Isn't the Sin Already Forgiven?
Q: If a plenary indulgence is the total remission of a person’s temporal punishment due to sin, what does “temporal punishment” mean?
A: Going to confession recently is a condition for gaining any indulgence for oneself. I can gain an indulgence for someone deceased only if that person was truly sorry for his or her sins.
You may ask: Doesn’t going to confession wipe out the sins confessed? A sin can be forgiven and yet still continue to have a harmful effect. That’s what the “temporal punishment due to sin” idea addresses.
Once I commit a sin, that sin has a life of its own—no longer totally under my control. If I knew you and told a lie about you, I might later repent of that lie and be forgiven in confession.
Unfortunately, that lie would have a life of its own. Even if I went back and told the truth to each person to whom I told that lie, I could never guarantee that my efforts would undo all the damage caused by this lie. The truth may never reach everyone who heard the lie!
When I was in grade school, one comparison used in this regard was letting feathers out of a pillow on a windy day. Once they were out, I could try to collect them, but chances that I would be 100 percent successful are slim.
Another example from my grade school days strikes me as still valid. If I put a baseball through your window, I may be very sorry and you may forgive me—but you still have a broken window!
Depending on my age and other circumstances, you may expect me to put in a new window or pay someone else to do that. Saying “I’m sorry” is great, but it does not restore things to the way they were before I broke your window. If my contrition is genuine, it must include trying to undo the damage I have done.
There is always damage between the time I sin and the time I repent and begin repairing the damage. My sin may have encouraged others—and may still do so even after I repent.
All this is not to make people feel crushed by guilt but to be realistic: My sins, your sins, anybody’s sins have a life of their own, a life which does not instantly cease when a sinner repents and is forgiven by God.
The teaching about purgatory recognizes that a person may not be ready to meet God and enjoy the beatific vision at the moment of death. Some purification may yet be needed. This is why for centuries the Christian community has prayed and continues to pray for its deceased members.
A: Going to confession recently is a condition for gaining any indulgence for oneself. I can gain an indulgence for someone deceased only if that person was truly sorry for his or her sins.
You may ask: Doesn’t going to confession wipe out the sins confessed? A sin can be forgiven and yet still continue to have a harmful effect. That’s what the “temporal punishment due to sin” idea addresses.
Once I commit a sin, that sin has a life of its own—no longer totally under my control. If I knew you and told a lie about you, I might later repent of that lie and be forgiven in confession.
Unfortunately, that lie would have a life of its own. Even if I went back and told the truth to each person to whom I told that lie, I could never guarantee that my efforts would undo all the damage caused by this lie. The truth may never reach everyone who heard the lie!
When I was in grade school, one comparison used in this regard was letting feathers out of a pillow on a windy day. Once they were out, I could try to collect them, but chances that I would be 100 percent successful are slim.
Another example from my grade school days strikes me as still valid. If I put a baseball through your window, I may be very sorry and you may forgive me—but you still have a broken window!
Depending on my age and other circumstances, you may expect me to put in a new window or pay someone else to do that. Saying “I’m sorry” is great, but it does not restore things to the way they were before I broke your window. If my contrition is genuine, it must include trying to undo the damage I have done.
There is always damage between the time I sin and the time I repent and begin repairing the damage. My sin may have encouraged others—and may still do so even after I repent.
All this is not to make people feel crushed by guilt but to be realistic: My sins, your sins, anybody’s sins have a life of their own, a life which does not instantly cease when a sinner repents and is forgiven by God.
The teaching about purgatory recognizes that a person may not be ready to meet God and enjoy the beatific vision at the moment of death. Some purification may yet be needed. This is why for centuries the Christian community has prayed and continues to pray for its deceased members.
posted by See Tho Zhang Jacob at
1:54 PM
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