not dread to commit in open day. The salutary shame that attends confession, restrains licentiousness, bridles desire, and coerces the evil propensities of corrupt nature.
Having explained the advantages of confession, the pastor will next unfold its nature and efficacy. Confession, then, is defined " A sacramental accusation of one's self, made to obtain pardon by virtue of the keys." It is properly called " an accusation," because sins are not to be told as if the sinner boasted of his crimes, as they do, " who are glad when they have done evil;" [1] nor are they to be related as idle stories or passing occurrences, to amuse: they are to be confessed as matters of self-accusation, with a desire, as it were, to avenge them on ourselves. But we confess our sins with a view to obtain the pardon of them; and, in this respect, the tribunal of penance differs from other tribunals, which take cognizance of capital offences, and before which a confession of guilt is sometimes made, not to secure acquittal but to justify the sentence of the law. The definition of confession by the Holy Fathers, [2] although different in words, is substantially the same: " Confession," says St. Augustine, " is the disclosure of a secret disease, with the hope of obtaining a cure;" [3] and St. Gregory; " confession is a detestation of sins:" [4] both of which accord with, and are contained in the preceding definition.
The pastor will next teach, with all the decision due to a revealed truth, a truth of paramount importance, that this Sacrament owes its institution to the singular goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, who ordered all things well, and solely with a view to our salvation. [5] After his resurrection, he breathed on the assembled Apostles, saying: " Receive ye the Holy Ghost, whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." [6] By in vesting the sacerdotal character with power to retain as well as to remit sins, he thus, it is manifest, constitutes them judges in the causes on which this discretionary power is to be exercised. This he seems to have signified when, having raised Lazarus from the dead, he commanded his Apostles to loose him from the bands in which he was bound. [7] This is the interpretation of St. Augustine: " they," says he, " the priests, can now do more: they can exercise greater clemency towards those who confess, and whose sins they forgive. The Lord by the hands of his Apostles delivered Lazarus, whom he had already raised from the dead, to be loosed by the hands of his disciples; thus giving us to understand that to priests was given the power of loosing." [8] To this, also, refers the command given by our Lord to the lepers cured on the way, to show themselves
- ↑ Prov. ii. 14.
- ↑ Chrysost. 20, in Genes.
- ↑ Aug. ser. 4, de verbis Domini.
- ↑ Greg. hom. 40. in Evangel.
- ↑ Vid. Trid. sess. 14. de poenit. e. 5. et can. 0. Aug. lib. 50. horn, homil. 64, et citatur de poenit. dist. 1. c. agite. Orig. horn. 1. in Psal. 37. Chrysost. de sacerd. lib. 3
- ↑ John xx. 22, 23.
- ↑ John xi. 44.
- ↑ De vera et lalsa pcenit. c. 1C. et serm. 8, de verbis Domini.
