Indulge Me, Please!

Let me indulge you for a second – in plenary indulgences that is.

Shortly after I was married, I took my husband to my aunt’s house in Massachusetts for dinner. Someone brought up the war in Iraq and I thought, “Dear God, here we go.” There is nothing that an Irish Catholic family from Boston loves more than a political or religious debate. It’s our favorite sport and there are no rules. Everything is fair game. Everyone passionately stands up for what they believe in, usually by yelling and screaming and talking over each other, trying to one up the other. There are no winners and losers because it’s all in good fun. No one is ever offended.

As I watched this spectacle take place, my husband’s reaction was priceless. He comes from a family were it is considered rude to discuss politics and religion in polite society. By the look on his face, I knew exactly what he was thinking, “These people are @#%$* crazy!”

I thought to myself, “Dearest, you have no idea.”

Luther, and Selling Indulgences

Photo by celeste cc

It brings to mind a very memorable family dinner debate we had when I was a teenager about the Reformation and Martin Luther. My older sister had just learned in school about the selling of indulgences and we got into a heated debate about it.

An indulgence is the remission of the temporal punishment for sin. When you go to confession, you are absolved of all your sins, but you still have to deal with the effects of your sin. Let’s say you rob a bank and are sorry for it and beg the banker to forgive you – and much to your surprise, he does. But you still have to pay your debt to society and go to jail. Well, an indulgence is a “get of jail free card”. When a sinner in the Church is granted an indulgence, they get to skip purgatory (2 Maccabees 12:39-46) and go straight to heaven. In short, they become a saint. Now, the Church, which holds the keys to the Kingdom, is granted the power by God to do this.

Really? Yes, really.

We all know the passage in St. Matthew’s gospel:

“And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Matthew 16:18-19

It’s pretty clear to me. But should you doubt, St. Paul goes even further:

“To me, the very least of all the holy ones, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the inscrutable riches of Christ, and to bring to light [for all] what is the plan of the mystery hidden from ages past in God who created all things, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the principalities and authorities in the heavens. This was according to the eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in Whom we have boldness of speech and confidence of access through faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over my afflictions for you; this is your glory.” Ephesians 3:8-13

What St. Paul says here is astounding. To the Church, this fragile earthen vessel, God has chosen to reveal Himself and teach His wisdom to the angels in Heaven. Mind blowing.

This is a great gift, but also an overwhelming burden. The Church must not abuse the power and authority it has been given. God gets really, really mad when it does.

Of course, that is what happened during the Reformation. The Pope was trying to remodel St. Peter’s Basilica and needed cash. But the funds were not coming in, so some really stupid and desperate priests decided to give out the “get out of jail free” cards to the highest bidder. Martin Luther rightly condemned the practice.

Why?

Well, you can’t buy your way into Heaven. There are strict guidelines to gain an indulgence. First and foremost, a contrite heart and a good confession is needed. For a plenary indulgence, reception of communion is added. There are various kinds of indulgences, but fundraising is definitely not one of them. As we all know, the only time Jesus lost his cool in the Gospels is when he cleansed the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers. But, there is a lesson to be learned in the money changer story.

“At this the Jews answered and said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered and said to them, “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and you will raise it up in three days?” But He was speaking about the temple of his body.” John 2:18-21

What is the body of Christ? St. Paul tells us that it is the Church (1 Cor 12:27). Christ is the Bridegroom and the Church is the Bride. The two are one flesh. Try to destroy it and Christ will raise it up.

So at the family dinner, we were discussing all this, and a myriad of other things. Some were defending Martin Luther’s justifiable complaints, others were saying that the whole episode was overblown for political purposes. However, my mother, always the voice of reason, finally blurted out “The problem with Martin Luther is that he didn’t have a sense of humor!”

Well, maybe that is going a bit far. The abuses of the Church are no laughing matter. However, what Martin Luther was saying is that since the Church got so tangled up in the abuse of indulgences, we might as well just do away with the whole thing. Au contraire, Mr. Luther. Why do away with a gift that is so freely given to us by God, which is his mercy? I think the whole issue of indulgences can be summed up in the Gospel story of the woman caught in adultery. This poor woman was having an affair and the Scribes and the Pharisees are just looking for an opportunity to kill her. Finally, after their stakeout, they catch her. But before they do, they figure they will kill two birds with their stones and test Jesus at the same time. So they drag the poor woman out in the daylight and thrust her before Jesus. Now the law says they can kill her, but before they do, they want Jesus in on the action. If He refuses, well then, He is a false prophet and they might as well kill Him too. All in a day’s work.

But Jesus does something very interesting. He starts writing on the ground with his finger. As the prophet Jerimiah said:

“Those who turn away from thee shall be written in the earth, for they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water” Jer 17:13

Did the woman turn from him? No, she begged for mercy. At that moment, her sins were forgiven.

But the Pharisees keep pressing Him. So He stands up and says:

“Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” John 8:7

Now, obviously Jesus was only one without sin. He could throw stones all day long if he wanted to. But the heart of the law is mercy. The ironic twist is that it is the Scribes and the Pharisees who are the ones that turn away. What a bunch of idiots! It was she who received the remittance of sin, not they.

Jesus then consoles her:

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, [and] from now on do not sin any more.” John 8:10-11

That’s the kicker about indulgences – they only last while you are free from sin. Sin again, and back to confession you go, and time for more penance to make up for the damage — time for more indulgences!

Now, no one is really sure who the woman caught in adultery was. However, I heard a rumor that after the resurrection she went to the South of France. What we do know for sure is that she sat at the foot of Jesus, listening to Him and taking His advice.

Many Christians love to quote John 3:16, for it neatly sums up the entire gospel:

“For God so loved the world that He gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”

We gain eternal life through the body of Christ, which is his Church.

I wanted to say this at the family dinner, but I couldn’t get a word in edgewise. As I was just about to open my mouth to speak, my mom brought out dessert. It was a delicious tart with a buttery crust, a mascarpone filling topped with figs.

It was the season for figs.

This article, Indulge Me, Please! is a post from The Bellarmine Forum.
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