Confession and Absolution | Page 2

a serpent; for if thou comest near them, they will take
hold of thee; the teeth thereof are the teeth of a lion, killing the souls of
men."[9]
Deadly sin accordingly puts us at enmity with God, and deprives us of
all claim on His justice. These are days when men talk much of their
own rights. Little do they think to assert and uphold the rights of the
King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. And so it escapes them that having
violated their obligations to their Creator, their Redeemer, their
Sanctifier, by grievous sin, they have no claim for pardon on the
ground of justice; they can only appeal suppliantly to the infinite mercy
and goodness of God, that their iniquities may be blotted out, that they
may be restored to the position whence they have fallen, and that they
may regain the habitual grace necessary for keeping the solemn
obligations of baptism. This being the case, the Almighty can and does
impose His conditions for reconciling the sinner and for restoring the
prodigal child to the lost sonship. It is not for sinful man to dictate what

such terms shall be. It is for an outraged God to enact, for the
transgressor to comply with the command.
Of these conditions, one flows from the infinite holiness of His own
nature, namely: contrition or repentance. The other, which is judicial
absolution from sin, implying previous confession of it, is imposed by
the revealed law of God, and is therefore a divine command obliging
all--popes and bishops, priests and people. Let us deal with these
separately.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] John i, 8.
[2] James iii, 2.
[3] Prov. xxiv, 16.
[4] Ps. v, 6.
[5] Wisd. xiv, 9.
[6] Ezech. xviii, 24.
[7] Rev. xxi, 8.
[8] James i, 15.
[9] Ecclus. xxi, 2.

I.
The necessity of repentance as the essential condition for the sinner
obtaining God's forgiveness is plainly taught both in the Jewish and
Christian dispensations.
Prophets and penitents throughout the Old Testament bear evidence to
this truth. The words of the Psalms of David, the exhortations of

Jeremias and Isaias to the people of God to be converted, have become
household words in our books of piety, exciting the soul in sin to arise
and go to the God of mercy.
The New Dispensation was ushered in by the Forerunner of Christ
preaching the Gospel of Repentance: "Do penance, for the kingdom of
God is at hand." Our Lord announces His own mission to be to call
sinners to repentance: "Unless you all do penance, you shall all
likewise perish." He sent His Apostles that "penance and remission of
sin should be preached in His name among all nations." And, while on
earth, Jesus sent them, two and two, to preach that "men should do
penance."
And, after the ascension of the "Saviour whom God hath exalted with
His right hand to give penitence to Israel, and remission of sins,"[10]
the Apostles proclaimed the same truth. Peter's very first sermon is:
"Do penance and be baptized, every one of you."[11] He, on the
occasion of the cure of the lame man, preaches: "Be penitent and be
converted, that your sins may be blotted out."[12] The same Apostle
writes: "The Lord beareth patiently for your sake, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should return to penance."[13] St. Paul, in
like manner. "God commandeth all men, everywhere, to do
penance."[14] And again: "The benignity of God leadeth thee to
penance."[15]
This contrition or repentance does not mean a mere cessation from
wrong doing, and starting anew in the way of goodness, drowning in
the past the evil done. On the contrary, as by sin we turned our backs
on God to go into a far-off country, to spend there our substance, so by
contrition must we turn main, retrace our steps, and journey to that
Father and home whence we departed. Hence is the process named
conversion to God, just as sin is defined to be an aversion from God.
Moses, expressing this thought, says: "When thou shalt be touched with
the repentance of thy heart, and return to Him, the Lord thy God will
have mercy on thee."[16] And still more explicitly does the prophet
Joel declare: "Be converted to Me with all your heart, in fasting, and in
weeping, and in mourning; and rend your hearts, and not your garments,

and turn to the Lord your God: for He is gracious and merciful, patient
and rich in mercy."[17] Again, the inspired Word says: "Cast away
from you all your transgressions, by which you have transgressed, and
make to yourselves a new heart and a new spirit; and why will you die,
O house of Israel?"[18]
The Lord God, whom we have outraged by sin, knows