Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:01 Everybody knows the King David sinned with Bathsheba and then had her husband killed. But if you've ever wondered how he had those sins forgiven since he lived before the sacrament of penance was instituted, how was he saved? Everyone heard about the police in Boston when the bomb went off at the marathon, they wouldn't let the priests near the people injured by the bomb. Have you ever wondered what you would do? What you could do if you found yourself dying without a priest, which is pretty realistic in our day and age and you had sins on your soul, mortal sins?
Speaker 1 00:51 What would you do?
Speaker 0 00:53 Could you be saved? Have you under what what you could possibly do to help a dying, non-catholic friend or relative who doesn't want to see a priest be saved?
Speaker 1 01:07 Could they be saved?
Speaker 0 01:12 Today we're going to answer those questions and do so will I? Largely on two works booklet and tiled perfect contrition by father quitter gin, s j Bill Clinton tiled the golden key to heaven by JD Dresch. They're both readily available for download on the Internet. There may be 2035 pages, not very long. Perfect contrition, golden key to heaven, they're really worth reading. Obviously there's a lot more information in those two booklets than I can get through in a sermon, the sermon as usual, I've cut, spliced and edited things. Let's start with a review of our catechism. What is contrition or sorrow for sins, contrition or software? Sin is a hatred of sin and it's a true grief of soul for having offended God with a firm purpose of sending no more now supernatural contrition may either be imperfect or perfect. Contrition is imperfect. We're sorry, through fear of God, we're sorry for having offended God because we fear his just anger and his punishment. We don't want to go to hell.
Speaker 0 02:30 Nutrition is perfect when we're sorry through love of God because sin offends him who so infinitely good and lovable, which brings us to the topic of the sermon. Perfect contrition, perfect contrition springs up from a perfect love of God and our love for God is perfect when we love him because he's infinitely good, are worthy of all love or because by his innumerable gifts to us, he has shown his love for, on the other hand, our love for God is imperfect when we love him because we hope for some benefit from him. When our love is imperfect, we love the gifts we received when he's perfect. We love the giver of the gifts, not so much for the gifts that he's bestowed on us. As for the love and the goodness that these gifts manifest towards the manifest towards us and that are in him the effects of perfect contrition.
Speaker 0 03:26 We're going to talk about how to make an act in a minute, but I want to precede that by talking about the effects. Suppose a man is in a state of mortal sin and then he makes an act of perfect contrition at that instant. Just like that, all his sins are forgiven. He's back in the state of graced instantly him before he goes to confession. Assuming he has intention of going when he has the opportunity. Perfect contrition is a fantastic help to all those who really want to stay in a state of grace, but who through weakness and in spite of their good intentions, occasionally fall into mortal sin. All right. Even if someone has made an act of perfect nutrition, he shouldn't go to communion until he's gone to confession. His sins are forgiven, but he should go to confession first before he returns to communion.
Speaker 0 04:15 Not Suppose the man is already in the state of grace at the moment that he made that act of perfect contrition. What happens then? At that point then his soul is strengthened against future temptations. His venial sins are forgiven. His purgatory time is decreased, and the charity, the virtue of charity grows, the more fervent the AQI makes, the more time you lose is reduced in purgatory and the greater growth in charity. That's when a man makes one. When he's in the state of grace. Is it easy to have perfect contrition? It is more difficult to make an act of perfect contrition then to make an act of imperfect attrition. That's true. We have to make an act of imperfect nutrition at least to have art. The sacrament of confession be valid there. There's something called defective contrition. We preached on that before. But just to remind you the difference between imperfect contrition, which is where, sorry.
Speaker 0 05:11 Cause offended God and we really don't want to get punished or go to hell and defective contrition is we don't have a PR firm purpose of amendment defective contrition. So a person could go and say, well I'm sorry for my sins because I don't want to go to hell, but I don't want to get rid of the cocaine or whatever. You know? I mean the, the, the two things don't go together. If he's trying to confess something, he has to get rid of it. That's defective contrition. He's sorry. He's not sir. Sorry. In a way that the, the sacrament will work. Imperfect contrition though. Where he, sorry. Cause if he's afraid of health, that suffices to get the sins forgiven and con in, in confession. But when we make an act of imperfect contrition, worse, we're not, unless we're in confession, it doesn't move us into the state of grace. Okay? So it is more difficult to make an act of perfect and tradition that to make an active, imperfect contrition fervent Christians can make acts of perfect contrition more easily than lukewarm Christians. But perfect contrition is not difficult for someone who has begun to be sorry for sins. Perfect contrition is not beyond the power of any ordinary man of goodwill who's trying to live well, but is too weak to always avoid mortal sin. Before Christ came, the only means for adults to have their sins forgiven was perfect contrition.
Speaker 0 06:30 And even now, that's still the case for all those, for whatever reason, do not have access to the sacraments. God has not imposed upon mankind a requirement for sorrow, for sins that's beyond the power of even the weakest man of goodwill. Anyone who really wants to make acts of perfect nutrition can with the grace of God, only one thing can make perfect contrition difficult to us, and that's a lack of trust in the mercies of God. But doesn't our lord cost to trust them. That's the whole point of him appearing to Saint Margaret Mary, the sacred heart devotion. That's the whole point of him appearing to Saint Faustina. He wants us to completely trust him even on the panning from the divine mercy. What does it say? Jesus, I trust in you how to obtain perfect contrition. First off, we have to remember that perfect contrition is a gift of God.
Speaker 0 07:30 It's a great grace. We therefore should ask for it, constantly ask and you shall receive. When we begged God for some worldly favor, he may refuse. God knows what's best. I pray and pray. I want to win the big jackpot. In Atlantic City, God says, no, he knows what's best, but a prayer for perfect contrition will always be heard. Prayer for perfect contrition will always be hurt. Here is an easy way of making an act of perfect contrition. No, this is salvation issue, so we should listen. Careful. We kneel down before crucifix, or at least in our mind's eye, we place ourselves at the foot of the cross and then we'll load. We're looking at our Lord's wounds. We think for a few moments on what we see and we pray something along these lines. Who is this nailed to that cross? It's Jesus, my God, my savior, and look at how he's suffering. Look at those woes, those horrific wounds and why is he suffering?
Speaker 1 08:44 Okay,
Speaker 0 08:44 placenta mankind. He's suffering for my sins. I have sinned against him
Speaker 1 08:55 and
Speaker 0 08:56 yet as he's hanging there in such agony and pain, he's thinking about me. He's suffering for me. He's making reparation for my sentence.
Speaker 1 09:16 Okay,
Speaker 0 09:16 he is busy loving me and then remain there at the foot of the cross. Will the blood of our savior falls drop by, drop on our soul. Ask ourselves, how have you returned these proofs of his love called a mind our past sins and forgetting for a moment, heaven and hell, we just placed that aside. We want to repent because our sins have caused our savior to suffer so terribly. We promise him that we're not going to crucify him again and then slowly and fervently repeat that to contrition or better yet just repeat whatever words of sorrow that rise up from your heart. Now, how hard is that? Every single person here
Speaker 1 10:13 can do that.
Speaker 0 10:18 Another easy way of making active, perfect attrition is to turn to our lady, but think of her as our lady of sorrows there on Mount Calvary. They've taken our Lord's body down and it's laying there, mangled dead on our knees, and we look at her. We turned to her and we just say with her, oh, blessed mother, pray for me. Obtained for me the grace to never sin again. My choose have mercy on me. My God have mercy on me as sinner. I love the above all things. That's not hard. Anyone here can do that?
Speaker 1 11:00 Yeah.
Speaker 0 11:03 Okay. Now let's apply what we've learned at three situations. Three situations. First, helping a dying Catholic make an act of perfect contrition. Second situation, helping a dying, non-catholic Christian make an act of perfect contrition and third situation, helping a dying non-Christian make an act of perfect contrition. We're assuming that a priest is not available. That's a pretty good assumption, or that they don't want to see a priest. Okay, parent, theoretically, you should pray to get a priest when you die. God's in charge of that stuff, but this is what we do to help people when that isn't happening. Okay, so the priest isn't available or else they don't want to see a priest. They're not Catholic. So what should we do? Well, no matter what you're dealing with in each one of these situations, you start by praying to your angel and the dying man's angel asked them to help and intercede with Saint Joseph, our lady.
Speaker 0 12:07 We're trying to do something supernatural. We need supernatural means. We go right to the source right away. Do that right away. That's first. Then if he's conscious and responsive, Father Advices, St John, you, it's, and you want to say something along these lines. I'll pray with you. Probably doesn't matter much to you, but would you mind if I prayed in your name? It would sure make me feel better. Okay. I'll pray with you. Probably doesn't matter much to you, but it would you mind if I prayed your name? It would sure make me feel better. Don't Fret if you refuse to let you pray in his name. But if he does, he just agreed to make you as advocate before God and so you have real leverage. If he doesn't, don't worry. Just stay calm. The devil works in stormy waters, not the Lord. We have to stay calm when we're working with someone dying.
Speaker 0 12:53 It's really important to stay calm, really important. You just don't want to give any more leverage to the devil than he's already got. So no matter what the situation, start by praying to the angel and the angel of dying man and asked him to help and intercede with Saint Joseph and our lady. Then if he's conscious and responsive, you father advice to St John utes and say something like, I'll pray with you. It probably doesn't matter much to you, but what do you mind if I prayed in your name? It's your make me feel better now let's go through the possibilities. So first helping a dying Catholic make an act of perfect nutrition. If you have any holy water, sprinkle it around. Generally speaking, you don't have to be sneaky with a Catholic. On this. It's holy water. Why do we want to spray call your water round at this point in time?
Speaker 0 13:35 Because it keeps the way the devils and when someone's dying, it's just like flies in a dead carcass. They're just showing all kinds of them and the holy water keeps them away. You don't have to worry about it. That's the whole Adria. When people are dying, you just sprinkle it around. It keeps him out of the room. That keeps him. What? Because the devil knows it's his last chance. So they're just swarming and that holy water will keep them out of the picture. Okay? So once you've done that, you just asked him to repeat with his heart what you're gonna pray. So you slowly and distinctly ask our Lord to hell as Saint Joseph to help ask our lady to help and then ask the Lord to have mercy. So blessed mother, help Saint Joseph, help my Jesus have mercy. Jesus have mercy, mercy, my Jesus. And then after this, just say an act of contrition very slowly and deliberately.
Speaker 1 14:29 Okay?
Speaker 0 14:29 If he's in actually the throws a death, this can be repeated periodically. But don't get yourself excited. Don't allow yourself to be excited and think you have to just keep on doing this. The point of exhausting the dying man. Stay calm. It'll be all right. Just ask them to squeeze your hand if he wants you to pray it again with him. Okay? That's all you have to do. Just slowly and deliberate. You want it to go slow. If he's unconscious, he do exactly the same thing. Exactly the same thing. The last sense to go is actually the sense of hearing. So make sure you're slowly and clearly pronouncing each word. When he asks him to repeat with his heart what you're about to say, don't talk at a normal speed. Talk very slowly. Then slowly and distinctly ask our lady to help as Saint Joseph to help ask the Lord have mercy and slowly and distinctly see that to contrition.
Speaker 0 15:14 Even though the dying man may not seem to hear, understand you. Don't worry about that. You're not looking free responses here. You looking further spots with heaven. So that's the first case. How to help a dying Catholic make an act of perfect nutrition. Second case, helping a dying, non-catholic Christian. Make an act of perfect contrition. If you have any holy water, this is where he might need to be a little sneaky. This is pretty easy. Our Lord told us to be gentle as doves and wise as serpents. So just what? A cloth with it and wipe off his forehead. You're good to go. Okay, then tell him you want to pray with him. Do you want to help him call in the name of the Lord again, just ask him to repeat with his heart what you're about to say. Don't say anything about an act of contrition.
Speaker 0 15:59 Don't spook a Dianne man with strange vocabulary. You don't want him to close his heart. You want him to open it. We're not sitting here trying to score, debating Catholic debating points. That's crazy. We're trying to save a soul here with the grace of God. So you slowly distinctly ask the Lord to have mercy cause you've already prayed and your all silently to our lady and Saint Joseph, the angels, they're already involved. So you just my Jesus' mercy, my Jesus mercy, my Jesus. I'm sorry for any and all the ways I may have offended you throughout my life. I began to have mercy on me. I'm truly sorry and I love you have mercy on me. Cheeses, you'll know what to say. Stuff like that. Okay. Again, if he's an action that throws a death, you can repeat it periodically. Don't exhaust him. He can do just having a squeeze your hand if he wants you to repeat it.
Speaker 0 16:46 If he's unconscious, you do exactly the same thing. That's the second case. Helping a dying, non-catholic Christian make an act of perfect contrition and if he unites yourself to it, that will be an act of perfect nutrition. Addison's will be forgiven. Remember the more fervent that that act is, which isn't like how much energy put it on more foreman, less purgatory time. He has to, so that's why it's not bad if he wants it to repeat cause he can reduce it, but you don't worry if he's going to be in purgatory the end of the year who came at the end of the world? Who cares because he can't confess to a priest you, but Christ is still looking to save him seed because instrument in this case, finally the most dicey one, helping a dying non-Christian make an act of perfect contrition. Again, if you have holy water, you're going to have to be sneaky about it.
Speaker 0 17:32 Just what? That cloth and wipe his forehead. Don't baptize him. If he doesn't want to be baptized, it isn't going to work. See, children can't raise an obstacle that, but an adult cancer that past the age of reason. It's not a magic trick. If he doesn't want to be baptized, you're just, it's a sacrilege. Don't do it. Okay. Where you, what you're trying to do is obtain the grace for him to make a baptism desire. We're assuming he doesn't show any desire to see a priest and doesn't show a desire to be baptized. If he wants to be baptized, well, that's a different sermon. Go ahead and do that. And I mean, but that's not what we're talking about here. We're assuming this is a person that doesn't want to be baptized. Okay, so he's baptized. He's good to go. But here's a dye, non-Christian, there's no time to catechize because he's dying.
Speaker 0 18:13 Tell him you want to pray with them to help them have a peaceful desk. Obviously there's a much more dicey situation because he doesn't necessarily explicitly believe the four truths. He certainly doesn't believe some of them. They're necessary for salvation. There's one God, God rewards the good and punish the evil. There's three persons in the one God and the second person, the Lord Jesus Christ became man and died for our sins. Well, he obviously doesn't believe that or he'd be a Christian, you know? So at best you got three and that'd be amazing. You know, you might have to, you don't know where you're at on this. Okay, so he doesn't know all that. Or at least doesn't believe it yet. If you can explain these four points and he's receptive to it, well then by all means do so, but then you're no longer dealing with a non Christian.
Speaker 0 18:52 It's we just got done with that possibility. So this the situation we're speaking of right now, he's a non Christian with dying. It's means you don't have not in a situation to run a catechism class and he doesn't know that Jesus, God, or at least doesn't profess that you don't have the time to get into that. Now what you're going to do is bank on the marvelous mercies of God. If you can get the man to make an act of perfect contrition, he will then be in a state of grace and you're trusting that God won't someone enlighten him, enlightened this dine man as he dies. Okay, you are shooting for last minute safe. You've already prayed the angels. They're busy talking things over with Saint Joseph for another lady. God desires the salvation of all man. He doesn't want this man to go to hell. He's looking for an excuse to save this soul for whom he shed his precious blood.
Speaker 0 19:36 And so with the grace of God, you're doing your best to open that soul to move into grace. Okay? So that's the goal here. See now yourself to our lady and then just lean on her until your dying friend. You want to pray with him to help him have a peaceful death than just ask them to repeat with your heart, with his heart what you're going to say. Don't say anything about the act of contrition. So look, if you'll accept your praying explicitly to our Lord, that's good to go. But we're assuming in this too. I'm giving you all the possibilities. You're not even going to, that's not gonna happen. So it might be a Jewish friend, might be Muslim friend, right? So that we solely and distinctly pray something along these lines. Have mercy on me. God have mercy on me. God, Oh God, I'm sorry for Annie and all the ways I've ever felt in my life.
Speaker 0 20:21 And I beg you to have mercy on me. I'm truly sorry. I love you. Have mercy on him. Oh my God. Now we know what we're praying, and if he's United to it, we're good to go. If he isn't actually throws a death, it can be repeated periodically. Just having to squeeze your hand. If he's unconscious. Again, we do exactly the same saying, make sure slowly include pronouncing each word when we ask him to repeat with our heart what you're about to say, and then slowly and distinctly pray those prayers, Huh? If he actually cooperates with you, he's going to be moved and the state of grace, and we can trust the mercy God, that somehow that poor dying man will receive the knowledge he needs to be saved before the soul leaves his body. So that's the third case. I'd help a dying non-Christian make an act of perfect contrition.
Speaker 0 21:12 Let's review. What have we seen? We've seen that if a man is a state of mortal sin, he makes an act of perfect tradition. All his sins are instantly forgiven. We've seen if a man is already in the state of grace, in Meg's active, perfect contrition, then his soul is strengthened against future temptations. His venial sins are forgiven. His purgatory time is decreased Negros and the virtue of charity, and the more fervent the act, the more than purgatory time is reduced and the greater the growth and charity we've seen, the perfect nutrition springs from the perfect love of God and her love for God is perfect when we love him because he's infinitely good, infinitely beautiful, infinitely perfect, or because by numeral gifts to us, he has shown his love for us. We've seen it before. The coming of our Lord. The only means for adults to have their sins forgiven was perfect tradition, perfect contrition, and even today it is still the case for all those who for whatever reason, to not have access to the sacraments.
Speaker 0 22:13 We've seen an act of perfect contrition is not beyond the reach of even the weakest man of goodwill. We've seen that we can easily make an act of perfect attrition by kneeling down before Crucifix, at least in our minds eyes. And we're looking at our Lord's wounds. Pray along these lines. Who is that nailed to the cross and suffering so terribly? That's my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And look at how he's suffering with a body. So covered with those terrible wounds and his soul, an agony and humiliation. And why is he suffering? He's suffering for the sins of men. He suffering from my sins. I have sinned against him.
Speaker 1 22:59 Okay,
Speaker 0 23:00 and yet despite this hacked that my sins nailed him to that cross. He's hanging there in agony thinking of me. He's suffering for me. He's making reparation for my sins. He is loving me. We stay there and prayer. Well that precious blood falls drop by drop onto our soul. We recall our past sins and repent because we can see what our sins did to our lord and we promise him we're not going to crucify McCann and then slowly and fervently repeat that to contrition. Yeah,
Speaker 0 23:46 we've seen that. If we're going to try to help a dying man make an act of perfect nutrition, we start by playing to our angel and his angel and ask them to help a new seed with Saint Joseph and our lady. Then if he's conscious and responsive, we take a cue from Saint John Youths and say something like, I'll pray with you. It probably doesn't matter much to you, but would you mind if I prayed in your name? It would sure make me feel better. We remained calm, whatever his answer. Then if the die man is a Catholic, we sprinkle some Holly water around. Keep away the devils. Then we ask them to repeat with his heart what we were going to pray. Then we slowly and distinctly ask our lady to help. We asked Saint Joseph to help and then we ask our Lord have mercy, my Jesus mercy, my Jesus mercy, mercy, my cheeses, and then we save very slowly and deliberately the act of contrition we've seen.
Speaker 0 24:35 If the dying man is a non Catholic Christian, we tell them that. We just want to pray with them. We want to help them call the name of the Lord and ask him to repeat with his heart what we're going to say. We don't say anything about acts of contrition, no Catholic vocabulary here. Then we slowly distinctly ask our Lord have mercy. My Jesus have mercy. Why don't you just have mercy? My Jesus. I'm truly sorry for any and all the ways I ever offended you throughout my whole life. I beg you to have mercy on me. I'm truly sorry and I love you have mercy on me. I've seen if the dime man is a non Christian, we're going to do our best to open that soul to the movement of grace and since he's dying, we're going to bank on the tremendous mercy of God.
Speaker 0 25:18 If we can get that man to make an act of perfect contrition, he'll then be in a state of grace and we trust that God will enlighten him in some way as he dies. We night ourselves to our lady and I tell her dying friend, want to pray with him, tell them to have a peaceful death. Did we ask him to repeat with his heart what we're about to say? And slowly and distinctly we pray something along these lines have mercy on me. God had mercy on me. God got, I'm sorry for any and all the ways I ever fed in my life. I beg you to have mercy on me. I'm truly sorry and I love you. Have mercy on me, God.
Speaker 1 25:53 Okay, let's close
Speaker 0 25:57 close by thinking about two scriptures. In First Timothy two four we read that God desires that all men be saved,
Speaker 1 26:05 okay?
Speaker 0 26:06 God desires all men to be saved in an acts two 21 we read that all those who call the name, the Lord shall be saved. God desires all men to be saved. Who soever Chicago named Lord shall be saved. We know the scriptures, but most of the people don't. Most of the people around in her amongst whom we live are in total darkness or varying shades of twilight. We've been given these great graces. We've been given the true faith, and now you have the knowledge that if you find yourself in this situation, you can be instrument of the mercy of God to bring that person to eternal life. God desires that all men be saved and whosoever shall call the name of the Lord shall be saved.
