on this Sacrament. As he who suffers shipwreck has no hope of safety, unless, perchance, he seize on some plank from the wreck; so he that suffers the shipwreck of baptismal innocence, unless he cling to the saving plank of penance, may abandon all hope of salvation. These instructions, however, are intended not only for the benefit of the pastor, but also for that of the faithful at large, whose attention they may awaken, lest they be found culpably negligent in a matter of all others the most important. Impressed with a just sense of the frailty of human nature, their first and most earnest desire should be, to advance, with the divine assistance, in the ways of God, flying sin of every sort. But should they, at any time, prove so unfortunate as to fall, then, looking at the infinite goodness of God, who like the good shepherd binds up and heals the wounds of his sheep, they should have immediate recourse to the sacrament of penance, that by its salutary and medicinal efficacy their wounds may be healed. [1]
But to enter more immediately on the subject, and to avoid all error to which the ambiguity of the word may give rise, its different meanings are first to be explained. By penance some understand satisfaction; whilst others, who wander far from the doctrine of the Catholic faith, supposing penance to have no reference to the past, define it to be nothing more than newness of life. The pastor, therefore, will teach that the word (poanitentia) has a variety of meanings. In the first place, it is used to express a change of mind; as when, without taking into account the nature of the object, whether good or bad, what was before pleasing, is now become displeasing to us. In this sense the Apostle makes use of the word, when he applies it to those, " whose sorrow is according to the world, not according to God; and therefore, worketh not salvation, but death." [2] In the second place, it is used to express that sorrow which the sinner conceives for sin, not however for sake of God, but for his own sake. A third meaning is when we experience interior sorrow of heart, or give ,exterior indication of such sorrow, not only on account of the sins which we have committed, but also for sake of God alone whom they offend. To all these sorts of sorrow the word (poenitentia) properly applies.
When the Sacred Scriptures say that God repented, [3] the expression is evidently figurative: when we repent of any thing, we are anxious to change it; and thus, when God is said to
- ↑ Ezech. xxxiv. 16. De Poenitentia e patribus antiquis scripserunt Tertul. librura unum. Cypr. epistolas plures et unum lib. de Lapsis, Pacianus lib- unum et duas epistolas ad Symproniam, ac de poenit. et confession, seu paran. ad pocnit. Ambros. libros duos poenit. Chrysost. Homilias 10. et sermon, de poenit. Ephrem. lib. et ser mon, de poenit. Fulgentius lib. 2. de remission, peccatorum ad Euthymiurn, et sess. 14. de poenit. cap. 3. Greg. Nyssenus orationem de poenit. Basil, homil. imam quse est postrema variarum, Augustin. denique lib. unum de vera et falsa poeni tentia, et librum insignem de poenitentise medicina. His adde Marcum Eremitam cujus extat de poenitent. liber unus, sed caute legendus: de eo vide Bellarmin. de Script Eccles. Qui non habet Patres supra citatos, videat in Decreta Gratiani de poenitent. 7. distinctiones.
- ↑ 2 Cor, vii. 10.
- ↑ Gen. vi.6. 1 Kings xv. 11. Ps. cv. 45. Jer. xxvi. 3.
