What is an indulgence?

Indulgences are God’s way of taking our human acts and raising them up to the level of grace. Indulgences are a part of the power of the keys for binding and loosing given to St. Peter and to the Church.

A Catholic indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission (taking away of) the temporal punishment due to sin that has been confessed and forgiven. Baptism takes away all sin prior to Baptism and also takes away all of the penalties attached to those sins. In Confession your sin is forgiven and with it the eternal punishment of mortal sin, but there is still the temporal punishment: the effects that follow, in justice, from our sins themselves, which must be repaired either on earth or in Purgatory, even though they’ve already been forgiven. An indulgence offers that sinner a way of taking away the debt owed for sins committed during his life on earth. In other words, when you correctly receive an indulgence you are freed from the temporal punishment that you would do in Purgatory.

In order to understand Indulgences, you will need to understand the sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession. We all know that when we go to Confession and are truly sorry, our sins are forgiven. They are forgiven, but the duty to make the sin right is not forgiven. This is why we spend time in Purgatory. We need to make reparation for our sins either while on this earth or in Purgatory. Remember, the only way to get to heaven is to be completely purified of all stain of sin. This is where Indulgences come into play. Even when we do return to God, even when we repent and we’re forgiven of our sin, God may allow us to experience some consequences for our sins. Think of it like this, if your child throws a rock through a window, he may say he is sorry but there is still a consequence to what he did. If there wasn’t a consequence, the child would never learn his lesson. The child still must make the broken window right. Sin is like this. Even though we are sorry for our sins, there is always a natural consequence to that sin. We have a responsibility to make that sin right. When we make that sin right here on earth, we make our time in Purgatory shorter. Now let’s say that your child learned his lesson and he went above and beyond what you expected and you gave him something extra for his efforts. Indulgences are like that. When you voluntarily go out of your comfort zone to do good for others or to grow in holiness, you earn God’s graces, which then allows you to spend less time in Purgatory.

In order to do this, the Church in her goodness promises that in exchange for doing certain things that help us to grow in holiness, we can then receive special graces call indulgences. These indulgences then take away the consequences that we would otherwise experience in Purgatory on account of our sins. We can seek an indulgence for ourselves, but more importantly we should be asking for an indulgence for someone else or for the poor souls in Purgatory.

Catechism of the Catholic Church; 1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.