us to him in the closest bonds of friendship. [1] From this reconciliation with God, the devout soul, who approaches the sacrament with deep sentiments of piety and religion, sometimes experiences the greatest tranquillity and peace of conscience, a tranquillity and peace accompanied with the sweetest spiritual joy. There is no sin, however grievous, no crime however enormous or however frequently repeated, which penance does not remit: " If," says the Almighty, by the mouth of his prophet, " the wicked do penance for all his sins, which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live and shall not die; I will not remember all his iniquities which he hath done." [2] " If," says St. John, " we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins;" [3] and a little after he adds: " If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the just; and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world." [4] If, therefore, we read in the pages of inspiration, of some who earnestly implored the mercy of God, but implored it in vain, it is because they did not repent sincerely and from their hearts. [5] When we also meet in the Sacred Scriptures and in the writings of the Fathers, pas sages which seem to say, that some sins are irremissible, we are to understand such passages to mean, that it is very difficult to obtain the pardon of them. A disease may be said to be incurable, when the patient loathes the medicine that would accomplish his cure; and, in the same sense, some sins may be said to be irremissible, when the sinner rejects the grace of God, the proper medicine of salvation. To this effect St. Augustine says: " When, after having arrived at a knowledge of God, through the grace of Jesus Christ, any one opposes the fellow ship of the faith, and maliciously resists the grace of Jesus Christ, so great is the enormity of his crime, that, although his guilty conscience obliges him to acknowledge and declare his guilt, he cannot submit to the humiliation of imploring pardon." [6]
To return to penance, to it belongs, in so special a manner, the efficacy of remitting actual guilt, that without its intervention we cannot obtain or even hope for pardon. It is written: " Unless you do penance, you shall all perish." [7] These words of our Lord are to be understood of grievous and deadly sins, although, as St. Augustine observes, venial sins also require some penance: " If," says he, " without penance, venial sin could be remitted, the daily penance, performed for them by the Church, would be nugatory." [8]
But as, on matters which, in any degree, affect moral actions, three it is not enough to convey instruction in general terms, the pas-
- ↑ Cone. Trid sess. 14. can. 3, &c. 1. de pcenitent.
- ↑ Ezek. xviii. 21, 22.
- ↑ 1 John i. 9.
- ↑ 1 John ii. 1,2.
- ↑ 2 Mach. ix. 13.
- ↑ Lib. 1. de sermon. Domini in monte, c. 42. et 44. et retract, lib. c. 8, 19. Aug. term. 1. de verhis Domini, et epist. 50. ad Bonif.
- ↑ Luke xiii. 3. 5.
- ↑ Aug. lib. 50. horn. 50. item epist. 168. et Ench. cap. 71.
