Pastor's Notes - 02/09/20

Did you know, when you receive forgiveness of your sins, that there is still temporal punishment which one must endure for those sins?  Yes, your sin is forgiven, but the effect of one’s sin still exists.  That is the reason we believe in Purgatory, so when one dies and one has to pay the debt owed to all their sins, there is still a time of purification from one’s sins.   It is not like there was nothing that happened by one’s sin.  It takes time to restore and heal relationships that were damaged by sin.  If one has lost trust, then that trust takes time to be restored, if possible, to the original state. 

We are all sinners and we all have imperfections. We were born with original sin, which is taken away in Baptism, but the effects of that sin remains with us for the rest of our lives.  It is only through prayer and the Lord Jesus that we can be saved from our sinfulness and weaknesses, which we all experience in our lives.  None of us are perfect and none of us will be perfect.

The Church does offer indulgences:  "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."   "An indulgence is partial or plenary accordingly as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin." Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead. (Catechism #1471)  I will give more on this next week.