church triumphant, the church suffering and the church militant. The church on earth, here we are, the church militant, the church in purgatory, the church suffering and the church in heaven, church triumphant. But one church, one body in this wonderful exchange It says once again, it's reading it again

The holiness of one profits the others well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause the others so powerful now Recognizing yesterday we talked about Indulgences and how indulgences are that remedy right? They're meant to be remedial every time we sin gravely We have eternal consequences for that sin separation forgot eternally gravely, we have eternal consequences for that sin, separation from God eternally, right? Hell. And we have temporal consequences due to sin. Because of that, our hearts become attached to sin. Our hearts become attached to things like the creation rather than the creator, right? We love created things more than we love God in so many ways. And so, you know, purification, penances, and in fact, indulgences, they heal us from that. Remember, you have four aspects to an indulgence. So the first is the action itself,

say for example, you know, pray the Stations of the Cross or praying the Rosary. Secondly, receiving Holy Communion. Third, going to confession within a week or so of that indulgence itself. And fourth, interceding on behalf of the Holy Father. Now, those four aspects, like what makes them special? Here's what makes them special. Well, obviously, Holy Communion is special on its own. Confession is special on its own. Prayer for anyone is special on its own.

All of them individually have power, right? What gives them the capacity, what gives them the ability to have a plenary indulgence, right? What gives them the capacity, what gives them the ability to have a plenary indulgence, right, to remove all temporal punishments due to sin or even partial? What gives them the ability to do that is the authority that Jesus extended to the church. This is so important. It's because Jesus Christ extended his authority to the church when he gave the church leaders the power of binding and loosing. That is the key. It is actually, it's so humble of the Lord God that he gives to human beings who are flawed and faulty and, I'll make a bunch of mistakes, gives them the

capacity, the ability to declare, okay, do these things and through the power and the grace of the Holy Spirit working through the church, you have a partial or a plenary indulgence, which is just incredible. Now you can ask this, we've been talking about indulgences for two days. What's the big deal with indulgences? Like, what's the problem with them? Well, there's twofold problem that sometimes people will have. One is people sometimes will point to, they'll say, well, there was the's twofold problem that sometimes people people will have one is people sometimes will point to they'll say well

There was the selling of indulgences and that doesn't seem right that doesn't seem fair That doesn't seem just and they're correct. In fact, the church never taught that it was okay to sell indulgences That was never a thing at the same time. Let's go back and let's look at the context So we recognized yesterday We talked about there's the thing you do for the indulgence or across the board. You have acts of penance, you have a works of charity, you have certain prayers you could do.

All of those things are like, okay, do this thing, it costs you something, right? Divest you of something, it does you of your time, it increases your prayer life, it helps others, whatever that thing is. Now you'd imagine that here, do this penance, you know, fast for the next five Fridays and you have an indulgence. I'm not sure if that's one, but I'm just saying, you know, so that's one. Okay, that's good because I'm disciplining myself,

I'm removing myself from attachments. Or I could say, like I've said five times now, pray at the Stations of the Cross in the church on a Friday. Okay, that could be a way of growing my relationship with the Lord, becoming more attached to Him and less attached to things. Or it could be, you know, donate X amount to charity. In that case, I'm not only divesting myself of some things I might be attached to, but I'm also helping my brothers and sisters. And so, take that last one. Whenever we associate the spiritual life with money, there's always a danger. The danger is people can often think that they're buying their way into heaven. And yet, what's the whole point of this? The whole point is almsgiving. Remember,

Jesus even highlights the reality and the goodness of giving alms, of giving material goods for the benefit of others. And that if that's money, that's giving money for the benefit of others. That could look in a certain light like a person is purchasing their way into heaven or they're buying holiness. Now, add to this the indulgence that could be like, okay, here's a penitential act, here's a prayer act or here is a charitable act, here's almsgiving. And you know what? The church needs some help. We're building this church in Rome called St. Peter's Basilica and we need a lot of money to build this church. So the church, using her authority of binding and loosening,

can say, if you donate to the building of the church in Rome, St. Peter's Basilica, that, you know, sidebar, for hundreds and hundreds of years, anyone can come and enjoy beauty and pray there. So it's not in building the Pope's private house. You're building this incredible church for the use of all of the church as well as people outside the church okay you can associate that and say okay if you donate

to the building of this church there's an indulgence attached to that what does that sound like if you're skeptical if you're cynical if you may be a little suspicious what does that sound like what sounds like you're buying grace it sounds like you're buying an indulgence the church is asking for some money and if you give this money you'll get this indulgence. The church is asking for some money, and if you give this money, you'll get this indulgence. It sounds a lot like purchasing a spiritual good, yet we know that purchasing spiritual goods is absolutely prohibited by the church and by scripture.

And so the church, when the church offered this, did not think that, but you can imagine how people saw it like that. Does that make sense? And so the church didn't sell indulgences, but it could look like from suspicious eyes or skeptical eyes or cynical eyes, or even those on the outside, it could look like,

and even a look on the inside, it could maybe even feel like, it feels like if I give money to the church, they're giving me this spiritual good. Yet that was never the intention of the church. The second part of this, second reason why some people, non-Catholic Christians, would have beef with indulgences is this vision of salvation, this vision of justification and sanctification that is once and for

all, right, is kind of one and done. It's that sense of that I've been imputed righteousness the God has simply declared me righteous and so no matter what I do I don't grow in or lose my righteousness I don't grow in justification I don't grow in sanctification there's some people who would say that that is the case now others one not all non-catholic Christians think that but some could say no it's it's you once saved, always saved. And because of that, you don't need indulgences. Because of that, listen, God has imputed his grace on you.

Now, as Catholics, we believe that we don't have this imputation of grace upon us. It's more intrinsic. It's in us that we have to either cooperate with it or we refuse to cooperate with it. That God gives us his grace and yes, we either say yes to it on a regular basis and we grow in His grace or we say no and we either stop growing or we fall away from God's grace. Because of that, we need these gifts, right?

Because of this, the church has given us the gifts of indulgence, the church has given us the gifts of penances that actually do some merit, they actually do something in our lives. Because of this, Jesus Christ, I believe, has given us the sacrament of reconciliation, the sacrament of penance. Now that leads us to the last point,

the celebration of the sacrament of penance. We went over how it goes, right? You come into the confessional typically. There's a greeting and blessing of the priest, reading the word of God to like illuminate your conscience, elicit contrition. The confession itself, which acknowledges sins, makes them known to the priest,

the acceptance of penance, and then the priest's absolution. You know, in prayer of thanksgiving and praise, et cetera. You can see that in 1480. I love the Byzantine liturgy form of absolution. So cool in 1481. You can go back and pray with that if you ever want to. a couple things in 1482 to the end and I know we're getting along a little bit here 1482 to the end it talks about the fact that there is a sacrament of reconciliation that can take place in the framework of

a communal celebration basically I don't know if you've ever been to a reconciliation service right where basically everyone comes at the same time and you again you do have that proclamation of the word. You do have maybe a homily that happens. You have an examination of conscience everyone goes through and then everyone goes to individual confession. The important part here is that it highlights the fact that yeah, reconciliation or sacrament of penance is a liturgical action. Therefore, it's an ecclesial and public action. That is not just, you're on Saturday afternoon, one person goes into the box, you know, quote unquote, into the box with the priest.

That's also a liturgical action. That's also ecclesial and public action. But sometimes when we get together all as a group, as a parish, as a family, that we come together and go to confession together, there's something really visibly powerful about that. It highlights the fact that we are one. We are one body, we're one family, one parish.

It's just kind of a really cool thing. At the same time, the church goes on to say, in 1483 and 1484, goes on to say that only in cases of grave necessity, you might be able to have communal celebration or reconciliation with general confession and general absolution. That's where people just kind of all say,

basically, we're all guilty, we're all guilty of all these sins, they don't name them necessarily individually, and then the priest gives general absolution to everyone gathered there. That is only in cases of, it says, grave necessity. And it does, it highlights that, yeah, grave necessity and it does it highlights that yeah grave necessity can happen when there's imminent danger of death without

sufficient time for the priests or priests to hear the penance and confession imagine D-Day and here it is they just get announced okay this morning we're getting on these transports and going over to Europe and there's thousands of you soldiers and there are three priests okay that is a perfect example of the need for and the execution of general absolution. That's perfect. That's an example. Grave necessity can also exist, it says here, when given the number of penitents, there are not enough confessors to hear individual confessions properly in a reasonable time.

The penitents have, through no fault of their own, will be deprived of the sacramental grace of Holy Communion for a long time. In that case, for the absolution to be valid, the faithful must have the intention of individually confessing their grave sins in the time required. Now, the bishop is the only one who can judge whether or not the conditions are required for general absolution exist. And so, like, okay, yeah, that makes sense because we had a communal prayer service, we had a gathering for like Divine Mercy Sunday and

Yeah, there were only like two priests and there were you know, a hundred people and so the at the priest just gave us general absolution The last line in 1483 says a large gathering of the faithful on the occasion of major feasts or pilgrimages Does not constitute a case of grave necessity So the priest most likely does not and would not have the authority to offer general absolution and he would not be in the right if he were to do that.

So keep that in mind. It is incredibly, incredibly rare for there to be general absolution happening. If it's happening in your parish, that is one of the things like maybe like just kind of ask your priest if this is, if he's read paragraph 1483 Or I don't know. I don't want to tell you what to do on that one

But recognize that even if it's offered it's very very rare It's only cases of grave necessity and also under the authority of the Diocesan bishop He's the judge whether or not the conditions required for general absolution actually exist Okay, you guys Wow, what a day. Holy smokes, one of the longest days yet, but at the same time, what a gift, right? We're part of the body of Christ,

the recognition that there are such things as indulgences and the church gives us access to those graces through prayer, fasting, almsgiving, uniting our prayer to the church, recognizing that Jesus Christ established his church and gave her the authority to bind and to loose. And we get to experience that treasury, the treasury of grace that God gives us every time we approach the throne of His mercy. There's Sacrament of Reconciliation tomorrow.

We have Nugget Day and then the next day we have the Noiting of the Sick or we keep on trucking along. You guys, I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.