About sin and plenary indulgences

[Sue_Burton]

Hi

I am a little confused. Have spent time meditating the commandments and the affects of sin on the soul, and have also been learning about indulgences and requirements.
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One of the requirements is to be unattached to sin? Looking this up I have read this means overcoming sin, and I did read the example given on this forum about one who lies. It seems to me that in order for a Plenary Indulgence to be valid one would have to be completely pure, that is not just in a state of grace, but to have overcome every vice that can by human nature lead to venial sin, a weakness, and this weakness would have to be every weakness and hence we by this would be unable to sin at all in any way ever, if we have attained this? Does this not make a Plenary Indulgence impossible for those fighting all weaknesses? John wrote that who says they are without sin is a liar? Surely any person would not know if they had indeed managed to overcome all attachments would they? Does this not take the point away from them for those who struggle and do mostly manage to overcome weakness, vices, here I am not speaking of mortal sins. How could one ever declare themselves pure and totally unattached from every kind of weakness? If the receiving of the indulgence is then so hard that it is almost impossible until we are purified which surely we would have to be to meet the requirements, then one can only offer and do all in order to gain forgiven or repair, not for freedom of owed punishments but for love of God and a hate of offending Him in any way, and then the mercy of God is in His Hands. I am finding this so hard to follow and understand.

 

[phoenix3212]

You’re right that very few people actually manage to receive plenary indulgences because of the prerequisite detachment from sinful tendencies. But it really shouldn’t be a big deal. Most people will walk away with a partial indulgence, and that’s fine.

 

[Sue_Burton]

Not really. Our Lord through His Church has laid out for us a store of spiritual treasures and hence if something stops us from receiving anything from those treasures then we need to understand what these things are and this is my point. If one is free from attachments and can receive this grace from a plenary indulgence then able to go from there and may be commit a venial sin then surely they were never free from attachment of sin if being attached to sin is as thus far I understand it. So my guess is my understanding is wrong somehow. However I know that many Catholics do not understand how one knows if they are unattached from all sin. If this means no longer commiting them and have overcome all vices at the time of the indulgence, how long for? Thing is if people feel that it is impossible for anyone to receive a plenary indulgence then the gift is considered as closed off, and unattainable. I think to somehow find some official source that explains exactly what this means or how we can know if we have attained to this may help. I think in all honesty that our whole lives should be an offering of penance to try to make up for our offenses. For when Our Lord took our sins and paid the price for them we are left with a huge debt that we owe. The parable of the one who cancelled all debts of one who owed him a lot of money via compassion, and then the one whose debt was cancelled did not show the same mercy to one who owed him less than he had been forgiven, and hence the cancellation of the first ones debt was made void because he refused to show the same compassion for the one who owed him, to me shows that for mankind there can be a complete cancellation of our debts owed to Our Lord, but this can be made void if we do not show the same mercy to others as we ourselves have received, yet I can find no reference to this as a teaching in the Church. I am sure there is one. In some areas not everything is explained to us on an official basis. I do have In the Faith and I am hoping there may be something in this work that explains how we know if we have a complete unattachment to sin. To me to be ok with the lesser spiritual gift is not what Our Lord wants from us. The gift of complete cancellation of our debts is a great one, too great to settle for a cancelation of part of our debt.

 

[AHapka]

Don’t forget that the conditions of the plenary indulgence need to be present at the time the indulgence is gained. It does not mean they need to have been present your whole life past or future.

Second, the indulgence requires complete detachment from sin. This means that at that point in time you are rejecting all sin and would not sin in any way, shape, or form. That condition needs to be present only at the time the indulgence is gained. It does not mean that it needs to be present for the rest of your life (though that would be nice).

 

[Sue_Burton]

That makes perfect sense and is so very helpful, thank you so much. I guess for love of God we all seek to be at this stage, unattached to any sin all of the time and this is our journey. We tend to fear self and it is true I think live in penance is good because we owe Our Lord so very much, and these gifts of His, His Mercy given to us through His Church, are there because we can never really repay the debt we owe, but the wanting not to offend Him and to do live with a desire and an effort to repay the debt owed as much as we can, often is because we are truly sorry. Now I get it, may He bless you always.

Sue