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Show ' i Catholic Doctrine on Indulgence The Superabundant Satisfactions of Christ and the Saints and the Meaning and Application of Merit and Satisfaction Explained. In the last article T endeavored to explain ex-plain the Catholic Dogma -which the Apostles have hand"d clown to us in their creed and whio, we profess to believe be-lieve when we say we "believe in the Communion of Saints." As the Catholic doctrine on Indug-enccs Indug-enccs is based on this dogma and on that of "The Treasure of the Church." I shall trtat of the latter in this article ar-ticle in order that the teaching on Indulgences In-dulgences may be all the better understood. under-stood. The Treasure of the Church is composed com-posed of the superabundant satisfaction satisfac-tion of Christ, to which are added those of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints. Man by sin. contracted a debt towards to-wards the Divine Justice, which, by all possible ..works of satisfaction, he, of himself, could never repay. Christ, in his mercy, undertook to do so for him. "He became a propitiation for our sins" (1 Ep. John II.. 2). "The Lord hath laid upon Him the inquities of us all." (Isaih LIII, 6). "Surely He hath born our infirmities and carried our sorrows," and "the chastisement of our. peace was upon Him (Isaiah LIII. 43). He not only satisfied the Divine Justice Jus-tice to the extent that was barely sufficient, suf-ficient, but He did so "superabundantly." "superabundant-ly." Christ being God, one drop of His Most Precious Blood would have been sufficient to make satisfaction to the I outraged justice of His Eternal Father I for the sins of a million of worlds. (Therefore by His life, passion and i death. His satisfactions were- "infinite-j "infinite-j ly - superabunSant." r -This being -so they can never, therefore, be exhausted j Such, then, is the manner and extent in which Christ has satisfied the divine justice for the sins of men. The Treasure of the Church not only-embraces only-embraces these satisfactions of Christ, but also, as has been said, the "superabundant" "super-abundant" satisfactions of the Saints. I say, their "superabundant" satisfae-' tion, not their "sufficient" ones which latter means those that had been exhausted ex-hausted by them, when atoning for their own sins in this life. That the Treasure of the Church embraces the superabundant satisfactions satisfac-tions of the Saint does not imply that Christ's were insufficient, nor that those of the Saints were indispensible. but rather,-that they should not be losi to the Faithful. But it may be asked how were the Saints capable of making or of having any satisfaction to offer the Divine Justice for themselves or their brethren, at all? - The answer is that they were not "of themselves," but. "through the merits of Christ." Without me you can do nothing" nothing whatever ofthe supernatural su-pernatural ordeiv Again, St. Paul say?, "by the grace of God I am what I am." and again: "I can do all things in Him who strengthened me" all things, all good w orks necessary for salvation and worthy of supernatural merit with its corresponding reward in he kingdom of heaven. That such good works can thus be performed is certain and clear, as also that they are necessary to salvation, sal-vation, for, "Faith without good works is dead." Man "of himself" is absolutely incapable inca-pable of performing a single good work, worthy of supernatural reward, but he can so merit w hen possessed of I supernatural sanctifying grace. It is this grace 'which makes him a "living" member of the Church. If by mortal sin-he should be so unfortunate un-fortunate as " to lose it he becomes a "dead" member dead to grace and supernatural su-pernatural life. Sanctifying grace and mortal sin can never exist in the same soul at the same time. On the other hand, when a soul is in the state of sanctifying , grace every good work, every human act. no matter how trivial, and performed according to the dictate of right reason, is su-pernaturally su-pernaturally meritorious. The corresponding reward in heaven is supernatural, of course, and also eternal. ; . The merit and reward for giving a drink of water to a poor man. when done by a soul in- grace, must last for all eternity. That soul can never cease to enjoy the supernatural reward of so trivial an action. This illustrates very clearly how great , must be the loss of merit and reward for heaven those suffer, who. having fallen into grave sin, put off, repentance and a good confession con-fession for weeks and months and oftentimes for years, hereby rendering all their actions 'dead works" and a "blank" as far as merit and reward are concerned. ' Every good work done by a soul in the state of sanctifying grace is not only "meritorious," but it is at one and the same time and in the same proportion propor-tion "satisfactory." This distinction deserves the closest consideration. The soul, by the. same act. not only merits reward, but also satisfies the Divine Di-vine Justice for sin. " The "merit" is personal and cannot be given or offered for another. No saint in heaven or on earth can transfer the "inerit" of his good works to another, but he can the "satisfaction."- - . In other wsa-ds, as far as a good work Is "meritorious" it is and.niust remain the' inalienable" property of its author, but insofar as it is "satisfactory" he can offer it to the Divine Justice for wh'ohi ' he p:'easel In the right order of charity he should .offer.. all. his satisfactions to atone for his own sins and the temporal punishment due to them first. This being- d-one;- having no further personal sins '.or temporal punishments to satisfy sat-isfy for his satisfactions are what has ' . " u I been termed "superabundant." Thoso I of such satisfactions which are not of- I fered or applied in atonement for per- I sonal sins or the temporal punishment I due to one's own sins or those of Iuh brethren, arc h-ld over, so to speak, and with th-.' satisfactions of Ci.rist ar- locked up in the Treasure of the Church. I When a man is truly repentant, con- fosses his sins and perseveres afterwards after-wards in God's grace, he may. by hi good works, in the course of a few I weeks, month or years, as the case may be, by tin aid of satifying grate, fully satisfy the justice of God for all hi sins and their temporal punishment. He may then live on in grace for years. It would be unreasonable to suppose that all his good works, during that period, pe-riod, which were "satisfactory" as well as -"meritorious" should be lost in the former sense, for his having no more sins of his own to atone for. The Church therefore treasures them up with thoso of Christ, to apply them, according to her wisdom, to the needy. ! The measure of the "superabundant" , . satisfactions of the saints is in proportion pro-portion to the sanctity of their lives, the degrees of grace in which they lived. the supernatural merit thj.' acquired and the number of meritorious works they performed. In addition to these the "superabundance" of their satisfactions is affected by the personal sins and their temporal .punishments that they had to atone for. In a word. the greater the saint, the greater must I be the superabundance of his satisfae- l tions. -Consequently those of the Blessed 1 Virgin must have been unspeakably j above the superabundant satisfactions j of any of the saints, considering the e holiness of her life and the fact -that she. had no personal sins to satisfy for. It would"" not be reasonable to sup- I pose, nor would it be in accordance I with the teaching of. the Church to say. that whilst each saint received the due "merit" and "eternal reward" of his - good works, that the same good works. I as far as they were "satisfactory." j should not be kept over to be applied and offered to satisfy for the weaker members of Christ's Flock. f The Church, therefore, by virtue of I her power of binding and loosing, treasures up all these superabundant satisfactions with those of Christ and I applies them, as she thinks fit, to the I souls that need them. These super- . J abundant satisfactions of Christ and I his saints are what we mean by the I "Treasure of the Church." I We learn from the doctrine of the j communion of saints the close union j that exists amongst all the "living" members of Christ's Flock between i the Church 1 "Triumphant." "Militant" and the "Suffering Church." "We are all every one members of one another." (Rom. XII. 5). - United so closely in Ae bonds of "one faith" and divine charity the, weaker ' members are assisted by the strong and each member, as in the natural body,' contributes to the well being of th. whole frame agreeably to the command of St. Paul: "Bear ye one another's burdens" (Gal. VI. 2). , Thus then are the satisfactions of the saints, which are "superabundant" more than is required to satisfy for their own sins. held. over, treasured up. by the Church, and applied and offered to the Divine Justice, in behalf of th; weaker members of the Faithful. The clear knowledge of the doctrine of the "Communion of Saints" and the. "Treasure of the Church" will prepare the mind and make it extremely easy ' to fully comprehend the teaching of Holy Church regarding Indulgences. In th'i next article it will be seen how the Church, by virtue of its power of. "loosing," which it possesses, as well a. of binding, draws upon her "Spiritual Treasure" ami out of it, imparts succor suc-cor to her children in need, absolving them, in part or in whole, from the obligation ob-ligation of personally making satis- j for-tinn frr tVit.iT- ein! anil tmrnifnl rturt- ishments due them. and. at the same ' 1 time, offering, instead, to the Divine I Justice, a corresponding portion of the superabundant satisfactions of Ch -ist ' and his saints'. This, as will be more fully explained in the next article, .is what the Catholic Church means by Indulgences. C. E..B. |