Romans 12:6-8
Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, in proportion to our faith; if service, in our serving; he who teaches, in his teaching; he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who contributes, in liberality; he who gives aid, with zeal; he who does acts of mercy, with cheerfulness.
If I bust your window in a rage and then repent, I will certainly be forgiven by God and (one hopes) by you. But I still have to pay for the window and I still have to do something about that awful temper of mine. Those painful consequences of forgiven sin are what the Church means by "temporal punishment for forgiven sin." If you, in your mercy, foot the bill for the window and even give me some money for anger management classes, you have exercise the spiritual gift of mercy Paul describes in today's verse. You have also, by the way, granted me a kind of indulgence. Everybody thinks spiritual gifts are cool and everybody thinks indulgences are sinister. But indulgences are just spiritual gifts. They are formal apostolic enactments of the gift of mercy. They aren't things you buy to get your sins forgiven, they are little graces given us for sins already forgiven. Today seek God's mercy.
