Newspaper Page Text
The Southern Cross, Page 4
Thursday, January 6, 2000
Indulgences and the
By Archbishop Rembert G.
Weakland, OSB
The basis of the whole practice of
indulgences is our belief in the
Communion of Saints. This doctrine
tells us that we are in one way or
another all united in Jesus Christ, the
living and the dead.
any people have asked me
recently to write a column on
indulgences. They had not heard
that word in Catholic circles for
decades and seemed a bit astonished
that it has come up again in context
of the Holy Year.
Some also remember the history
of indulgences and how the abuses
surrounding them became a part of
the controversies that brought about
the separation of so many from the
church. Younger priests, bom after
Vatican Council II, have called me
to ask me what to do. They have
had no experience with indulgences.
We oldsters remember growing up
counting years and quarantines. On
certain days, we piled up indul
gences. On All Souls’ Day, in par
ticular, we would make many visits
to the church, say the required
prayers, leave the church, and then
start all over again. As a Bene
dictine novice I kept track of how
many indulgences I gained each day
and maintained a record book. It has
since disappeared; I threw it out
along the way. In addition, there is
Saint Paul’s passage about his own
sufferings and how they in some
way become united to the sufferings
of Christ (Colossians 1:24): “Now I
rejoice in my sufferings for your
sake, and in my flesh I am filling up
what is lacking in the afflictions of
Christ on behalf of his body, which
is the church.” In that passage there
is a sentiment on Paul’s part that his
sufferings will be of benefit to oth
ers in the church, not on their own
initiative, but united with the suffer
ings of Jesus Christ. Our sufferings
with and in Christ’s name can affect
others and be a way, mysterious as
it is, of touching their lives.
Moreover, the Communion of
Saints is becoming more and more
important as a doctrine because of
contemporary sensitivities. The
Africans, for example, find their
relationship to their ancestors a very
important part of their culture. The
Native Americans also resonate
deeply with this doctrine. In fact, we
Communion of Saints
all resonate with an awareness of
our connection with our loved ones
who have passed away and, of
course, with the saints in heaven.
First of all, there is no obligation
on our part to bring the whole issue
of indulgences into our spirituality.
In one’s spiritual life and practices it
can be ignored. We should not feel
obligated to make indulgences again
a centerpiece in our relationship
with God. On the other hand, it is
important not to throw out the baby
with the bath. There are certain
underlying doctrines and spiritual
insights that can be important for
one’s Catholic identity.
The basis of the whole practice of
indulgences is our belief in the
Communion of Saints. This doctrine
tells us that we are in one way or
another all united in Jesus Christ,
the living and the dead. Our bond
ing with the saints in heaven (we
call them the Church Triumphant)
has been an integral part of our
awareness as Christians. That doc
trine also implies that we are able in
one way or another to help spiritual
ly one another. This is never con
ceived of outside the redemptive
acts of Jesus Christ, his death on the
cross, and his resurrection. It is also
never conceived of outside baptism
and the whole thrust of salvation
that one can find by baptism into the
life of the Church.
We Catholics have always accept
ed the second book of Maccabees as
one recognized by the Church as an
authentic book of the Bible. In that
book there are prayers offered for
the dead, in this case for soldiers,
and offerings made in Jerusalem at
the temple for them (2 Maccabees
12:38-46). That book was read
often in the liturgy of the early
church from the very beginnings of
Christianity and has remained an
important part of so many funeral
liturgies even today.
Finally, we should not lose sight
of the need for some kind of
penance for our own sins. The small
penance given in Confession was
never seen as adequate. It is but a
token of our willingness to atone for
our sins. In the early church these
practices of atonement were often
done in public. Public penances
were common because sin was seen
(Continued on page 11)
Q uestion: Why do Catholics cross them
selves?
Sandi Gross
Savannah
A nswer: The sign of the cross is an ancient
and utterly profound combination of the two
deepest mysteries of the Christian faith: the
redemption won for us by Christ on the cross,
expressed by the gesture of tracing a cross with
the fingers of the right hand, touching the fore
head, breastbone and shoulders (Western form:
left, then right; Eastern form: right, then left);
and the Trinity: one God in three persons,
expressed by the prayer accompanying the ges
ture: “In the name of the Father and of the Son
and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” A Buddhist monk
once remarked that he envied Catholics for hav
ing such a profound symbol, uniting two great
mysteries, and he expressed the hope that we
appreciated it. The sign of the cross gives us rich
food for our meditation.
What is the cross? Two pieces of raw wood,
nailed together to form an instrument of execu
tion. It is a killing-place, crude and awful, a wit
ness to human cruelty.
It is no wonder that the Scriptures speak of the
“scandal of the cross.” What to all appearances is
a monstrous thing, like a gallows, an electric
chair or a guillotine, is for Christians a sign of
hope. We often miss the irony, because we take
the cross for granted as the symbol of the
Christian faith. To appreciate the irony, imagine
walking into a church and finding an elaborately
! carved guillotine in a place of honor, or a gem-
Questions & Answers
studded gallows around a prelate’s neck, or a
model electric chair in a believer’s dining room.
The effect would be jarring. And so it should be
with all our crosses and crucifixes. They are
signs of death and their artistry should not hide
that fact from us.
How can we bear to dwell on this instrument
of torture, and even to venerate it on Good
Friday? How can we begin our prayers and even
Mass with the sign of this cross? How can we
bear it?
We can bear to gaze upon this cross and not
avert our eyes in horror only because of the res
urrection. Only because the same Jesus who died
a painful death on the cross on Good Friday rose
from the dead on Easter. His being lifted up on
the cross was the prelude to his being “lifted up”
to glory. Like the grain of wheat, he had to die in
order to bear fruit in resurrection. The cross now
takes on a new meaning, as the source of new
life more than as the end of “old life.” And so
our ancestors could sing, “How sweet the wood
99
It is the same with our lives, if only we know
how to look back over them. So many painful
moments turn out to have been life-giving in ret
rospect. So many crosses that we couldn’t face at
the time now seem to have been Godsends, pro
vided that we look at them from God’s point of
view.
It is the same with those deadly sins that we
have discovered at the core of our being. Rather
than curse them, we can see them as occasions of
grace when they have been transformed into
virtues, into strengths. No, deadly sins don’t
become virtues by themselves, or even by our
own effort, but with God’s grace they fall to the
ground and die in order to bear virtuous fruit in
our lives. Jesus had to face his hour of decision,
to accept death head-on in order to live. And so
do we. “Lord, by your cross and resurrection,
you have set us free. You are the savior of the
world.”
All that we have and are comes to us from the
Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Our
prayers of praise, thanks and petition are offered
to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit.
And all that we do as Christians is done in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit, a fact that we symbolize when we
make the sign of Christ’s cross, the means of our
salvation, and say the words, “in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
The sign of our salvation, combined with a con
fession of faith in the Trinity (one God in three
persons) is a powerful and profound one, which
we should not take for granted, for it summarizes
all that we believe as Catholic Christians and
bears witness to it before the world.
Just as the Resurrection only makes sense with
the Cross, neither the Cross nor the Resurrection
makes sense without knowing of the Jesus who
healed the sick, who proclaimed God’s mercy
and blessing to the poor and the oppressed as He
did in the Sermon on the Mount. The life, death
and resurrection of Jesus are the simple core of
the gospel. The response of the hearers of the
gospel and its effect on them are manifold.
—DKC