Detachment from Sin in the Year of Saint Francis
During this season of Lent, a time of austere mercy and grace-filled challenge, Mother Church summons her children to devote particular attention to uprooting, with the help of God’s grace, whatever sin especially hinders their relationship with Him. In this second consecutive Jubilee Year—a year honoring Saint Francis, known for his spirit of eager, heartfelt penitence—the topic of detachment from sin is particularly relevant, being a condition for gaining a plenary indulgence. All the faithful can benefit from a good understanding of this detachment.
Temporal Consequence Healing
On the surface, “detachment from all sin” sounds like a dauntingly lofty standard. Who in this life can be free of all faults? Are these indulgences only accessible to great saints? One must recall the purpose of indulgences, the healing of the temporal consequences of sin. Indulgences are made to help sinners, not reward those who are already perfectly holy. As Bishop Krzysztof Nykiel remarked to Vatican News, an indulgence is “a stage on the path of conversion.”
This detachment, then, must be something anyone can do. In ordinary discussions of Catholic morality, detachment has to do with the will, with a choice or firm intention to turn away from something even when doing so is hard. Bishop Nykiel describes detachment from sin in similar terms, as a matter of one’s interior attitude: “[Attachment to sin] is not only about committing a sin, but about the interior acceptance of sin, the pleasure it brings, or the willingness to commit it again.”
The Bishop elaborates with specific descriptions of the states of attachment and detachment, showing how each is deliberately chosen:
A person may confess and at the same time keep in their heart the thought: “I know it is wrong, that it is not good, but I do not want to stop doing it.” Such an attitude is an attachment to sin that neutralizes grace. By contrast, the detachment from sin that is required is not an emotional sense of purity, but an act of the will that says: “Lord, I want no sin at all, not even the smallest.”
In this respect, again, indulgences complement the Sacrament of Reconciliation, in which we “firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more.”
Saint Jerome & Saint Francis
A helpful example may be drawn from the life of Saint Jerome. Known for his fiery temper and sharp tongue, Jerome is less often remembered for his constant repentance. Though he struggled all his life with anger and impatience, he never stopped hating those sins, seeking forgiveness when he fell, and praying to do better. Saint Jerome is a friend and intercessor for all who battle some besetting sin, and a witness of what perseverance in rejecting that sin can do. (See source at Aleteia.org.)
Through the intercession of Jerome, Francis, and all the saints, those who repented before us, may we who are now called to be saints come to God with hearts that want no sin, and so receive the fullness of grace He wants to give.
