De poenitentia

De poenitentia

Repentance is not a sign; it is nothing obscure. For repentance is the mortification of our old self and the renewal of the spirit; it is the Sacrament or sign of nothing other than baptism. And here, it is rightly called the Sacrament of Penance. Indeed, repentance is our mortification, so that we may be renewed in life. What is baptism, but a sign of the meaning it conveys? This is the essence of the sacrament. Listen to how the argument is overturned and the goat is revealed when the baptism of infants is called into question. Indeed, those who do not receive heavenly grace through baptism are in a dire situation. I urge you, leaders, to command this matter regarding the baptism of infants with great care. What good is it to you not to see what will happen, where the salvation of infants will be questioned? — they denied the baptism. Common places. As I said before, it is signified. And Paul testifies in Romans. . For we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death. And in Titus 3, it is called the washing of regeneration. The Christian life is nothing other than this very repentance, which is our regeneration. Mortification comes through the law, as has been said above. For this terrifies and kills the conscience. Life comes through the Gospel, or through absolution. For the gospel is nothing other than the very act of absolution. What we call mortification, the Scholastics wanted to call contrition, which I allow if they don't speak about pain through free will, but rather through human powers pretending to speak. You can't hate sin by nature. But it is God's work to confuse and terrify our conscience. Hierem. They did not know how to be ashamed. And XVII: The sin of Judah is written with a iron stylus on a diamond point, engraved on the width of their hearts. And when you showed me, I struck my thigh. And Christ spoke about the Pharisees. Now you, Pharisees, clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. But these things mentioned above are discussed more broadly when we talk about the comparison of the law and the gospel. For true repentance is nothing other than the mortification of the flesh. In the meantime, I warn you to avoid scholastic figments about attrition and pain as if they were a plague, and to be cautious of using free will in a way that pretends to be genuine. Your heart will easily judge whether you truly grieve or are just pretending to feel sorrow. But don’t trust in your sorrow, as if that alone would lead to the forgiveness of your sin; rather, I’ll explain later, it’s through absolution and the word of God. Perhaps you'll allow that baptism is a sign of repentance, which is a sign of both mortification and new life, if you persevere. But what sign is there for those who have fallen, that shows they are received back into grace? For they have only referred the term and Sacrament of penance to those who have fallen. I respond: Just as the knowledge of sin is the beginning of sin, so is the fear of divine judgment. We have not lost the grace of the Gospel, nor the sacrament of baptism. It is certain that the Gospel does not just once, but again and again forgives sin. Therefore, the baptism pertains no less to the second forgiveness than to the first. For baptism is the gospel, which means the forgiveness of sins and a pledge. Matthew. Eighteen, s. Peter asks, how often should he forgive his brothers? Where the Lord responds: "Seventy times seven times you must forgive." II, s. : But if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is the propitiation for our sins, etc. And if anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, and he is the atonement for our sins. Paul commands that the incestuous person be received back. This is also found in Chrysostom and is cited from Clement of Alexandria, regarding an incident where John the Apostle brought a certain young deserter back to repentance. And because repentance is divided into contrition, confession, and satisfaction, we will briefly share our thoughts on these. Regarding contrition, it has been sufficiently stated that if it is genuine, it is the mortification of our old self, which Scripture calls a pain greater than any human reason can estimate. It is far from the case that we can be crushed or mortified without the work of the Holy Spirit and our free will. Confession is another thing, by which we acknowledge our sin before God and condemn ourselves. This confession is nothing other than that very mortification and true contrition I was just speaking about. And the Scriptures often mention this. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. And David said, L. For I acknowledge my iniquity, and my sin is always before me. Against you alone have I sinned and done evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and prevail when you are judged. Item Ps. I said, 'I will confess my injustice to the Lord,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin. Without this confession, sin cannot be forgiven. Again, this confession cannot be forgiven, namely, the one we make to Eusebius. It's essential. The church is a place of refuge for the weary and a source of strength for the weak. We accuse ourselves and condemn ourselves before God, giving glory to truth and justice. There is another kind of confession, in which we do not only accuse ourselves privately before God, but also publicly before others. This is how it used to be in the church: Anyone accused of a crime was first privately confronted by a brother, and then publicly charged before the church. And there, the offense was forgiven for the one who repented. He was cast out of the church, who did not listen to the church. You have the form of this confession, Matthew. XVIH, where the use of the keys is revealed. Now, there is no example of it in the Church, since there would be no better reason for correcting faults. But that confession succeeded, in which matters are dealt with privately and separately with individual priests. The difference between that ancient form of confession and our current practice is that the former dealt only with public and manifest sins, while our practice also addresses private matters. The very ancient practice was to accuse public crimes before the entire church and to be absolved by the votes of the whole church. This practice has long been abolished, and now only one designated elder from among the presbyters is allowed to hear private accusations, even though they concern public crimes; he would impose penalties for scandalous offenses at the discretion of the church, specifically for public crimes. They were not admitted to the assembly unless they had already served their public penance. His example still remains in our public penances, as murderers are punished in the church. Anyone who describes this form of penance is the author of the Tripartite History, a Greek writer, who claims that it still endures in the Western churches, and he often mentions it, as Cyprian does. When someone speaks about the confession of public sins, they indicate that it should be made before a priest rather than before the entire church. You may require, if you wish, a sermon about those who have fallen. I will present the words of the ancient history: 'It has been seen by the ancient pontiffs that...' The cited passage is almost literally found there in IX. Digitized by Google, just like in a theater, where the sins of the ecclesiastical people are revealed under testimony, and for this reason they designated a priest of good conduct, a wise man who keeps secrets, to whom those who had sinned came, confessing their own sins. He indicated the penance according to each person's fault. This has also been diligently preserved in the Western churches, especially in Rome, where there is a specific place for penitents, where those who mourn stand; moreover, where the sacred celebration has been completed, those who do not receive Communion, with sighs and lamentations, prostrate themselves on the ground. The bishop rushes to them, and he himself falls to the ground with tears and spiritual lamentation, while the entire congregation weeps. Then the bishop rises first of all and lifts up those who are lying on the ground. Then he forgives all those who are penitent through prayer. Meanwhile, they afflict themselves with various hardships according to the bishop's directive. They await the time prescribed by the bishop for the assembly. At the time when the debt has been fully paid, the whole church participates in the gathering. The Roman Pontiffs have observed this up to our own times. But in Constantinople, a priest was in charge of penitents for a time, while a certain woman of high nobility, after her confession, was performing penance in the church, having slept with a deacon several times. When this became publicly known, a crowd rose up against the priests, claiming that they had violated the church. There, Bishop Nectarius removed a deacon from his office and abolished the old practice of public penance, allowing no designated priest for the penitents, so that each person could participate in the Lord's table according to their own conscience's judgment, whenever they were free to do so. This is almost word for word from the Tripartite History. From this, you can gather that there were once two forms of public penance: one from the early Church, where the matter was handled before the entire congregation, and the other involving those who were either expelled from the communion of the faithful because they refused to repent, or those who were absolved after they did repent. You have an example of this in I. And II. Regarding incest; the other, where there is a public penalty, confession is not permitted. What good is it to you? Today, an example of this is found in the repentance of murderers. Punishments are not due by divine law, but have arisen from human traditions, as I will explain later. And regarding this kind of penance, the ancient canons speak of it, which the foolish teachers of human law ineptly twist to apply to private matters.