Indulgence
By ice rivers
- 210 reads
Both Hugh and Haylen were recovering Catholics. Hugh was the more indulgent of the two but Haylen suffered the greater familial hangover due to the judgement and fervency of her brothers and sisters, some of whom continued to go to Mass every morning.
Hugh and Haylen were both familiar with guilt. Hugh for feeling it and Haylen for assigning it.
Hugh was the anvil...Haylen was the hammer.
Eventually the anvil will break the hammer.
Eventually consumes a lot of time.
Time is temporal and so is punishment in the Catholic Church.
Temporal punishment is bad but nowhere near as bad as eternal punishment.
If you're the anvil in eternal punishment, the hammer never breaks and every pound hurts.
Eternal punishment is Hell.
Temporal punishment is Purgatory.
If you're the anvil in Purgatory, the pounds don't hurt quite as much and eventually they will stop.
Hugh felt the same way about Haylen's ongoing inventory of his faults and inadequacies. Yes, they were undeniably true but they couldn't go on forever. How many times did he need to hear the same thing.
This leads us to the broken record.
When Haylen would start in on something, perhaps division of labor, "You don't do a goddamned thing around here. I do everything. How many women would put up with a husband who was so helpless etc" both Hugh and Haylen knew what accusations would follow and the order of the guilt assignment.
The broken record.
Maybe some of you have heard it.
Purgatory.
It didn't last.
The inventory consisted of venial sins rather than mortal sins
After such an expression, Haylen calmed down and everybody went on with whatever they were doing before the explosion.
Hugh did have a wild card.
In his days of practicing Catholicism, he had earned several plenary indulgences. According to the Catholic dictionary:
" A plenary indulgence is an indulgence that can remove all the temporal punishment due to forgiven sin. No one but God knows for certain when a plenary indulgences is actually gained, because only he knows whether a person's dispositions are adequate. One norm for such dispositions is that "all attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent." If these dispositions are in any way less than complete, the indulgence will only be partial. The same provision applies to the three external conditions necessary to gain a plenary indulgence: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Pope. If these conditions are not satisfied, an otherwise plenary indulgence becomes only partial."
When Hugh was earning his indulgences, he made damned sure that he had erased all attachments to sin by going to confession and receiiving Communion while earning his indulgences.
Hugh had dozens of 'em.
He was good to go and had been since his altar boy youth.
Haylen was kinda pissed off when she heard what Hugh had.
She wanted one of her own but because of her current excommuication, it was gonna be impossible for her to get one.
"Can't you just give me one of yours?" she asked.
" Can't do it, honey. If the ghost of Luther ever finds out that we made that deal we'd have a haunted Reformation on our hands."
So Hugh, knowing there would be no purgatory in the afterlife didn't mind a little purgatory in this one
He was a patient man.
He took his poundings with a smile.
- Log in to post comments