the communion of the saints and indulgences - 26th week Tuesday 2013

Last week we started our reflection on the 10^th article of the faith which is, I believe in the communion of the saints, and we talked about its implication particularly in our view of death, asserting the fact that we are spirits who happen to have bodies and thus we live forever.  We also asserted that  in life and in death we are a communion, we are one body under Christ and the only thing that can separate us, the only thing that excludes us from this communion is sin.  That is why when we commit a grave sin we are excommunicated, excommunio, we are excluded, we are expelled from the communion, sin expels us, sin cuts us out.

Today I would like to reflect with you on another implication of being in the communion of saints and that is, our belief in indulgences.  What are these indulgences?  In early Christianity, in the age of martyrdom, many Christians were imprisoned, made to work in labor camps especially in the mines, some were tortured and many of them were killed in gruesome ways shedding their blood for their faith in Christ.  Because of this there aroused a belief among Christians that the sacrifices of a martyr has tremendous value since it is an imitation of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.  Because of this tremendous value, the sacrifice of martyrs can expiate the sins of others, makabayad sia para sa sala sang iban.  Ano pa those with grave sins, those who committed crimes would sometimes ask martyrs suffering in prison to offer their sacrifice for their sake.  The Christian community would recognize that as payment for sins, as penance, it was viewed as an acceptable amendment for the forgiveness of sins.  It is a beautiful arrangement among early Christians which is actually not very hard to understand. In simple language indulgences are like this - the goodness of one affects others.  It is the simple arithmetic of goodness, the electrifying effect of goodness.  The good that you do does not only remain in you.  It affects others, the love that we show, the sacrifice that we make forgives a multitude of sins, it helps people become better, goodness begets goodness, it creates goodwill.  It can even, not just affect but also infect others as in others become good because you are good.  Why is this so? because we are a communion.

This is part of the spirituality of St. Therese.  Every sacrifice that she makes, every pain she feels, every effort even picking up pieces of trash scattered or left on the floor, or suffering patiently a pain in her body – she would offer it as a prayer for whatever intention she would have in mind – for the souls in purgatory, for the conversion of sinners, for the sanctification of priests.  Imagine, picking up a piece of paper and offering the inconvenience of bending, offering the distraction it creates as you walk along your route for a conversion of somebody.  It is the spirituality of St. Therese, the little way spirituality and it is based on the communion of the saints.  For St. Therese to be a saint you don’t have to be as great as St. Ignatius of Loyola, or as heroic as St. Francis of Assisi.  You just have to live in the communion of the saints where your goodness however small can make a tremendous impact in the world.