Indulgence / Reconciliation / Temporal Sin

[superblue]

I was listening to C.A Live on the radio not long ago on the explanation of what an indulgence is, which the person explained ( and I am roughly paraphrasing ) that it is the forgiveness of the punishment for the affect / effect / scars of sin / temporal sin .

 

So who wouldn't want to work towards that, but in the realm of " fairness " I find this really odd, we go to Reconciliation to be forgiven of our sins, yet we are told that the temporal scars have to be washed away via I guess purgatory, and or that we are forgiven of our sins but we must still pay the punishment for that sin,,, and hence where the indulgence comes in....

 

It seems to me that an indulgence then should be a very difficult grace to achieve,  if in the realm of " fairness " we are to go through the punishment for our forgiven sins because of the " scars " ( which we get physical scars all the time and the world keeps turning ) why then allow for an indulgence , how does an indulgence trump the punishment for the scar of sin ?

 

The indulgence seems to suggest that the person has done something so tremendously wonderful and good perhaps even holy, that the act with in itself is payment enough .  If that is the case, why not then go through some form of physically harmful mortification ?

[Nihil Obstat]

The Church has the authority to dispense graces. Indulgences are one area where the Church, in Her wisdom, chooses to offer that grace in a particularly generous manner.

Grace is, of course, never earned.