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JMJ
Dominica in albis
Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained (Jn. 20.22-23, from the Holy Gospel for today).
Penance as a Sacrament
In our post “Sin and its malice” (I), the grace of penance
is as old as the world: it is to be found everywhere where the Holy Ghost works
in the hearts of men, if they are faithful and correspond with it.
“Our Lord has instituted a divine Sacrament, in which He
gives the absolution of His Most Precious Blood [but] to those who accuse
themselves. He instituted it on that night, when He spoke the words: receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you
shall forgive they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained (Jn. 20.22-23, from the Holy Gospel for the day – Dominica in albis); and the reason for
which He instituted it is this – that we may have something more than our
self-assurance on which to depend for the hope of our absolution. The Pharisee
in the Temple, who stood afar off and said, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as
other men are – extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican”
(Lk. 18.11) – that Pharisee absolved himself; but his absolution was not
ratified in Heaven [– had he heard only the voice of the Savior].
There are men who absolve themselves all the day long. They
forget the sins of their childhood, boyhood, youth, and manhood – ay, the sins
of last year, the sins of yesterday; and, having a slippery treacherous memory
of their own sins, though retentive and tenacious of the sins of other men,
they are perpetually absolving themselves, and assuring themselves that they
are pardoned and forgiven before God. There cannot be a state more dangerous,
delusive, or fatal; and in order to guard us from this, our Lord has instituted
a Sacrament, in which to assure us of our absolution, in which our absolution
is a judicial act, an authoritative sentence, an act pronounced by one who is
impartial, and who has authority. We are not left to absolve ourselves; we are
absolved in the name and by the power of Jesus Christ by a judge [a priest who
possesses the perpetual Levitical* unction].
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* ... The Levites, whom the Lord hath chosen... to minister unto Himself for ever (1 Par. - 1 Chron. in non-Catholic versions - 15.2). They are to judge the judgment and the cause of the Lord (2 Par. 19.8: Ezech. 44.24) - an office which the ministers of the counterfeit 'Catholic Church' (the Neo-Catholic "Ecclesial reality" of Vatican II), the Neo-Catholic priests who "preside" at their "tables" in Anglican liturgical trappings, deny or repudiate.
---
Moreover, for our preparation for that Sacrament there is
actual grace given; and that grace is the grace of the Holy Ghost, having two effects:
first to give us light to know ourselves more truly (cf., our post "'Find' and 'Prove' One's Self?"), and thereby to understand,
to count up, to measure, and to appreciate our sins and the gravity of them;
and secondly, that same grace enables us to be contrite, and to make the act of
sorrow. Our Lord instituted the Sacrament; thus He took the grace of penance
which was working from the beginning of the world, and incorporated it in a
visible sign: and He communicates His
absolution to those who come for it, as He gives the Bread of Life to those who
receive Holy Communion at the altar.
Every Sacrament, as you know, is an outward sign of inward
grace. It has what is called the form and the matter. What the is the form of the Sacrament of
Penance? It is these words: “I absolve thee from thy sins.” But who can forgive
sins except God only? Is it the priest? Do you imagine for one moment that the
Holy Catholic Church is – I will not say so superstitious, but is so dull of
heart, so dark of understanding as either to believe or teach that it is the
man who absolves? It is the office that absolves; and what is the office? The
priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself. There are not two, there is but one Priest
and one priesthood; and the priesthood that we bear is the participation of
that one priesthood of Jesus Christ Himself. What we do, we do not of
ourselves. It is He who does it by us. It is simply ministerial on our part.
Absolution is given solely and entirely by His power. When at the altar we say,
“This is My Body, this is My Blood,” do we speak in our own name? There is but
one absolver, Jesus Christ Himself; but He has a number of ministers on earth,
through whom He applies His Precious Blood to souls that are truly penitent.
The act of absolution is His.
Such then is the form; next, what is the matter? There are
two kinds of matter: there is what we call remote, and that matter we call
proximate. The remote matter of the Sacrament is the sins we have committed. It
is called remote for this reason – they may be the sins of our childhood, a
long way off; the sins of our youth, long forgotten, but now at last
remembered; the sins that we have committed, and have long hesitated to
confess; all these are remote from the present moment. Proximate matter is that
state of heart which we must bring with us at the moment, then and there; it is
the penitent’s contrition, confession of sins, and willingness to make
satisfaction.
Now the remote matter is of two kinds: First, there is the
necessary matter which we are bound to confess under the pain of eternal death;
and there is that voluntary matter, which it is good, wholesome, safe, and
better to confess, though it is not of absolute necessity. Now the first means
all the mortal sins committed after Baptism. We know of no revealed way whereby
mortal actual sins committed after Baptism can be absolved, save only by the Sacrament
of Penance. One mortal sin separates the soul from God.
A soul separated from God is dead; and therefore it is a necessity that every
mortal sin we have committed should be confessed and absolved. The voluntary
matter is our venial sins.
As to venial sins, there are two reasons why it is good to
confess them. The first is because, as I showed you, venial sins may easily
pass into mortal sins. Sometimes, through the self-love which is in us, we do
not distinguish between them; and we consider what God knows and sees to be
mortal to be only venial, and in this we may make dangerous mistakes. Again, to
promote humility, self-accusation, sorrow, and therefore the grace of
perseverance, and to renew our peace with God, it is good to accuse ourselves
of everything we know we have committed since our last confession, even in the
least – even in the venial sins of omission. It is safer, better, and more wholesome
to confess these sins of omission, and to ask God to forgive them;
nevertheless, it is quite true that these sins, when they are venial, are not
of necessary confession.
Well, the proximate matter means the state of the heart,
mind and will. If any man were to kneel down in the confessional, and accuse
himself without sorrow for his sins, he would commit another sin. It would be
an act of sin itself. It would be a sacrilege to come and attempt to receive
that Sacrament without the proper dispositions, that is, without being worthy;
and the man who has no sorrow for sin is not worthy. Nevertheless, it is not
necessary that this sorrow be felt with the emotions [an error of Luther];
rather, it is the resolve of the will to hate and turn away from the sins one
has committed.
See also: "Absolvo te..." (I), on the grace and virtue of penance.
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