“For your penance say three Hail Marys, and you may now say the act of contrition.” Have you ever left the sacrament of confession wondering at the gap between the gravity of what you just confessed and the mildness of the penance assigned?

Praying those three Hail Marys for your penance is very good: it can be done immediately after confession, it is a way of further admitting our sin to God, witnesses to our sorrow and intentions to make amends, and it is usually partial reparation for the sin we’ve committed.

“But wait,” I hear you saying. “What do you mean, ‘partial reparation’?”

Indeed, I’ve often thought that the best time to get hit by a bus is after a good sacramental confession. But here’s the thing: sacramental penance reconciles us to God and the Church. So with confession, the life of grace is renewed in us, and we can be confident of our friendship with God and therefore of our eternal destiny. And the penance given in confession starts to repair the effects of our sin in this world. But usually, it’s only a start. So that bus I didn’t see coming isn’t necessarily a ticket straight to heaven – there is probably some temporal punishment that remains. If I don’t get a chance to offer sufficient reparation through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving in this world, well, that’s what Purgatory is for. So I will need your prayers even if I die in a tragic bus accident immediately after confession!

This distinction between absolution and reparation is too often lost. When we were prepared for the sacrament of confession, we may not have been old enough to appreciate all the different dimensions of sin. And for the most part we haven’t studied confession since then.

Apologizing sincerely is important and necessary. But so is reparation – repairing the damage we have caused by our wrongdoing. Most of the time, we cannot directly repair the damage caused by our evil acts. There have been too many ripple effects. So reparation usually takes the form of works of charity above and beyond our responsibilities, as well as patient acceptance of the sufferings sent our way in this life. And no reparation happens without the life of grace – meaning that we are not “earning” our way to heaven on our own, but cooperating with the grace God lavishes on us.

You can see this distinction between guilt and punishment in Scripture. Although God forgave Adam his sin of disobedience (Wisdom 10:1-2), Adam was nevertheless expelled from the garden and condemned to toil for his bread till the day he died (Genesis 3:17-19). When the children of Israel put the Lord to the test even after He brought them out of Egypt, He forgave their guilt in response to Moses’ plea, but still punished them, ensuring that none of those who had been brought out of Egypt would enter the promised land (Numbers 14:19-23).

When used in reference to what we do, reparation, atonement, expiation, and satisfaction all refer to approximately the same thing: actions aimed at remedying the temporal effects of sin. These actions are effective when they participate in the unique saving action of Jesus, who invites us to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him (cf. Matthew 16:24).

We can offer reparation not only for our own sins, but for others’ sins too. It has long been a pious practice, when we overhear the Lord’s name used blasphemously, to quietly say a reverent prayer in reparation.

When we make reparation for others’ sins, we are following a path described frequently in Scripture. Moses offers himself as a sacrifice to God for the sin of the people (Exodus 32:32). St. Paul writes to the Colossians, “I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake” (1:24. See also 2 Cor 12:5 and 2 Tim 4:6).

Once we realize that reparation for sin is part of the Christian life, and the possibility of making reparations for others, the Church’s teaching on indulgences doesn’t seem so strange. We can pray in a certain way for the benefit of souls in Purgatory. Most of the things you do for an indulgence are a standard part of Catholic life: reject sin, go to confession, receive communion, and pray for the pope’s intentions.

During Catholic Cemeteries Week (May 28 – Jun 3), there will be a special indulgence that we can pray for the soul of one of our beloved departed. There is a checklist below with the details – clip it and it’ll help you stay organized. For more information about the Catholic Cemeteries Week indulgence, visit www.madisondiocese.org/ccw-indulgence.   
 

This article first appeared in the Madison Catholic Herald on May 18, 2023 under the title, "Thinking about indulgences."