Sect. 268Nature and Institution of the Sacrament of PenanceNature and Institution of the Sacrament of Penance

I. We have already examined the stages by which the sinner is enabled to pass from death to life, and to blot out the stains of sin on his soul. In instituting a sacrament for this purpose, our Lord, as usual, took certain acts and endowed them with a special power. Here it is the acts of the virtue of penance which are the basis or matter of the sacrament. Penance is not a mere emotional sorrow, but a habit residing in the will. The penitent is sorry for his sin, inasmuch as it is an offence against God; and together with, or rather included in, this sorrow, there is a determination not to offend any more. Moreover, repentance involves not merely cessation from sin, but a readiness to make good the injury done to God and man (St. Thom., 3, q. 85, a. 3). We may go further, and add that confession also is an element of full and true repentance. The guilty man is persuaded that there is no forgiveness for him as long as his sin lies buried in his bosom. Sometimes the acknowledgment of his guilt is made to the world at large; sometimes, and perhaps oftener, to some trustworthy person, thereby satisfying the impulse to unburden himself, and at the same time securing immunity from punishment. The chronicles of crime, the plots of the novelist and dramatist, bear testimony to this instinctive impulse to confess. Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction—the acts of the virtue of Penance—are therefore the matter of the sacrament. What elevates these acts of the penitent to the dignity of a sacrament—in other words, the form of the sacrament of Penance—is the priest’s absolution. “The form of the sacrament of Penance,” says the Council of Trent (sess. xiv. chap. 3), “wherein its force principally consists, is placed in those words of the minister, I absolve thee, etc.; to which words indeed, certain prayers are, according to the custom of Holy Church, laudably joined, which, nevertheless, by no means regard the essence of that form, neither are they necessary for the administration of the sacrament itself. But the acts of the penitent himself, to wit, Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction, are, as it were, the matter of this sacrament (sunt quasi materia hujus sacramenti).” There had been much discussion among theologians concerning the matter and form of penance. Scotus, preceded by Robert Pullen and followed by Ockham, held that the absolution alone was of the essence of the sacrament, the acts of the penitent being merely necessary conditions; and, consequently, that absolution, considered as a sensible rite, was the matter; and, considered as signifying the effect, was the form. Durandus believed the absolution to be the form, and the confession alone to be the matter. In his view contrition was only a condition, and satisfaction the spirit, of the sacrament. Some theologians even held that the imposition of the priest’s hands was part of the matter. The decrees of the Council were so worded as not to exclude the Scotist opinion. (Cf. St. Thom., 3, q. 84, a. 1.)

II. That our Lord instituted a rite whereby His Apostles and their successors should forgive sin, is plain from Holy Scripture and the teaching of the Fathers.

1. After His resurrection He said to His Apostles, “As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you.… Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye shall forgive (ἀφῆτε), they are forgiven them (ἀφίενται, al. ἀφέωνται); and whose sins ye shall retain (κρατῆτε), they are retained (κεκράτηνται)” (John 20:21, 23). These words clearly prove that the power on earth of forgiving sins (Mark 2:10) which the Son of Man possessed from His Father, He conferred upon His Apostles; and not on them alone, but also on their successors, for Christ’s mission was to be exercised by His ministers for all days, even to the consummation of the world (supra, § 240). Moreover, this power of forgiving sins was to be exercised by means of an external rite, because on the one hand the penitent must show signs of penance, and on the other the minister must make known to the penitent that his sins are forgiven. The Council of Trent says that it was when our Lord pronounced these words that He “principally” instituted the sacrament of Penance. Other words of our Lord also refer to its institution: “Whatsoever ye shall bind upon earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven” (Matt. 18:18). Here, too, the discretion as to binding or loosing can be exercised only by external manifestation on the part of the penitent and the minister.

2. These passages of Holy Scripture have served the Fathers as texts for discourses on the sacrament of Penance.

“He that, like the Apostles, has been breathed upon by Jesus—and who can be known by his fruits as having received the Holy Ghost, and become spiritual by being led by the Spirit, after the manner of the Son of God, to each of the things that are to be done according to reason—he forgives whatsoever God would forgive, and retains the sins that are incurable; ministering as the prophets ministered to God when they spoke not their own, but the things of the Divine will—so he also to God, Who alone has the power of forgiving. The words respecting the forgiveness which accrued to the Apostles are, in the Gospel according to John, ‘Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ etc.” (Origen, De Orat., n. 28).

“God would never threaten the penitent if He forgave not the penitent. God alone, you rejoin, can do this. True; but that which He does through His priests is His own power. For what is that which He says to His Apostles, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind,’ etc.? Why this, if it was not lawful for men to bind and loose? Is this allowed to Apostles only? Then to them alone is it allowed to baptize, to them alone to give the Holy Ghost, and to them alone to cleanse the sins of the nations; inasmuch as all this was given in command to none but the Apostles. But if in the same place both the loosing of the bonds and the power of the sacrament are conferred, either the whole has been derived to us from the model (form and power) of the Apostles, or neither has the former been abrogated from the decrees [of God] (Aut totum ad nos ex apostolorum forma et potestate deductum est, aut nec illud ex decretis relaxatum est)” (Pacian, Ep., i. n. 6).

The second book of St. John Chrysostom’s work on the Priesthood is almost entirely filled with rules as to the guidance of souls in the sacrament of Penance. We must here content ourselves with the following brief extracts:—

“Men that dwell on earth and have their abode therein, have had committed to them the dispensation of the things that are in heaven, and have received a power which God hath not given to angels or to archangels; for not to these was it said, ‘Whatsoever ye shall bind,’ etc. They that rule on earth, have indeed also power to bind but the body only; whereas this bond touches the very soul itself, and reaches even unto heaven; and what the priests shall do below, the same does God ratify above, and the Lord confirms the sentence of His servants. And what else is this but that He has given them all heavenly power? For He saith, ‘Whose sins ye shall,’ etc. What power could be greater than this?… The Jewish priests had power to cleanse the leprosy of the body; or, rather, not to cleanse it at all, but to decide on those who were clean, and you know what struggles there were for the sacerdotal dignity then; but these [Christian priests] have received power not to cleanse the leprosy of the body, but the uncleanness of the soul; not to decide that it is cleansed, but to cleanse it indeed (οὐκ ἀπαλλαγεῖσαν δοκιμάζειν ἀλλʼ ἀπαλλάττειν παντελῶς ἔλαβον ἐξουσίαν)” (De Sacerdotio, lib. iii. nn. 5, 6).

“ ‘Whose sins ye shall forgive,’ etc. He gave the power of forgiving sins—He Who by His own breath infused Himself into their hearts, and bestowed on them Him Who forgives sins. ‘When He said this He breathed on them,’ etc. Where are the men who teach that sins cannot be forgiven men by men? Who with a cruel spirit take from the sick and the wounded their cure, and deny them their remedy? Who impiously insult sinners with despair of a return? Peter forgives sins, and receives the penitent with all joy, and avails himself of this power which God has granted to all priests” (St. Peter Chrvsol., Serm. lxxxiv.).

Further passages will be cited below, when we come to speak of Confession.

“Our Lord then principally instituted the sacrament of Penance when, raised from the dead, He breathed on His disciples, saying, ‘Receive ye,’ etc. By which action so signal, and by words so plain, the unanimous consent of the Fathers hath always understood that the power of forgiving and of retaining sins, for the reconciling of the faithful, was communicated to the Apostles and to their legitimate successors. And with great reason did the Catholic Church reject and condemn as heretics the Novatians who obstinately in olden times denied that power.… If any one shall say that in the Catholic Church Penance is not truly and properly a sacrament instituted by Christ our Lord for reconciling the faithful unto God as often as they fall into sins after baptism, let him be anathema.… If any one shall say that those words of the Lord the Saviour, Receive ye the Holy Ghost,’ etc., are not to be understood of the power of forgiving and of retaining sins in the sacrament of Penance, as the Catholic Church hath always from the beginning understood them, but shall wrest them, contrary to the institution of this sacrament, to the power of preaching the Gospel, let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, sess. xiv. chap. 1, and canons 1 and 3). Cf. St. Thom., 3. q. 84, a. 1.