Confession and Absolution | Page 3

no past. "I am
who am," is His name. In His holy sight, we who have sinned, and our
transgressions, are ever abominable, unless we make to ourselves a new
heart and a new spirit. "Be converted to Me, and I will be converted to
thee," are the words of Him who exercises on us His great mercy.
Holy Church, in her General Council assembled at Trent, defined this
contrition or repentance to be "a sorrow of mind, and a detestation of
sin committed, together with a determination of not sinning for the
future"--"_animi dolor, ac detestatio de peccato commisso, cum
proposito non peccandi de catero_."[19] Or, as the same Council says:
"Penitence was indeed at all times necessary for all men who had
defiled themselves with any mortal sin, in order to the obtaining grace
and justice, * * * that so, their perverseness being laid aside and
amended, they might, with hatred of sin and a pious grief of mind,
detest so great an offence of God."[20] And, as the Roman Catechism
explains, this means no mere feeling, but a genuine act of the will. A
mother may show more sensible signs of grief at the loss of her only
child than when sorrowing for sin, yet this is not in the least
inconsistent with the most perfect contrition or repentance.
There are times when the intense sorrow for sin arouses the whole
being of man: exciting not only the higher, but also the lower and
sensitive part of his nature. St. Mary Magdalen, David, and many other
great penitents, wept bitter tears of sorrow for their past wrongs. This,
though a heavenly favor, is no necessary part of repentance. Indeed, it
is possible to weep and to have sensible sorrow without having a
contrite heart. The three essential elements in contrition are: hatred of
past sin, grief at having sinned, and a determined purpose at all costs to
avoid, in the future, sin and the occasions of sin. These emanate from
the will of man, not from the feelings; they must be strong or intense

enough to make the sinner prefer to endure any evil, or sacrifice any
good, rather than again offend God, so infinitely good in Himself, and
so infinitely good to man.
Unhappily, it is within our power to hate, to grieve, and to purpose
amendment very sincerely, and yet not have that sorrow which fulfills
God's condition for the pardon of sin. Some human motive--such as
loss of health or wealth, injury to reputation and influence, the
ignominy and servitude of wrong-doing--may lead a man to detestation
of the past and to a firm resolve to avoid wrong in the future. Excellent
as may be such a change of mind, yet it is not sufficient to obtain
forgiveness from on high. It is based entirely on the injury and loss
accruing to self. God is excluded from the whole idea; and yet it is
against Him, and against Him alone, that we have sinned.
The only sorrow acceptable to God is that which springs from a
supernatural motive, the soul excited thereto by divine grace. In this is
our utter helplessness shown; for while it is within our own power to do
wrong, we cannot return to the path of duty and repent without the help
of God. It is by the heavenly gift of grace operating within, and by the
co-operation of the sinner, that the heart is made contrite. The
remembrance of God's infinite love and perfections, accompanied by
earnest prayer for mercy, may rouse the soul to hatred and grief for its
sin, and thus is generated that contrition perfect through charity for
having offended God so sovereignly good, who is to be loved above all
things. For His own sake, and regardless of the penal consequences of
sin, the soul is touched with sincere compunction. This sorrow, with the
implicit or explicit desire to have recourse to the Sacrament of Penance,
reconciles the soul at once with God, and restores the justifying or
habitual grace lost by grievous sin. "There is now no condemnation to
those who are in Christ Jesus, who walls not according to the flesh, but
after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life iii Christ Jesus hath
delivered me from the law of sin and of death."[21] The soul about to
go before God's judgment-seat, if it be in deadly sin, and have not at
hand the means for obtaining absolution, is obliged to have this perfect
contrition, or otherwise the sin remains unforgiven.

Again, the soul, contemplating in the sight of God the turpitude of sin,
as made known to us by revelation, or the terror of God's judgment on
those condemned to hell, or the irreparable loss of the sight of God