Spy Wednesday

From the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 26: 14-16
The one of the twelve- called Judas Iscariot- went to the chef priests and said, "What will you give me if I deliver him to you?" They paid him 30 pieces of silver and from that moment he sought an opportunity to betray him.


Today is Spy Wednesday, traditionally the day in which Judas met with the chief priecst and set in motion the events of the Triduum (Latin for "three days" and meaning Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday).

The thirty pieces of silver represented the bounty for a wanted man- and the price of a man's life (for example, the accidental killing of another's slave) .

This is, of course, the first of many betrayals of the Lord during his Passion. First Judas. Then Peter. Then the rest of the disciples (with the exception of John) finally betray him by abandoning him.

But "WE" would never do that, would we?  We know who Christ is- we would never betray him!

We do. Every day.

We betray Christ when we allow people to speak falsehoods about his Church.
We betray Christ when -with full knowledge and consent- we break any of the Commandments (which is a mortal sin, despite one one RCIA director believes)
We betray Christ when we fail to speak up when we see others participating in objectively sinful behavior.
We betray Christ when we fail to stand up for the rights of the most helpless among us.
We betray Christ when anything in this world becomes more important to us than Jesus Christ and his desire for us to be in heaven with him.

You can find a good examination of conscience here. Look it over and get to Confession.

Remember- Judas did not repent and died. Peter repented and lived. And Peter, our first Pope, is proof that the Lord writes straight with crooked lines.

Indulge Me ( Part ONE)- The Indulgence for the Papal Blessing of Pope Francis

This is the first of a THREE part series on indulgences. It was only supposed to be TWO, and I started writing them some time ago, but yesterday's election of Pope Francis presented an opportunity to make it a teachable moment!
  
Here in PART ONE, I will describe the current process for obtaining an indulgence.
In PART TWO, you will learn what an indulgence really is, read about the logic behind indulgences, and how they truly are part of God's mercy toward us.
In PART THREE, I will discuss the history of indulgences and how they have evolved over the years. And I'm betting most of you take away new knowledge about them!
First, please take the time to READ our new Holy Fathers first words to us...


Pope Francis: his first words

"Brothers and sisters good evening.

You all know that the duty of the Conclave was to give a bishop to Rome. It seems that my brother Cardinals have come almost to the ends of the earth to get him… but here we are. I thank you for the welcome that has come from the diocesan community of Rome.

First of all I would say a prayer pray for our Bishop Emeritus Benedict XVI.. Let us all pray together for him, that the Lord bless him and Our Lady protect him.

Our Father…
Hail Mary…
Glory to the Father…

And now let us begin this journey, the Bishop and people, this journey of the Church of Rome which presides in charity over all the Churches, a journey of brotherhood in love, of mutual trust. Let us always pray for one another. Let us pray for the whole world that there might be a great sense of brotherhood. My hope is that this journey of the Church that we begin today, together with help of my Cardinal Vicar, be fruitful for the evangelization of this beautiful city.

And now I would like to give the blessing, but first I want to ask you a favour. Before the bishop blesses the people I ask that you would pray to the Lord to bless me – the prayer of the people for their Bishop. Let us say this prayer – your prayer for me – in silence.

[The Protodeacon announced that all those who received the blessing, either in person or by radio, television or by the new means of communication receive the plenary indulgence in the form established by the Church. He prayed that Almighty God protect and guard the Pope so that he may lead the Church for many years to come, and that he would grant peace to the Church throughout the world.]

[Immediately afterwards Pope Francis gave his first blessing Urbi et Orbi – To the City and to the World.]

I will now give my blessing to you and to the whole world, to all men and women of good will.

Brothers and sisters, I am leaving you. Thank you for your welcome. Pray for me and I will be with you again soon.
We will see one another soon.

Tomorrow I want to go to pray the Madonna, that she may protect Rome.

Good night and sleep well!"
**************************
I think I'm going to like this guy. A lot.
So- back to that speech- note the part I have highlighted. There is a PLENARY INDULGENCE connected to that blessing!!!! So if you saw it- in just about any way you might have seen it- you are eligible for the indulgence!!

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So- how do you GET an indulgence? You must be a Catholic in a state of grace ( see #3) at least by the time you have completed the indulgence.

Indulgences are connected to an EVENT or an action. My initial reason for this series was to explain the indulgence connected to the Year of Faith. As we can see, the Urbi et Orbi Blessing ( to the city and to the world) is an indulgenced event.  Other indulgenced events include being present at: a First Eucharist, an Ordination, time spent in adoration, a visit to a cemetery, your parish's titular feast, reading scripture, praying the Stations of the Cross ( special props if you do it in Jerusalem :-) )  This list is NOT complete- you can google Enchiridion (en-keer-ID-ee-on) of Indulgences for a more exhaustive treatment. Be sure you look at a list dated 1999 or later.

During the Pauline Year, indulgenced events included attending Mass at a parish named for St. Paul. During the Jubilee year, Bishops selected locations within their Dioceses as "pilgrimage" sights. In the diocese of Toledo, Bishop Blair designated the Shrine at Carey. The Feast of St Peter and Paul (June 29) is indulgenced. And it's my wedding anniversary! In the month of November, all indulgences are on behalf of the dead (you can apply them to a specific person or let the Lord decide).


Within a reasonable amount of time ( generally a week or so before and after the indulgenced event), complete the following:

1.You must participate in the event to obtain the indulgence, and you MUST have the intention of obtaining the indulgence. You can't sin by accident, and consequently- you can't get an indulgence by accident either!
2. Receive Holy Eucharist.
3. Make a sacramental Confession. (This brings you into the required state of grace)
4. Pray for the Intentions of the Holy Father. ( these change monthly and are available HERE )
5. (This is the tough one!) Have a complete detachment from all sin- even venial sin.

You may obtain ONE plenary (complete) indulgence per day, and it may be applied to yourself or offered for the dead, but NOT to another living person. 

If you do not successfully complete the plenary indulgence, you still get a partial indulgence. More on those terms in PART TWO.    <===click here

 

Indulge Me ( Part TWO).... What Indulgences REALLY are, and Why YOU Should Get One!

In Part ONE, we learned how to obtain an indulgence. There is absolutely NOTHING that we can do to make up to the Lord for our sins, all of which offend him greatly. Nothing. That is why Jesus had to die on the cross. It was our only hope. God is merciful, but he is also just, and justice demands that we offer some sort of action to show our sorrow for having offended God. That is what an indulgence does: it is a series of actions that in no way makes up for our offenses, yet our merciful Lord accepts them as our humble apology and promise to do better. Through indulgences, the Lord offers us a way to remove the stain of sin from our souls because only that which is pure and clean and holy may enter heaven...and very few people have ever died that ready to walk through the pearly gates. The graces and mercy we receive through indulgences are not based on our own merits or works, but solely on the infinite merits of  Jesus Christ.

Indulgences show us the mercy of God in relation to the justice of God.

Indulgences have changed over the years, as we will see in Part THREE. 
For now, let's look at how indulgences WORK.

Indulgences are defined as "the remission of the temporal punishment due for sins that have already been sacramentally forgiven." There's a lot in that sentence....

Imagine  you have stolen something. You are arrested and tried. Let's even say you plead guilty and are truly sorry for the crime. OK, no biggie. The justice system just lets you go. You ARE sorry, after all. That is how it works, right?

Of course not. Even if you plead guilty, you still have a sentence for the crime, a just punishment. Let's say it was a small item, and they give you 6 months in jail.

Serve your time, and it is all behind you, right?

Wrong. You have paid for your crime, but you still have a record. Every time you fill out a job application, you need to put you have been convicted of theft. Your past still follows you, it stains you, so to speak.

That is what sin does to our souls. Sin stains us. When we go to confession, the Lord forgives our sins (Christ after all, paid the punishment- "did the time"- on the cross for all of our sins- even the ones we never confess)- they are washed away...but the stain of sin remains on our souls.

Returning to our example, let's say you fulfill the terms of your post-release, report to your parole officer, do community service and become a fine and upstanding citizen. You can petition the court, show them what you have done, say you have learned your lesson. If they agree, they will seal- or perhaps even expunge- your record. Then you no longer need to put anything about it on job applications- it is as good as gone.

THAT is what an indulgence does! It wipes clean your record. ... Remember purgatory from earlier posts? Purgatory is where we remain until we are purged from any stain of sins for which we have already been forgiven we have when we die. Remember- purgatory is for those who are saved. Indulgences help us cleanse our sins here, in this life. And the really cool part about them? We can gain indulgences for the deceased! The Communion of Saints in action! We cannot, however, obtain indulgences for other living people. They are for ourselves or for the deceased.

Returning to the two types of indulgences, a plenary indulgence is "complete," a removal of all punishment due for sins which have already been sacramentally forgiven. If you don't get the plenary when it is available, you still get a partial.

Indulgences have changed over the years, so let's back up and take a look at the history of indulgences in part THREE.<====click here

Indulge Me ( Part THREE)- The Checkered History of Indulgences

Indulgences get a bad rap, and - considering how they have been abused in the past- perhaps rightly so.

But they are different now- these are not your Grandma's indulgences!

If you are old enough... say- over 50- you may remember rattling off things like:

"Jesus, Mary and Joseph!" - 3 years!
"Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, have mercy on us." 20 days!
...or even making the Sign of the Cross. A week!

These- and other prayers- are indulgenced, as we discussed in Part ONE. Many a Catholic school student used prayers like these to "take time off purgatory" between classes... and that is the problem.

You see- in the past, indulgenced prayers would have times listed after them. Is was often misunderstood what those times meant.
Three years, 20 days, two weeks- those were not "time off of purgatory," because there is no time in purgatory. Or Heaven, Or Hell for that matter. They all exist outside of time!

So what did the times mean?

They were the equivalent of the old-fashioned sackcloth-and-ashes penances! Say a certain prayer, and it was the same as doing two weeks in sackcloth and ashes on the steps of the church begging alms for the poor!

So, why the change? My guess is one of two things happened:
1. The church steps got too full of sackcloth-clad penitents.
2. Confessions dropped off because people didn't want to do public penance.

Pope Urban II offered a plenary indulgence to the Crusaders who had made a sacramental confession. Makes sense- these guys were risking their lives in defense of the Holy Land.


Pope Leo X offered indulgences to raise money to rebuild St Peter's Basilica. One man working for him took this and ran with it, making outlandish promises to donors in order bring in more money. Throughout the centuries, many unscrupulous men bought and sold indulgences. I won't deny any of that. It is history. The Church is holy, the people with in her? No always.

No wonder Martin Luther was upset. He was right. It was wrong. But the Church was not wrong, the actions by people within the Church and acting in the name of the Church (with or without permission) were wrong. While Luther did not deny the Pope’s right to grant pardons for penance imposed by the Church, he made it clear that preachers who claimed indulgences absolved buyers from all punishments and granted them salvation were in error. (Thesis 21) Yep. He was right.

Have indulgences been abused? Yes.
Have indulgences been sold? Yes.
Has the Church's teaching on indulgences changed? NO.

By the mid 1500's, the Pope had forbidden any connection between money and indulgences. This was after some years of phasing it out. Over the next 400 years, the means for obtaining indulgences evolved, but never again has included money. The buying or selling of holy objects is called SIMONY, and it is a sin. And -the really important point here- the definition of an indulgence has remained the same: the full or partial remission of the temporal punishment due for sins which have already been sacramentally forgiven.  The Church has the authority to set the conditions for indulgences by virtue of the authority given to her by the Lord, and by virtue of the infinite merits of Jesus Christ.

Paul VI removed the whole idea of 'time' attachments to indulgences in the late 1960's. He favored focus on the spiritual goods (faith and penitential acts) of the practice of indulgences and wanted to stop people from being so hung up on the concept of time. At that point, indulgences became either plenary (full) or partial. Faith and penance are necessary for both the remission of the eternal punishment due for sin and for the temporal punishment due for sin. In Indulgentiarum doctrina Pope Paul VI wrote: "Indulgences cannot be gained without a sincere conversion of outlook and unity with God".(article 11)

One incredibly important plenary indulgence is the one given by a priest to an actively dying person. It is called the Apostolic Blessing and it is the reason it is so important to call a priest for a dying Catholic. If a priest is not available, the blessing is automatically extended to they dying person who has established a fruitful prayer life. God can do that.

Over the years since Paul VI's changes, the indulgenced acts have evolved. What has not changed is that indulgences are supplements to the Christian life. They do not replace a conversion of heart and a life of prayer and penance and charity. We are human; we fail. Every day. God's righteous justice is tempered by his mercy, for which we must show gratitude. In conjunction with regular, sacramental confession, indulgences aid us is showing contrition before the Lord and a sincere desire to conform our lives to his will.

That can never be a bad thing!

Jesus Christ, the Cadillac, and the Banana- Not Necessarily in That Order

There is a restaurant here in town. Those of you who live here will know the one I am talking about... 50's theme, old records ( is that redundant?) and license plates hanging on the wall.... great food, too.

They also have some of the best ice-cream concoctions around. My favorite is the Brownie-Chocolate-Chocolate. But there are times I need a Cadillac.

"Ask for two spoons," the description reads, but when I need a Cadillac, you'd best keep your spoon away until I'm good and ready to share.

The Cadillac comes in a Styrofoam 32 ounce cup, and has vanilla ice cream, a banana, hot fudge, crushed M&M's, cookie crumbs, brownies, whipped cream and a cherry on top.

The only problem is, I don't like bananas- in my ice cream, at least. I like them just fine by themselves, but in my book, fruit and ice cream do not mix. So I order my Cadillac with the banana on the side, to enjoy the next morning.

One day I was having a bad day. Can't recall why- but it was a Cadillac day. So I hopped into the car and drove the six-tenths of a mile to the newest location...too close to my home. It was such a bad day I didn't even go inside, I opted for the drive through- which is a lesson in patience, because they cook everything to order. I got to the speaker and placed my order:

" I would like a Cadillac, no cherry. And please leave out the banana and give it to me separately."
"I'm sorry- what about the banana?"
"Leave it out and give it to me separately."
"Do you want it peeled?"
"No. Just leave the peel on it."
(hesitation) "OK. Please pull forward."

There were cars ahead of me, so I waited. And waited. And waited.

I paid. Then waited to pull to the next window. And waited a little longer. mouth watering, anticipating...it was worse then the ketchup commercial.

At last, I got to the 2nd window. The girl handed me my Cadillac, spoon and napkins. No banana. But you know? With the mood I was in, I didn't care. I wasn't going to fuss about it. And I went home.

I sat at the kitchen counter and dug in. The whipped cream, the fudge, the ice cream, the- my spoon thunked. Well, there's my banana, I thought. I carefully scraped the ice cream away from the sides.

Yep. The banana was in there.
Yep. It still had the peel.

There are times we feel we have effectively communicated our message to the intended recipient, only to discover later- somebody didn't follow instructions. Frustrating, isn't it? Since Adam and Eve,  God has given us messages loud and clear: Don't eat from the tree in the center of the garden.      That one didn't work out so well.

You will have no other Gods before me...do not murder...do not steal...do not commit adultery..     Yeah. We had problems with those, too.

God is perfect- the problem is not on his end. The problem is on our end. We took his simple instructions and made them difficult, twisted them to fit how we wanted to live. He had to come up with a better way to communicate his message to us- one that we, in our humanity could understand. So he sent Jesus Christ.

In Jesus Christ, God has communicated his message- his love for us- in a way to which we can relate.

"See? Do you see? THIS is how much I love you. I am willing to give up everything for you to come to me out of love."

Think about that when you see a manger this Advent and Christmas seasons: Almighty God, sleeping in a wooden feeding trough, lodging in a cave. And think about where the journey he began that first Christmas would lead him: hanging on the wood of the cross and buried in a cave.

All because we don't follow instructions very well. This Advent season, remember that the reason Christ came into the world was because of your sinfulness. Look over THIS LIST , then get to Confession. Use this Advent season to prepare your heart for the coming of our Lord.

I'm going to pick up a Cadillac.Just for the photo above, of course!

The Third Sorrowful Mystery- Jesus is Crowned with Thorns

The Third Sorrowful Mystery- Jesus is Crowned with Thorns

MT 27:27-31, MK 15:16-20, JN 19:2-3

The crowning with thorns took place immediately after the scourging; Jesus' back, bruised and raw, was draped with a heavy scarlet (more of a purplish- red) military cloak, likely made of wool. The fabric would have absorbed the blood and stuck to the wounds. Then the soldiers wove a crown of thorny barbs and didn't just place it- crammed it- onto his head.

These guys didn't mess around.

It was a mob-mentality thing. Who can some up with a more humiliating, more vicious way to treat the prisoner? It was a game.

The descriptions in the Gospels are bad enough. it makes you wonder what they did to Jesus that didn't make it onto the pages.

 And when they were through, they tore the cloak off his back, re-opening the wounds from the scourging.


What lesson can we possibly learn from this?

How do we in any way mock and humiliate Jesus Christ?

How do you feel about the the Church's stand on artificial contraception?
Artificial/ In-vitro fertilization?
Divorce?
Female priests?
Abortion?
The Real Presence in the Eucharist?

How do you treat the gift of your sexuality?
How many porn sites have you visited?
Read 50 Shades of Gray?
Do you masturbate?
Pre-marital and extra-marital sex?
Lusted after anyone lately?

Are you completely and totally honest in your dealings with other people?
Are you on Facebook while you are at work?
Do you give back incorrect change?

When's the last time you saw the inside of a confessional?

The Lord gave us his Bride, the Church, as a lawful authority and presence in our lives. The Church stands as the visible body of Christ, and we are compelled to obey the Church by our love of the God who loved us so much he didn't spare his own Son...just so we could be happy in heaven with him one day.

Spurning that lawful authority, we are the soldiers crowning Jesus with thorns, mocking him and spitting in his face.

That is the lesson of the Third Sorrowful Mystery.


For a more complete---practically exhaustive list of Sins That Must Be Confessed, ( in English and Spanish!) follow the link.  Write down each one you are guilty of, and be humbled. Then go to Confession and get rid of it all!!!!!!!!