Mass and the Sacraments by M.A. Fr. John Laux

Author:M.A. Fr. John Laux [Fr. John Laux, M.A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 1934-05-28T04:00:00+00:00

2. CONTRITION AND PURPOSE OF AMENDMENT

1. Peter deliberately denied his Lord and Master and thereby committed a grave sin. Jesus turned and looked on him, and this glance of love and mercy pierced his heart with the sharpness of a dagger. He went out and wept bitterly. Tears are a sign of pain. But Peter's pain was not a bodily pain, but a pain of the soul caused by the thought of his great sin. He detested his sin and was determined henceforth never to deny his Lord again. He had true contrition for his sin.

"Contrition is pain or grief of mind and detestation of sin committed, with the firm purpose of sinning no more" (Council of Trent).

Contrition is the most necessary part of our preparation for the reception of the Sacrament of Penance. Without contrition no sin is ever forgiven. Hence the act of contrition must be made before confession or at least before absolution is given.

2. Contrition Is an Act of the Will.—The penitent turns away from sin, detests it, regrets that he committed it, and is resolved to make satisfaction for it and to avoid it in future. Such an act of the will presupposes the knowledge that sin is an evil. Hence if we wish to become truly contrite we must think of the malice of sin and its dreadful consequences. An act of the intellect must precede the act of the will.

3. Our contrition, and therefore also our purpose of amendment, must be interior, universal, supreme, and supernatural.—

a) Our contrition is interior if we detest sin in our hearts as the greatest of all evils and sincerely wish we had never committed it. "Rend your hearts and not your garments," says the prophet (Joel 2,13). Sorrow that is expressed merely by the lips, or that exists only in the imagination, is no true sorrow at all.

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