Tag Archives: All Souls

Hope does not disappoint

Posted on by
Reply

Part of the blessing being a parish priest is that you are invited into some of the most intimate moments of a family’s life. There is perhaps none more intimate and intense than the moments when illness passes through uncertain diagnosis, to one which blurs into the final days of a life. It is part of a life of ministry to be into a family whose loved one’s days are numbered. It is a privilege to journey with the family as they prepare for the loss that surely and steadily this way comes. In those times, Hope can seem more tentative, more distant; perhaps hovering on the edge of disappointment.

It seems to me the families that best journey this path are the ones who tell stories, not waiting for the wake and funeral service, but begin the telling at home, in the hospital, or in hospice. Those stories are the ones that are snapshots of life, wonder, and bring an easy laughter to the soul even as they bring a moment of joy to the dying person. For just a moment, a good life is recalled and one is transported away to another time and place. It is a comfort and a reminder of a life filled with love, family, and friends. A good life.

Continue reading →

Time, Tide and Formation

Posted on by
Reply
419px-United_States_Naval_Academy_insignia_2

Since moving to Northern Virginia, I have been afforded the opportunity to connect with many of my classmates from the United States Naval Academy Class of 1974 – as well as an amazing array of graduates from classes before and after my time… these days, well after my time. There are two parishioners currently at USNA in the Class of 2027! Yikes!

There is an expression that “Time, Tide, and Formation wait for no person.” And there an inexorable march of time and markers along the way to help us remember. Not only meeting the new generation of midshipmen and commissioned Naval and Marine Officers, but also the passing of classmates.

Last year at our 50th Reunion we held a memorial service for our classmates who have passed away in the line of duty and in life. It was an interesting prelude to our celebration of All Souls Day this weekend. All Souls is a day when we remember all the faithful departed, known and unknown, whose souls are in the hands and mercy of God. Most often we focus on our family members and a small circle of intimate friends. But All Souls is a day we cast the net of our family and prayers much wider to souls known and unknown to us.

Certainly there is a very strong bond between Academy classmates, but in truth I did not know most of the 900 or so graduates. One’s sphere is generally limited to the Company of men with whom you lived for four years, people in your academic major, and perhaps your sports team. In my case, swimming was a year-round sport making my world even smaller.   Though I did not know (or could not remember) many names on the memorial list, it was still sobering to read the list of classmates who has passed away. One of my roommates was on the list; he passed away while I was living in Kenya. Many of the early deaths were aviators whose career was certainly higher risk than life in submarines. As we aged into our late 40s and into our 50s the list began to acquire more names and the causes of death more connected to our age than our military careers.

Yesterday classmates and friends gathered to celebrate the life of Rich Johnson. He was my roommate sophomore year (“youngster year” in the parlance of USNA) along with Tom Rathbone. Rich served as a Naval Flight Officer (NFO) – think of Goose in the backseat of Maverick’s jet fighter in “Top Gun.” In fact, Rich attended Top Gun as an NFO. I should have asked his wife Sarah if he serenaded her with “Great Balls of Fire.”

As I sat in the church, in the quiet, the words of the Second Eucharistic prayer came to mind. It comes just after we have prayed: “Remember also our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.” In a way, we recall the good people known to us in this lifetime. But what about the ones we did not know? I am comforted by the words as the Eucharistic Prayer continues: “and all who have died in your mercy: welcome them into the light of your face. Have mercy on us all, we pray.” The souls of all the departed are in the hands and mercy of God. They are in our prayers.

May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed, though the mercy of God, rest in peace.

Final Thoughts for All Souls Day

Posted on by
Reply

Language is important. Faithful Catholics do not “get” the Eucharist – they receive the Eucharist. Catholic marriage ceremonies do not say “take this ring,” our language is the lover saying to the beloved, “receive this ring.” The language of “receive” reflects a disposition that in the Eucharist, in marriage, or indulgences, what is received is gift – unmerited, unearned, not for sale – pure gift. We are called to receive such gifts with open, grateful hearts.

There is a whole lot of theology carried in the Commemoration of the Faithful Departed. It is meant to be more than a day to fondly remember someone close to you who has passed away. It is a day to be in communion with them. Hopefully their particular judgment was Heaven and eternal glory. We love them and know their flaws, so perhaps they are undergoing the purification of the elect – and we can help them on All Souls with prayers and Eucharist celebrated as acts of love because of the merits of Christ.

Image credit: All Souls’ Day | Jakub Schikaneder, 1888 | National Gallery Prague | PD-US

If you would like to see the complete series of posts for All Souls, you can view and download it here.

Plenary and Partial Indulgences

Posted on by
Reply

What’s the distinction? A plenary indulgence removes all temporal punishment due to sin. It is a complete cleansing, as though the disorder caused by sin were fully healed. This means that if a person fulfills the necessary conditions for a plenary indulgence, they can be completely freed from the consequences of their sins, assuming they are in a state of grace and have the intention to receive the indulgence. The conditions typically include sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Pope, along with performing the specific work to which the indulgence is attached (Catechism, 1471)

A partial indulgence removes part of the temporal punishment. It is a real but incomplete purification, lessening the burden but not entirely eliminating it. The degree of temporal punishment removed is not specified and can vary based on the individual’s disposition and the nature of the act performed. The Church encourages the faithful to seek partial indulgences through various prayers and acts of charity, as these can contribute to one’s spiritual growth and sanctification (Catechism, 1472).

Continue reading →

Time and Indulgences

Posted on by
Reply

We continue our series of posts in anticipation of All Souls Day.

Growing up in the mid-20th century I clearly remember the nuns leading us in prayers and rosaries for “the poor souls in purgatory who have no one to pray for them.” Which is actually a quite lovely idea and really addresses the idea of the communion of saints, living and deceased. But I also clearly remember being told “this rosary will shorten the sentence in purgatory by 30 days.” As a third grader I thought “OK.” Seemed like a pretty good bargain. When one begins to understand all the above, you have to wonder, where and when did indulgences begin to be described in terms of “days” or “years” and such?

One needs to remember that in the early Church, penances were very public and were prescribed for a set period of time. For example, spend Sunday morning outside the church dressed in sack cloth and ashes for 1 year. An indulgence, even then an act of piety, could reduce the penance by (e.g.) 30 days. It wasn’t a reduction of the time in purgatory (as if that even had a meaning), but a reduction of time in this life when the penitent was “apart” from the believing community. As the Sacrament of Confession moved to a private setting, so too did the penances, and yet the language of time endured. Slowly the connection to penance was lost and starting in the early medieval period, indulgences began to be described in terms of “days,” “quarantines,” or “years” and slowly, misguided priests and religious began to connect indulgences with chronological time in purgatory.

By the late Middle Ages and into the modern era, people began thinking that saying a certain prayer automatically subtracted X days from purgatory. This contributed to superstition and misunderstanding — and was a factor in the abuses that provoked the Protestant Reformation. The Council of Trent strongly condemned the abuses surrounding indulgences, corrected abuses, but the language was embedded in the popular imagination as was the connection to purgatory.

The 20th-Century brought reform. Pope St. Paul VI, in 1967, issued the apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina, a watershed in indulgence theology but really just a reaffirmation of what it was always meant to be. The Pope abolished the “days and years” system, noting that it was misunderstood and misused and left the faithful thinking it was some kind of “works salvation” by which they could earn (or worse be owed) the grace of purification. It was at that time that the Church reduced all indulgences to two categories: Plenary (full remission) and Partial (remission in part). It was done hoping that an emphasis shift away from “measuring time” to encouraging the faithful to perform works of devotion, penance, and charity with sincere faith would return indulgences to their original meaning and purpose.

Image credit: All Souls’ Day | Jakub Schikaneder, 1888 | National Gallery Prague | PD-US

Treasury of Merit

Posted on by
1

The Church teaches that it offers the grace of Indulgences from the “treasury of merit,” also called the “treasury of the Church.” This refers to the spiritual reservoir of merit accumulated through the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, especially through His Passion, Death, and Resurrection; the superabundant merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary, who is considered sinless and full of grace; and the merits of the saints, who lived lives of heroic virtue that manifested God’s grace into the world. These “merits” are not material or monetary, but spiritual benefits—graces that can be applied to others by the Church.

What gives the Church the “authority” to dispense the merits to others?

  • Christ promised his Church the power to bind and loose on earth, saying, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). As the context makes clear, binding and loosing cover Church discipline, and Church discipline involves administering and removing temporal penalties. 
  • One could also look to Matthew 16:19 where Peter is told by Jesus, “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.” 

Most would look at those two verses and offer, “…OK, but that applies just to Sacramental Confession, right?” Sacramental Confession is the priest (the Church) acting as “sacramental steward” for God’s forgiveness. Let’s be clear. The priest does not forgive sins. He absolves which is the earthly action, the announcement, of the grace of God’s forgiveness.  Indulgences operate on the same principle. The Church sees itself as a steward of these spiritual goods, able to apply them for the benefit of souls.

“OK, but when did Jesus bless one person based on the merits of another? “And there people brought to him a paralytic lying on a stretcher. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Courage, child, your sins are forgiven.” (Mt 9:2) It wasn’t the faith of the paralytic, it was the faith of his friends. The merits of others were a gift to the paralytic. The “treasury of merit” is a gift by which God uses the Church when He removes temporal penalties. This is the essence of the doctrine of indulgences. 

Image credit: All Souls’ Day | Jakub Schikaneder, 1888 | National Gallery Prague | PD-US

Indulgences

Posted on by
Reply

Let’s be clear: an indulgence is not a permission to commit sin.  It is not a permission to indulge in some behavior that would ordinarily be considered sinful.  It is not something that you pay for to get forgiveness. The Catholic Church teaches that indulgences are a means by which the faithful can obtain the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has already been forgiven. This teaching is rooted in the Church’s understanding of the interconnectedness of sin, repentance, and the effects of sin on the soul and the community. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides a thorough explanation of indulgences, particularly in Paragraphs 1471-1479.

An indulgence is a “remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven [emphasis added], 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.” (CCC 1471)  An important point is that an indulgence does not apply to an eternal punishment (perdition; hell) but only to the temporal punishment for sins that have already been forgiven. And you may have noticed that indulgences are not limited to being applied to the faithful departed, but can be received by the living if disposed under the prescribed conditions.

Continue reading →

Temporal Punishment

Posted on by
Reply

The phrase “temporal punishment” sits at the heart of indulgences and purgatory, but it is often poorly understood. In Catholic theology, “temporal punishment” refers to the consequences of sin that remain even after the guilt of the sin has been forgiven. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 1472) offers that sin has a double effect: separation from God but also the disorder that sin leaves in its wake. 

By analogy, this can be seen in your having broken a window in the family house (the sin). You confess your sin and the parents “forgive” you – but there is still the matter of the broken window that needs to be fixed, to make the window whole again (or to borrow from Leviticus, to be made pure). The “punishment” is that you have to fix the window. I am sure that a modern communications specialist or public affairs professional would find a different term than “temporal punishment,” but we have what we have. Fixing the window is only “temporary” in that it will take a limited amount of time, but it will be time away from being with friends or family or doing something enjoyable. In that sense it can seem like a punishment. But hopefully the youthful you will not just remedy the broken window, but take the time to reflect and find true sorrow for the “sin” and a deeper appreciation and love for all that the parents provide for you, at no cost to you. This last part is the “purification” and helps you to take a more full place in the family. The window is just a window. When will the “temporal punishment” be over? When you have processed the whole event (and hopefully the window is fixed.)

Temporal punishment is understood as the necessary purification for the disorder caused by sin, which can be addressed either in this life through acts of penance, prayer, and good works, or in the afterlife in the purifying process in Purgatory where one “lets go” of the last vestiges of a life not fully given over to love. Like in life, we might need help.

If you are 10 years old and break a window, I doubt you know how to replace the pane of glass (or even the whole window!). You’re going to need a little help. That is where mom or dad (…and these days YouTube) step in. In our analogy, this is where the prayers of the living for the faithful departed come in. 

Image credit: All Souls’ Day | Jakub Schikaneder, 1888 | National Gallery Prague | PD-US

Purgatory

Posted on by
Reply

We continue our series of posts in anticipation of All Souls Day.

I suspect that how people imagine Purgatory is mostly formed by images from the Italian poet Dante’s description in his work Purgatorio, the second part of his work The Divine Comedy. Whether one has read the work or not, the result is the idea that Purgatory is a place of punishment for sin because redemption and salvation are somehow incomplete. Many people carry the idea of a fiery, but temporary punishment because of their reading of 1 Cor 3:13-15. It is a misreading of the passage, but nonetheless, the images endure in the imagination.

None of that is the teaching of the Catholic Church.

Continue reading →

Holiness

Posted on by
Reply

A good place to begin our exploration of All Souls is to start with the concept of Holiness. If you’d like to take a 6-minute detour, take a moment to watch this video on Holiness which traces the scriptural roots of holiness, explaining how “becoming holy” is more than living a moral life, but a process of preparation for entering into the presence of God in the eternal Temple of Heaven. In speaking of the heavenly city and its eternal Temple, Scripture tells us that “nothing unclean will enter it” (Rev 21:27). In the biblical tradition, “unclean” (or impure) is not limited to sin. The Old Testament lists non-sinful things that can cause one to become ritually impure. What is common to the list is that they are things of “death” that reflect the incompleteness of the world and of people. When St. Matthew writes, “So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect” (Mt 5:48) he is speaking of a wholeness, a completeness that carries no trace of corruption or death; a state ready to enter into the heavenly Temple. The Catholic Church teaches that Purgatory is a state/”process” of purification to become truly holy by ridding oneself of the last impure vestiges of our temporal life. If you are 99% generous, there remains 1% selfish which you need to let go.

Continue reading →