Oboedire "Year of Mercy: Set Free!" by J. Steven Harper for Wednesday, 1 June 2016

Oboedire   "Year of Mercy: Set Free!" by J. Steven Harper for Wednesday, 1 June 2016
(22) As soon as we hear the word 'indulgence,' our minds hark back to their abuse in the Roman Church in and around the time of the Protestant Reformation. So, to read Pope Francis' declaration that the Year of Mercy must include the Church's increase in granting indulgences gives us pause.
If nothing else it means that we need to understand indulgences in another light--in something other than their misuse in the past. Pope Francis seeks to provide that new light.
In essence, indulgences are the Church acting as God's representative on earth saying to sinners everywhere, "In the Name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven!"--and doing so (in the Pope's words), "in ways that are continually new and surprising."
Mercy becomes 'indulgence' when it reflects the heart of God, not only to forgive sin, but to remember it no more. Only then writes Pope Francis, is any sinner free to live out from under the shadows and stigmas of sin. Mercy as 'indulgence' is the strongest guard against a person falling back into sin.
Radical? Yes. Risky? Clearly. Mandatory? Absolutely. Pope Francis puts it this way, "To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church, who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ's redemption, so that God's love and forgiveness may extend everywhere."
Pope Francis ends this segment exhorting the Church to practice "merciful indulgence" to everyone everywhere.
[Note: the numbers at the beginning of each meditation correspond to the section of the Pope's document on which it is based][J. Steven Harper]

Wednesday, June 1, 2016

Year of Mercy

http://wp.me/p101na-1EH
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22. A Jubilee also entails the granting of indulgences. This practice will acquire an even more important meaning in the Holy Year of Mercy. God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. In the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, God makes even more evident his love and its power to destroy all human sin. Reconciliation with God is made possible through the paschal mystery and the mediation of the Church. Thus God is always ready to forgive, and he never tires of forgiving in ways that are continually new and surprising. Nevertheless, all of us know well the experience of sin. We know that we are called to perfection (cf. Mt 5:48), yet we feel the heavy burden of sin. Though we feel the transforming power of grace, we also feel the effects of sin typical of our fallen state. Despite being forgiven, the conflicting consequences of our sins remain. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, God forgives our sins, which he truly blots out; and yet sin leaves a negative effect on the way we think and act. But the mercy of God is stronger even than this. It becomes indulgence on the part of the Father who, through the Bride of Christ, his Church, reaches the pardoned sinner and frees him from every residue left by the consequences of sin, enabling him to act with charity, to grow in love rather than to fall back into sin.

The Church lives within the communion of the saints. In the Eucharist, this communion, which is a gift from God, becomes a spiritual union binding us to the saints and blessed ones whose number is beyond counting (cf. Rev 7:4). Their holiness comes to the aid of our weakness in a way that enables the Church, with her maternal prayers and her way of life, to fortify the weakness of some with the strength of others. Hence, to live the indulgence of the Holy Year means to approach the Father’s mercy with the certainty that his forgiveness extends to the entire life of the believer. To gain an indulgence is to experience the holiness of the Church, who bestows upon all the fruits of Christ’s redemption, so that God’s love and forgiveness may extend everywhere. Let us live this Jubilee intensely, begging the Father to forgive our sins and to bathe us in his merciful “indulgence.”

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