treasury of merit?

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I wondered if someone could explain the “treasury of merit” of the Saints and Mary doctrine, and how it relates to Christ’s sacrifice and salvation in your Theology, this is one I hear people condemn you a lot for and would like to know from your own words what exactly you mean by the concept.
 
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Knight4God:
I wondered if someone could explain the “treasury of merit” of the Saints and Mary doctrine, and how it relates to Christ’s sacrifice and salvation in your Theology, this is one I hear people condemn you a lot for…
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It is true that the Church is often criticized for this teaching, because it has a lot to do with the Church’s understanding of the role of works in our salvation (which many protestants reject).

The Church believes that God is Just. The definition of “Justice” means that righteousness is rewarded and evil is punished. We believe our actions work WITH our faith in the economy of salvation. When we do good works (which include things like prayer, bible study, etc), and we do it with the proper spiritual intent, we obtain Grace.

No amount of good works can earn our salvation, yet we need BOTH works and faith. Fortunately, we don’t really need a whole lot of either (because God is also Merciful), but we DO need some of both.

But what about those whose spiritual merits (both in faith and works) far exceeds their own role in their salvation? We don’t need much, remember, but some clearly have *very *much. Shall these spiritual merits (Graces) simply be “wasted?” That also abhors the idea of Justice, because the spiritual merits are of no avail and thus are an empty recognition of goodness.

The Church believes that these additional spiritual merits belong in common to the Body of Christ (the spiritual community). So what merits I obtain above and beyond my personal needs (God willing) are “owned” by (or, rather, applied to) the Church as a whole.

This is the Treasury, and it’s Graces are infinite (because it also includes the spiritual merits of Our Lord’s Sacrifice on Calvary).

Since Christ appointed Peter (the Pope) and the Apostles (the Bishops) as leaders of the Church with the power to bind and loose, the Magesterium acts as custodian (executor) of this Treasury, and may apply these Graces as She sees fit.

The notion of a Spiritual Treasury is the natural conclusion of the premise that God is Just.
 
Is there any biblical basis for this teaching?

And, when/how do these merits get applied? When do they ‘come into play’, so to speak.
 
I would like to understand this, also, as it is something I do not understand…
Also, in addition to any Biblical references, what about in the Early Church Fathers??
 
Here are two paragraphs of the CCC along with a cite from Indulgentiarum Doctrina which address the treasury of merit as it relates to indulgences.

*1476 We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church’s treasury, which is “not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the ‘treasury of the Church’ is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ’s merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their effficacy.”

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.

**Paul VI, Indulgentiarum doctrina, 8 **
The taking away of the temporal punishment due to sins when their guilt has already been forgiven has been specifically called “indulgence.”
While it has something in common with other ways of eliminating the vestiges of sin, an indulgence is clearly different from them.
In fact, in granting an indulgence the Church uses its power as minister of Christ’s Redemption. It not only prays. It intervenes with its authority to dispense to the faithful, provided they have the right dispositions, the treasury of satisfaction which Christ and the saints won for the remission of temporal punishment.
The authorities of the Church have two aims in granting indulgences. The first is to help the faithful to expiate their sins. The second is to encourage them to do works of piety, penitence and charity, particularly those which lead to growth in faith and which help the common good.
Further, if the faithful offer indulgences by way of intercession for the dead they cultivate charity in an excellent way. While they raise their minds in heaven they bring a wiser order into the things of this world.
The teaching authority, the Magisterium of the Church, has defended and explained the teaching about indulgences in various documents. Unfortunately, the practice of indulgences has on occasions been improperly applied. This has been either through “untimely and superfluous indulgences” which humiliated the power of the keys and weakened penitential satisfaction or it has been through the collection of “unlawful profits” which blasphemously took away the good name of indulgences. The Church deplored and corrected these improper uses. It “teaches and commands that the usage of indulgences—a usage most beneficial to Christians and approved by the authority of the Sacred Councils—should be kept in the Church; and it condemns with anathema those who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have the power to grant them.” *

Here is a CA link that gives info and bible references on indulgences.
 
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Knight4God:
I wondered if someone could explain the “treasury of merit” of the Saints and Mary doctrine, and how it relates to Christ’s sacrifice and salvation in your Theology, this is one I hear people condemn you a lot for and would like to know from your own words what exactly you mean by the concept.
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In “my own words” and not in theology-speak or apologetics-speak, I would say:

The treasury of the infinite merits of Christ and unfathomable merits of the Blessed Virgin and the great merits of all the saints are those things which they have done and in their heavenly life continue to do which so please God so as to make God pleased to reward them and the persons who do them with His lavish mercy and generosity, especially to us wayfarers on earth.

It means that they have “stored up treasures” in heaven which will last forever. It means that while a physical Rosary may pass away that the prayers that are said with it, if done from one’s heart, will be an eternal rose of love which one has showered at the feet of Jesus and Mary and to the Father and Holy Spirit.

When due to God’s grace saints do things which are pleasing to God, God is pleased to reward them and to continue to reward them, especially by having mercy on earth. That is the essence, to me, of the treasury of merit. It is a beautiful gift from the Father and a shining witness to his love and lovely poem of praise to Him and to that which He has elevated to glory.
 
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Elzee:
Is there any biblical basis for this teaching?
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Well, sure. Jesus died for our sins, right? Can the spiritual merits (Grace) of His works be applied to you? Of course. I think that’s in the Bible somewhere.

If it bothers someone to think the Treasury includes the merits of the Saints, then just forget about the Saints. Consider only the Grace resulting from the works that Jesus did at Calvary. There’s enough Grace there to go around for every person until the end of time. On the Cross, Jesus wrote the Church a blank check, signed and notarized.
And, when/how do these merits get applied? When do they ‘come into play’, so to speak.
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Well, most commonly in the Sacriments. The Eucharist, for example, conveys Grace, and the source for that Grace is the result of the works of Jesus at Calvary. Calvary enables Eucharist (works enable Grace, and the Church is entrusted with the administration of that Grace).

But, of course, this is also a source of Grace which is conveyed through indulgences. But that’s probably another thread (and has surely been discussed here at length).
 
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