The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1900-01-06

13 and Il.
Not only did the child die as the
prophet foretold, but all the calamities
enumerated by him came upon the
House of David, viz: The incest of
Ammon, which led to his being killed
by Absalom; Absaloms rebellion
against his father. The denominations
whereWith he polluted his father s
house together with the slaughter of
! 90 900 men, who fell with him in his re-
bellion-
In the above narration you have no
ticed that as soon as David realized
| how grievously he had sinned and ac-
! knowledged the same, that very instant
God forgave him his crime. THE Lord
has taken away thy sin; thou shalt not
! die" Two things are evident here:
God, moved by David's compunction.
! forgives him his sin and moves the cap
! ital or eternal punishment he had de-
served for his sin into temporal punish
/ mentS which we have enumerated
above. The same system is pursued by
/ God to this very day, for the scales Of
! divine justice never vary. For mortal
sin, which is a grievous transgression
! against the law of God, which is there
! fore called mortal, because it kills the
soul, the punishment is he'll, or eternal
death.
When the sinner repents, that is re-
IN.
penance and promises amendment. God
forgives him and commutes the eternal
punishment of hell into various tempor-
al punishments, such. as sickness, mis-
fortune business failures, poverty and
! Affections Of all kinds, by means of
which, in His infinite mercy, God strikes
the balance in the scales of divine
equity; and, after purifying man, He
lifts him to a higher moral standard
by more perfect conformity with His
divine model, Christ Jesus. For even
as the gold is refined in the crucible. so
man is purified and perfected in the
crucible Of adversely. SO true it is that
those whom God loves He chastises.
But it must be plain to you before
this that when God has forgiven many
mortal sins. the amount of temporal
punishments accumulated by these
communications for which in pennance
we must atone, necessarily must be-
come very large in proportion to the
number of mortal sins forgiven. Here
we reach the grand field of indulgences.
For an indulgence in the Catholic sense
Of the word is, not the forgiveness of
sin. Sin is the deadly antagonist of an
indulgence; where there is mortal sin
in the soul, an Indulgence is absolutely
impossible. Much less is it an induce
ment to commit sin; ignorance and
malice alone could invent such a SLAM
der.
We define an indulgence as the remis-
sion of the temporal punishment, due to
man for the sins already forgiven.
In the case of King David, we have
shown how this temporal punishment
originates, by a divine Communication of
the eternal punishments, and how it ac-
cumulates from the number of such sins
forgiven us in the tribunal of Gods
mercy. Now this remission is made
by the application to US of the satisfac-
tory merits Of Jesus Christ. That these
merits of Christ, being infinite, even
without the accessory merits of the
saints, were more than enough to Of
fer full atonement for all the sins Of
men, every Christian admits.
These merits. together with those of
the mother Of the Sovio.S and the mer-
its of the Saints, constitute the treas
ury of the church, out of which, by
means Of indulgences, the church which
is the constituted guardian thereof
grants to her children the remission of
the temporal punishments still due the
divine justice for sins already forgiven.
When this remission is full, a clear re-
ceipt of all Indebtedness, it is called a
plenary indulgence. When it embraces
a part of their debt, it is called a par
tial Indulgence.
How do we prove that the church has
the power 10 grant lllOulg6DCGS. by
the following Recommendation: All
Christians admit that Christ came to
offer atonement for the sins of the
world, and this atonement. being in
finite, is more than sufficient to redeem
the world and an infinite number of
worlds like ours. All likewise admit
that this same Christ founded a church
whom He commissioned to go into all
the world, preach the Gospel to all the
20 lN.
with His church to the end Cf the
world. This mission of His church
is identical with His own. In the sew
enteenth chapter OF St. John, which
embOdies His prayer for His disciples,
we read, las Thou, Father, hast sent
Me into the world, L also have sent
them" John Xvii:18. And in the 18th
chapter of St. John. verses 21-22, we
read: THE Father hath sent Me. |
also send you" When He said this He
breathed upon them and said to them:
Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose
sins you shall forgive they are forgiven
them, and whose sins you shall RETAIN |
they are retained John xx:21-22.
Surely if words mean anything this !
means that Christ gave unto His apos- !
ties and 10 the church through them |
the power Of forgiving sins. But it |
stands to reason that the power Of for !
that of remitting the temporal punish |
ment still remaining, due after sin has
been remitted. For by forgiving sin |
they likewise reunite the eternal pun |
iSlment; and surely they who can re- |
nit the eternal punishment can also re- |
nit what is much less; namely, the |
temporal punishment.
This is evident from the words of |
Christ to Peter: Il will give thee the |
keys Of the kingdom Of heaven. What
soevGr thou shalt bind upon earth it |
shall be bound also in heaven; and |
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, |
it shall be Ioosed also in heaven. >
Matt, 1919.
If I have the keys to a house I can
admit you; or, if 1 judge you unfit to
enter, may refuse you admittance. By |
saying that he would give to Peter the
keys of heaven, Christ evidently meant
to give to him power over the kingdom,
10 let those enter whom he should judge /
fit to enter and to keep out those that /
in his eSJlmation We're unit for il. But
we know that nothing impure can en-
ter there.
There shalt not enter into it any
thing defiled. APOSTLES, 21-27. That
which keeps the soul out of heaven is
not merely sin, but also the indebted
ness consequent upon sin, for which
was created, which is moth
ing but heavens refining room wherein
those souls that shall depart this life
with dark stains upon their wedding
garment shall be detained and burnish-
ed in the cleansing fires of purgatory
so as to be made fit for the embrace OF
the Lamb without spot Surely if by
the power of forgiving sin Peter can
lift souls out OF hell for which they
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