(An Instruction)
Dear brethren:
The road of penance is the sinner's only road to heaven. No sin can enter heaven, and there is no forgiveness of sin without sorrow.
"Unless you do penance," said our Lord, "you shall all perish" (Luke 13:3).
"If we do not penance we shall fall into the hands of the Lord" (Ecclesiasticus 2:22).
The reason of this lies in the nature of sin. Mortal sin is a turning of the will from God to what is hateful to God; and mortal sin remains as long as the will is not turned back to God. Thus the conversion of a sinner (Ezechiel 18:21, 22) means his turning away with detestation and sorrow from the sins he had loved before.
This hate and sorrow, this turning by grace of the sinner's will against his sin, is what theologians mean by contrition. Such a sorrowful detestation of the past, if it be genuine, will of course contain, either expressed or implied, a firm resolve against sin for the future. This hate and sorrow for sin may be either perfect or imperfect when the 1llo#ves that excite such are perfect or imperfect motives. The perfect motive would be the thought that the sin committed has grievously offended the God whom we should love, and who in His beauty and perfection is so worthy of our love. Imperfect motives would be drawn from the pains of hell our sins have merited; the loss of heaven; the ingratitude sin is, etc. Now the hate and sorrow roused in us by perfect motives we call perfect contrition, or simply contrition while the hate and sorrow springing from imperfect motives we call imperfect contrition, or attrition.
1. Contrition, then, is hatred and sorrow for sin committed, because of its offending a God so lovable and perfect. The heart that is perfectly contrite is moved by the love of so good a God to hate and detest all that offends Him and separates the soul from His love; and above all, those sins that actually, at the time, offend Him in the soul and keep it from Him. You see, then, there is a certain amount of love in the hatred and sorrow of contrition. God never, we know, rejects a heart that has this loving sorrow; and so an act of such perfect contrition (which will, in Catholics, include a desire and intention of going to confession) at once restores the soul to grace, and unites it to God. A perfect detestation and sorrow like this will be universal; for all mortal sin grievously offends God. Nor can a soul return to His love, while any one such sin remains; for the will in such case would be turned to what is hateful to God.
This contrition will be sincere, even though it be not felt as much as the penitent would wish: it will include, moreover, a resolution to continue to hate sin and love God for the future. You can see that such being the nature of perfect contrition, a great grace is necessary to make a soul in mortal sin have such a loving sorrow as this, such a holy horror of the sins to which it had before been so attached. To turn the will from loving an object to hating it, and grieving that it was ever an object of love, this is, you see, no easy or ordinary work. And in perfect contrition the motive that turns the will against its sin must be nothing less than the contemplation, by Faith, of the beauty and goodness of God, whom sin has outraged.
If a person fall into mortal sin, and cannot at once go to confession, this perfect contrition, with a desire of confessing, will restore him forthwith to grace by remitting his sin; though he should, when opportunity arrives, confess such sin. It is important that this should be remembered. And it is also important that this power of contrition be remembered by those who, having fallen into mortal sin, do not wish to lie down a single night with such unforgiven sin on their soul; who realize the death and ruin of a soul that remains in mortal sin. Such persons, unable to fulfil their hearts' desire of confessing their sin at once, should strive, with all the energy of their souls, by earnest, persevering prayer, and the one thought of the beauty and lovable perfection of the good God whom they have offended, to rouse this loving sorrow and hatred of their sin, in their hearts confessing it to God and imploring His forgiveness. And if their prayer be earnest, and their efforts to excite this sorrow energetic and sincere, God will not - we have His word for it - refuse the grace of perfect contrition; and when they love Him, He will return the love, and admit them to His grace and friendship. Souls thus mercifully forgiven will never forget the duty that remains of confessing, when opportunity offers, their forgiven sin, and thus complying with the bidding of the Church and the ordinance of God.
For this perfect contrition we are always recommended to strive in confession as well as out of it. But while less perfect sorrow suffices in the Sacrament, no other sorrow, with any motive lower than the goodness of God and His perfection outraged by our sin, will obtain for us forgiveness outside the Sacrament of Penance; and we have seen that, even with this perfect contrition, we must have at least an implied desire and intention of confessing our sins and obtaining the absolution of the priest.
2. Because this perfect contrition requires dispositions so high and so holy, and, in the case of miserable sinners, so hard to attain, God is mercifully content with a less perfect sorrow in those who seek remission of their sins in the Sacrament of Penance. Perfect contrition will, as we have seen, remit sin without the actual reception but with the mere desire of the Sacrament. Imperfect contrition, however, or, as it is generally called, attrition, will help to remit mortal sin, but only in the Sacrament, and joined with confession and the priest's absolution.
What is this attrition? It is such detestation and sorrow for sin as comes from any motive of faith less perfect than the consideration that sin has offended God, so lovable in Himself. Such a less perfect motive would be, for instance, the thought that sin has exposed us to eternal damnation in the fires of hell: that sin has shut the gates of heaven against us: that sin makes our souls disgusting and abominable to their Creator, to Mary, to the angels and saints, and so on. Motives like these, though they are supernatural motives of faith, are yet less perfect than the thoughts of the perfection and beauty of God; and the sorrow and detestation for sin that they excite, theologians call attrition. This attrition, like contrition, must come of God's grace and through prayer.
But, you see, it is easier for a soul hardened by sin to be moved to hate and sorrow for it by such thoughts as hell, loss of heaven, and the like, than by the higher and more perfect motives of contrition. It is an easier sorrow for the sinner, for it is less perfect; more in his reach, for it is lower. It would not, however, this attrition, restore the soul to grace, as contrition would, outside the Sacrament; but it would be a sufficient disposition to fit the soul for receiving forgiveness in confession, by the absolution of the priest.
This attrition must, like contrition, extend to every mortal sin on the soul. The reason is plain. Hell fire is for every sin. One mortal sin is enough to damn a soul for ever - to shut the gates of heaven, to make the soul hateful in God's sight. And to say you hated and regretted all your sins except one, because of hell fire, would show that you hated and sorrowed for none of them, since hell is for each as well as for all of them. The favorite sin will damn the sinner as truly as the sins from which he parts most easily. It is scarcely necessary to add that such attrition must be sincere.
God is not deceived by words. You may say that you are sorry, when you are not, to a man, and he may believe you and forgive you; but you cannot so deceive God, who sees the heart. This sorrow of fear, then, this attrition, must be honest and from the heart; and if it be honest and thorough, it will not only turn the sinner's will against his sin in the past and present, but will make him determined to remain in his hatred of it in the future, and never to return to it again. Hell is for future as it is for past sins, and the thought of it should be as strong to move us to good resolution for the time coming as to sorrow for the time past.
One word more on contrition and attrition. When poor sinners are terrified into horror of sin by the thought of hell, of the loss of heaven, and so forth, and while they know that such attrition is strictly sufficient for the reception of the Sacrament, let them not rest content with this less perfect sorrow. Rather should they strive by prayer to their Heavenly Father, by looking in faith at His beauty and perfection, to make their sorrow perfect, to change their attrition into contrition. Such perfect dispositions will bring speedier forgiveness, and will make the Sacrament of Penance bear far greater fruits of strength, and grace, and peace in the soul. The Church shows that such is her wish plainly enough.
For the act of contrition she teaches us to repeat at our confession gives the most perfect motives that can excite sorrow for sin: -"O my God, I am heartily sorry"- mark the word heartily - honestly, really sorry - "for having offended Thee, and I detest my sins most sincerely" - and now listen to the motives of this sorrow and detestation of sins - "because they displease Thee, my God, who art so deserving of all my love, for Thy amiable goodness and infinite perfections." You see here the motives are those of perfect contrition put into the mouth of every sinner when receiving absolution, and showing that while less perfect sorrow, or attrition, is sufficient, the penitent should strive for the most perfect contrition, so as to receive the fullest fruit from the Sacrament.
3. This act of contrition ends with what all true contrition and attrition includes, a purpose of amendment: -"And I firmly purpose, by Thy holy grace, never more to offend Thee, and to amend my life." We have seen that such a resolution of amendment is the test of all true hate and sorrow for sin. Here we find that it must be a firm resolve -"I firmly purpose." A mere wish to be better and to avoid sin is not enough. It is the will that has sinned, and it is the will that must change for the future. And how the will is to gain strength for such a change we find in the words "by Thy holy grace." We may know that of our own accord we shall fall again. Yet must we resolve not to fall, and that, "by God's holy grace." That grace it is that can alone make our resolution firm and efficacious.
If our resolution is sincere it must include a resolution to avoid the occasions of sin. It would show we were not sincere were we to say we would cease to sin and yet continue in the occasions of sinning. A man knows by years of experience that if he goes at certain times with certain people into a bar he will most certainly get drunk. Any resolution of his against drunkenness must of course, if it is to be sincere, include a resolution equally firm against these occasions that invariably lead him to sin. Or young people know that certain companions, at certain hours, in certain places, under certain circumstances, are sure, as sure as any other cause is of its effect, to lead them into certain sins. Well, their resolution must include the renouncement of such companions in such circumstances. If they refuse or withhold such a renouncement, and still say they renounce the sin, they are simply telling a lie; and though this may deceive others it will not deceive God.
If a man steps into the train, and says that he does not want to get as far as the next station, we know he is not in earnest; for the train does not stop till it gets to that place. And so there are certain trains of sinful occasions that we know cannot be entered without a certainty of their landing those that take them in mortal sin. Be quite sure, then, if you do not resolve to give up the occasions of sin, however pleasant, your resolution of avoiding sin is a sham and a lie, and the confession to which you bring such a resolution a sacrilege.
If, after such resolutions, a sinner finds that he falls into the same sins, enters the same occasions of sin, time after time, and with little or no struggle, he has surely grave reason to doubt the "firmness" of his resolution. Not that relapse into sin is always a sign that the previous resolution to amend was not at the time it was made firm and sincere enough: for we are poor and weak, and subject to fail in our best resolves. But, I repeat, if no manly struggle against sin, no effort to avoid sinful occasions, follow our resolutions; if we repeatedly return wilfully to sin and the ways of sin, if we find in our lives no change of any sort, no victory, not even a battle, but a surrender at once to the old enemies, we must examine in all fear our resolutions of the past, lest it be that because they were never firm, and never earnest, they have ever fallen thus miserably away.
_________________
Adapted from...Sermons 1877-1887
by Fr Arthur Ryan
President of St. Patrick's College
Thurles, Ireland
St. Patrick's College, in 1992, ceased to be a Seminary.
No comments:
Post a Comment