For most Christians today, indulgences represent darker days in the history of the Church. For Protestants, the Church’s practice of granting indulgences is seen as a real deathblow to Catholicism—indisputable evidence that the Catholic faith cannot be true. For Catholics—many of them devout and well-meaning—indulgences are a thing of the past and “thankfully” no longer a part of the Church’s teaching. However, both of these sets of Christians are mistaken. Indulgences are still (and always will be) a part of the Catholic Church's infallible teaching. And they constitute a real gift—an astoundingly beautiful and wonderful blessing—in the life of the Church. But to understand why indulgences represent a blessing, rather than an embarrassment, for the Catholic Church, we must first understand what an indulgence actually is. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “[a]n indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (1471). To put this into layman's terms, we would say that an indulgence is simply what we receive when the Church, through Her power to bind and loose (Mt. 16:19, 18:17-18), lessens the temporal punishment we face as a result of our sins, even after they have been forgiven. Let’s unpack this. Scripture shows us that the punishment we receive for our sins can be both eternal (i.e. hell) and temporal (i.e. here on this earth). For example, when Adam and Eve sinned, the temporal punishments that they each respectively received were the toiling over the land and the intensifying of childbearing pains (Gen. 3:16-19). But what is interesting, for the purposes of our discussion on indulgences, is that Scripture also tells us that, even after our sins have been forgiven, the temporal punishments we face as consequence of them often remain. For example, when the prophet Nathan confronts King David about the king's adultery, Nathan tells him, "The Lord on His part has forgiven your sin; you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord by this deed, the child born to you must surely die" (2 Sam. 12:13-14). Another example is in Numbers, where we read, "Then the Lord said, 'I have pardoned them, according to your word; but truly as I live...none of the men who...have not hearkened to my voice, shall see the land which I swore to their fathers" (Num. 14:20-23). Even death itself is a temporal punishment of the sin of Adam and Eve, which is a punishment that we still bear today, despite the forgiveness of sins we receive from Jesus. So, the Bible teaches us that the temporal punishment we receive for our sins often remains even after we repent and are given the forgiveness of God. And an indulgence is a grant from the Church that reduces this punishment. How does the Church do this, and does She even have the authority to do so? Throughout Scripture, we see that God blesses some people as a reward to others. For example, consider how Jesus heals a daughter, as a result of her mother's faith (Mt. 15:21-28). And sometimes, when God blesses a person as a reward to another, this blessing takes the form of a reduction of the temporal punishment to which the first person is subject. As an example of this, we might look at 1 Kings 11:11-13, which reads, "The Lord said to Solomon, 'Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you of the kingdom and give it to your servant. I will not do this during your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your son I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and of Jerusalem, which I have chosen." So, God delays and reduces the temporal punishment due to Solomon, not because of Solomon’s own merits and piety, but as a result of the holy life of his father, David. All of this provides the context necessary for understanding what an indulgence is and how they work. The Catholic Church recognizes that the pious and charitable acts of Jesus, Mary, and the saints—whether the saints in heaven or those on earth—can please God so as to shorten the temporal punishment of other Christians. Therefore, the Church, through Her authority to bind and loose (Mt. 16:19, 18:17-18), is able to “open[]…the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints” (CCC 1478), and “dispense[] and appl[y] with authority th[is] treasury of satisfactions” (CCC 1471) to a forgiven and repentant sinner, and does so by granting such sinner an indulgence. However, the Church, in an effort “not…simply to come to the aid of [individual] Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity” (CCC 1478), only grants indulgences under limited circumstances. For example, an indulgence might be granted when a forgiven sinner strives to please God through the pious act of going to Confession and praying for the intentions of the Pope, or through the charitable act of tithing or donating money for the construction of a hospital or church. The fact that the Catholic Church grants indulgences in recognition for the charitable act of tithing, in large part, explains why so many, both in the past and present, mistakenly believe that the Church “sells” indulgences. But, to reiterate what has already been said, indulgences are granted in these instances not in exchange for money, but in recognition for the faith and piety displayed in charitably giving away one’s financial means. It is true that, in the time of Martin Luther, there were priests who misunderstood the official teaching of the Church on indulgences as they apply to the souls in Purgatory. However, the official teaching of the Church--before Luther, during Luther, and after Luther--has never permitted the selling of indulgences. Any priest who might have gone rogue and preached otherwise was in direct contradiction with the Church. [1] The practice of granting indulgences is a long-standing practice of the Catholic Church, and, as noted before, is one She exercises through Her God-given power to bind and loose. Through an indulgence, a repentant sinner is (1) encouraged to take further action to make amends for his forgiven sins; (2) is able to “supercharge”—in a manner of speaking—these acts by coupling or uniting them with other holy actions performed by Jesus and the saints throughout history; and (3) receives the assurance of the Church that he has pleased God in taking these actions. So, let us celebrate and take full advantage of this incredible gift made available to us in the Church, rather than attempting to sweep it under the rug, as if it were some sort of embarrassing vestige of our Church’s past. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes: [1] Much of the abuse of the doctrine of indulgences is today attributed to the now infamous Dominican, Johann Tetzel. Contrary to many of the exaggerated and even unfounded accusations made against Tetzel today, many historians now agree that he was a man of real moral integrity. But it is nonetheless true that the friar preached his personal, but mistaken belief about indulgences as they apply to souls in Purgatory. To be more specific, although it is absolutely true that we can gain indulgences that benefit or apply to souls in Purgatory (as, again, God blesses some as a reward to others), Tetzel mistakenly believed that this meant that the earthly soul did not actually have a contrite heart, but instead only needed to perform external acts of piety, in order to receive an indulgence in this particular situation. In other words, for Tetzel, because the earthly soul was not benefiting from the indulgence, but was instead offering the indulgence up to be applied to another, he thought that the subjective state of the earthly soul was irrelevant in these scenarios. But, even though a handful of priests like Tetzel might have proclaimed this false doctrine, it is also true that Catholic authority figures, like Cardinal Cajetan, publicly rejected and condemned this false position, as late as 1517-19.
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E. Daniel Box Too many people misunderstand what the Catholic Church teaches about salvation. Some falsely claim that Catholics believe that a person can “earn” salvation. Others mistakenly accuse Catholics of the heresy of Pelagianism, which teaches that man can save himself, without faith in Jesus, by performing good works. But the Catholic position rejects salvation by works alone, as well as salvation by faith alone. For the Catholic, both faith and good works (i.e. charity or works of love) are necessary. But both are also impossible without the initial free gift of God’s grace. So the Catholic formula for salvation is simple, and it follows Galatians 5:6-- We are saved by grace, through faith, being lived out in works of love. In other words, salvation is not a one-time event, but is a lifelong process. Scripture confirms this when it tells us that we “have been saved” (Eph. 2:5, 8), that we “are being saved” (1 Cor. 1:18, 2 Cor. 2:15), and that we “will be saved” (Mt. 10:22, 24:13, Rom. 5:9-10). Salvation, then, is a past, present, and future event—a real process—such that St. Paul reminds Christians that we must always continue to “work out []our salvation” (Phil. 2:12). This passage in Philippians is key, because Paul not only explains that we should “work out our salvation,” but also that we should do so “in fear and trembling.” Unlike Protestants, Paul never presumed himself to be destined for heaven, nor claimed to have had an absolute assurance of salvation. Instead, Paul says expressly that he would never dare “to make any judgment [regarding his salvation] before the appointed time” and that just because he was “not aware of anything against [himself],…[he did] not thereby stand acquitted” before God (1 Cor. 4:4-5). For this reason, Paul talks about physically pummeling his body into submission, out of fear that, even after all his preaching, he might still be disqualified (1 Cor. 9:27). In Romans, Paul confirms that our salvation is not absolutely secured the moment we first accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, when he explains that “salvation is nearer now than when we first believed” (13:11). In fact, Scripture tells us many times that Christian discipleship is not defined by a single moment in one’s life (see Lk. 9:23), but can instead be compared to a marathon—a race—in which perseverance and endurance are necessary (Heb. 12:1-2). All of this is in keeping with the words of Jesus, who two times in the Gospel tells his disciples that only “the one who perseveres to the end will be saved” (Mt. 10:22, 24:13). Again in Romans, Paul testifies to the importance of perseverance—and not only perseverance in faith, but also in doing good works—in the Christian’s quest for salvation, when he says: “God…will repay everyone according to his works: eternal life to those who seek glory, honor, and immortality through perseverance in good works, but wrath and fury to those who selfishly disobey the truth and obey wickedness” (2:6-7). Jesus Himself confirms that our life’s actions are pivotal in whether or not we will obtain eternal life. The only time in the Bible that Jesus is asked what a person must do to gain salvation, our Lord answers by saying, “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments” (Mt. 19:16-17). And later in the Gospel, Jesus explains that those who do not do good—those who do not feed the hungry, give drink to the thirsty, welcome the stranger, or visit the prisoner—will be thrown into eternal fire for eternal punishment (Mt. 25:41-46). Jesus also tells His disciples that when the Son of Man “come[s] with his angels in his Father’s glory…he will repay everyone according to his conduct” (Mt. 16:27, see also 2 Cor. 5:10). This style of divine judgment is exactly what we see being played out in the Book of Revelation, when, at the end of time, “[a]ll the dead [are] judged according to their deeds,” and those whose deeds cause them not to be named in the book of life are “thrown into a pool of fire” (20:12-15). Given all of this, it should not surprise us to read in Romans that Christians will receive God’s kindness only if we “remain in his kindness, otherwise [we] too will be cut off” (11:22). How do we remain in His kindness and avoid being cut off? St. John provides the answer, echoing the words of Jesus, when he writes, “Those who keep his commandments remain in him, and he in them” (1 Jn. 3:24). This is why John, only two chapters later, discusses deadly versus non-deadly sin (1 Jn. 5:16-17). Protestant theology offers no satisfying explanation for what a deadly sin is. But the Catholic teaching of salvation ties in perfectly with this concept and with the rest of Scripture, because it affirms that certain sins kill—they kill our relationship with God. They terminate the supernatural life breathed into us by God, just as the sin of Adam did, which is why Jesus, when He breathes upon the Apostles, gives them the authority to forgive and not to forgive sins (Jn. 20:21-23). By confessing our sins to the Apostles and their successors, God’s supernatural life is breathed back into us, after we have lost this life as a result of our deadly sins. Our need to keep God’s commandments, together with the consequences of deadly sin, explain two passages in Scripture, which devastate the Protestant idea that a person can never lose their salvation: “If we sin deliberately after receiving knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains sacrifice for sins, but a fearful prospect of judgment and flaming fire” (Heb. 10:26-27). And: “[I]f they, having escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of [our] Lord and savior Jesus Christ, again become entangled and overcome by them, their last condition is worse than their first. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than, after having known it, to turn back from the holy commandment handed down to them” (2 Pet. 2:20-21). These Bible passages confirm that a person who gravely sins, after coming to Christ, forfeits the sacrifice of Jesus and the promise of salvation, because the price or “wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). Jesus too warns us that it is possible to lose the forgiveness of sins that we have received, in the parable of the unforgiving servant (Mt. 18:21-35). Paul reiterates this same message to those who have already accepted Jesus in Colossae, when he warns them to “[p]ut to death…immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and the greed that is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming [upon the disobedient]” (Col. 3:5-10). And again, Paul warns the Christians in Galatia and in Corinth that “those who do such things [like engage in immorality, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, rivalry, etc.] will not inherit the kingdom of God” (Gal. 5:19-21, 1 Cor. 6:9-11). Even with all the biblical evidence that has already been discussed, we have still have not mentioned the single passage that is most damning to the Protestant doctrine of salvation by faith alone (Lat. sola fide). In fact, this passage so clearly negates the doctrine of sola fide that Martin Luther seriously considered removing it from the Bible entirely, as he did seven Old Testament books. In James, chapter 2, we find the only place in the Bible where the phrase “faith alone” is used[1], and the passage reads: “See how a person is justified by works and not by faith alone” (Jas. 2:24). In fact, James points out that even demons have faith and believe (2:19), and then goes so far as to call anyone who needs proof that faith without works is useless an “ignoramus” (2:20). The standard Protestant interpretation of James 2 is that the Apostle was only condemning a dead faith, not a living faith. But even if that were true, James 2 itself would indicate that the difference between a dead faith and a living faith is good works—that is, whether or not your faith is lived out in works of love. And Paul confirms this—he declares powerfully that even the most enthusiastic, “living” faith, without charity, is dead, when he writes, “[I]f I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). None of this is surprising. Deep down, the intuition of every Christian, whether Catholic or Protestant, tells him that sola fide is wrong—that Martin Luther could not have been right when, taking the doctrine of sola fide to its extreme, he stated, “No sin can separate us from Him, even if we were to kill and commit adultery thousands of times each day.”[2] In our hearts, we know that faith in Jesus requires faithfulness to Jesus—that is, that faith is not simply a one-time event, but requires a lifetime of assent, in both our words and our actions. Of course, the fact that we must remain faithful to Christ in our actions, in order to be saved, in no way means that we can earn our salvation. It only means that we, like Adam and Eve who did not earn their place in God’s garden, can act in such a way that we earn our way out of heaven. We can forfeit the free gift of salvation. We can disinherit our place in His kingdom. To be absolutely clear, Jesus’ sacrifice was perfect and entirely sufficient to save even the worst of sinners. The fact that good works are necessary for salvation in no way threatens this truth any more than the fact that faith is necessary for salvation. In other words, the necessity of good works does not put down the value of our Lord’s death and resurrection, while putting too much emphasis on the efforts of man. Instead, this teaching only affirms what the author of Hebrews declared—namely, that “without [holiness] no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). Scripture tells us that God created us “for good works” (Eph. 2:10) and that only “if, by the spirit, [we] put to death the deeds of the body, will [we] live” (Rom. 8:13). At the same time, the Bible also confirms that obedience to the commandments, without faith in Jesus, is obsolete (Rom. 7:6-7). These passages align with the Catholic teaching on salvation, which affirms that neither faith alone nor works alone is sufficient to secure our salvation. Only the two together, both of which are only even possible after we have been given the free gift of God’s grace (Eph. 2:5), can lead us to eternal life in Him. Jesus warns us that there will be those who “believe only for a time and [then] fall away in time of trial” (Lk. 8:13). And so, while it is true that Romans 10:9 tell us that “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved,” we must be mindful of this warning from our Lord. This warning provides the context in which we should read Matthew 7:21, in which Jesus proclaims, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (emphasis added). In sum, although Christians today can “know that [we] have eternal life, [if we] believe in the name of the Son of God” (1 Jn. 5:13), Scripture tells us, only one verse later, that this “knowledge” is better understood as a hopeful "confidence" (1 Jn. 5:14), rather than an absolute certainty. “Whoever sins belongs to the devil” (1 Jn. 3:8), because we “are slaves of the one [we] obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (Rom. 6:16). So Paul reminds us that “a person will reap only what he sows,” which means that, if we want to “reap eternal life from the spirit,” we must never “grow tired of doing good” (Gal. 6:7-9). But because we have the “knowledge”—the hopeful confidence—that we will one day be with God in heaven, Christians can “rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy, as [we] attain the goal of [our] faith, the salvation of [our] souls” (1 Pet. 1:8-9) every single day. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Footnotes: [1] Rom. 3:28-30 says that we are “justified by faith apart from works of the Torah [like circumcision].” It does not say that we are justified by “faith alone.” Martin Luther inserted the word “alone” into his translation, and when he was called out for having done so by Catholics, he—referring to himself in the third person and declaring the greatness of his own will and intellect—remarked, “Luther will have it [that the word ‘alone’ be inserted, because] he is a doctor above all the doctors of the pope…I know very well that the word ‘alone’ is not in the Greek or Latin text; it was not necessary for the Papists to teach me that” (Ein sendbrief D.M. Luthers. Von Dolmetzchen und Furbit de heiligenn). [2] Luther, Martin. Saemmtliche Schriften. Letter No. 99. 1 Aug. 1521. |
AuthorDaniel Box lives in Chicago with his wife, but is a proud Texan (Fort Worth native) and Mexican-American. He is a practicing real estate and zoning attorney, after having clerked with the Thomas More Society and served as the Board Chairman of the Chicago chapter of Young Catholic Professionals in 2015 and 2016. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics from the University of Dallas in 2012. Archives |