If we go to confession and confess our sins do we still pay them back in Purgatory? Or are we given a clean slate and only responsible for the sins that we die with?
If I understand your question as it is in your mind, this is really basic
catechism material, that you should have learned before receiving First
Holy Communion in the Roman Rite. Of course, if you received it in the
Eastern Rite, it would likely have been as a child before the age of
reason, but the tradition there is to keep the children in classes
throughout childhood so they learn as they grow.
Have you been to Confession yet? Or are you a convert? Or are you
taking instruction? Have you been baptized? Are you a catechumen?
When the priest gives absolution in Confession he also gives a penance.
Do you know anything about why he always gives a penance? I say
"always," because that is actually an alternative name for this: the
Sacrament of Penance.
I didn't become a believer until just a few years ago. I was under the understanding that you are given a clean slate once you go to confession and you don't have to pay back those sins. But I just read a docuмent that suggested that we have to pay back our mortal sins in purgatory. 7 Years for each sin. It didn't make any sense because mortal sins send us to hell. There is no paying back mortal sins. Purgatory is for those that have no mortal sins. They are just paying back the venial sins that are on their conscience.
Aha! Now I understand your question better. Thank you. There is a lot of
room for misunderstanding when the terms are a bit vague. Ambiguity is
an enemy of the Faith!
I would like to encourage you in your studies. It is a very important thing to learn
about the Faith, because there is nothing more important for you to do in this
short life on earth, nothing at all!
When you go to Confession, and you make a GOOD ONE (it's not magic - it has
a lot of importance on your own personal disposition, which can be very difficult
to discern on our own without a spiritual director, if not impossible), and the
priest gives you absolution and an appropriate penance, and then you do your
penance faithfully, your sins are remitted entirely and you have nothing left for
Purgatory. But there are caveats! Lots of "what ifs" :
What if you deliberately concealed a sin you were unwilling to talk about?
What if you forgot that two years ago you had decided to forget about it?
What if the priest deliberately gives you a penance that is entirely too easy?
What if you don't really believe in God's power through the priest?
What if etc., etc.
I'd like to see the "docuмent" you read "that suggested that we have to pay
back our mortal sins in purgatory." You do not "pay back mortal sins" really, but
what you do is make appropriate reparation for some aspect of the
temporal
punishment due to those sins. MyrnaM gave a good example with the broken window, above.
In the infinite mercy of God, the saints have by now done a lot of penance
already, and there are saints alive today who are doing more penance already
than they need for themselves and their own temporal punishment. God's
mercy allows the Church to use that treasury of graces from the saints and
apply it to those of us who are weaker in our practice of penance, to make up
for our shortcomings. Even in the most extreme case we are not able to do
enough penance in this life to satisfy for our mortal sins, and it is the perfect
sufferings of Our Lord on the Cross that is the ultimate source of our
redemption.
But what about the saints? They have participated in His act of redemption,
based on the perfect (literally) example of Our Lady at the foot of the Cross.
This is a great meditation for Lent!An excellent priest I know explains it this way:
Some of us are able to do sufficient penance to satisfy the need for our own
personal participation in the perfect sufferings of Jesus for the forgiveness of
our sins, and the remission of temporal punishment contingent on those sins
(like paying for MyrnaM's broken window). Others are able to do enough for
themselves, and also for some number of others, friends or family, or even
strangers they have selected.
(St. Therese of Lisieux is an example, when she saw a criminal in the news,
whose conversion she prayed for night and day until his execution, and then
she read the news that at the last moment, after he had been very rude to
the priest who attended his final hours, some kind of change came over him
and he stopped his abuses and looked at the crucifix the priest held before
him, and kissed it reverently, and then went to his death moments later in
peace and acceptance of this fate. The Little Flower was overjoyed with the
conviction that her prayers had won his repentance, and no one told her that
it was not true.)
Continuing --- and others are able to assist with the conversion and salvation
of many people, as the great saints, like St. Philomena, St. Benedict, St.
Anthony of Padua (or of Lisbon, depending on whose side you're on), St.
Ignatius Loyola, any one of the Apostles, St. Catherine, St. Lawrence, St.
Patrick, St. Joseph, and on and on. BUT THERE IS ONLY ONE saint whose
penances and prayers are sufficient to convert and save the whole world, all
the people of history -- and that one saint is the Mother of God, The Blessed
Virgin Mary, Refuge of Sinners, Comforter of the Afflicted, Gate of Heaven,
House of Gold and Help of Christians.
7 Years for each sin.
You have to be careful too, with equating earthly time with Purgatory, for there
is no real connection between the two. Long ago, there were indulgences for
amounts of time: days, years, quarantines (40 days of bread and water fasting),
and the like, but that was changed sometime in the 60's, to reflect a more
sound practice of "partial and penary indulgences." For Purgatory exists outside
of time as we know it, so to say "years" or "minutes" in Purgatory does not
make any accurate sense. A lot of confusing things came out of Vatican II but
this was not among them. It was actually a good change, because it helps us
to learn what eternity is all about much better than the old system did.
There is no time in eternity, whether it be heaven or hell, for they are a fixed
state of being that has no time, and yet we cannot really find a way in our
limited language to speak about it because all of our verbs presume the the
passage of time for them to be an "action." We have no verbs in human
language that are outside of time, except for the verb "to be."
Even so, there is some manner of duration, as it were, inherent to Purgatory,
for it is a "temporary" thing, that is, a thing that has a limited aspect -- there is
"light at the end of the tunnel," or we will see that we will one day be freed from
it. See? I can't even describe it without some manner of time or action: the
word "temporary" involves "time." "One day" implies the passage of days, or
time. "At the end" implies a process that can be completed, and process implies
time.
Also, those who go to Purgatory near the end of the world, in all justice,
should be subject to the same fate as those who went there in previous
centuries, but it's none of our business, as Our Lord tells us in the Gospel of
the workers who were hired late in the day and still got the full day's pay.
This is a huge topic.
Topic: Do we pay back every sin in Purgatory (Read 1337 times)