Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00 The great Saint letter of port. Maurice tells a terrifying story, quote, a certain man of rank who lived in the proximate occasion. Sin with the Dupre female had found to his great misfortune a confessor ever ready to give him absolution. From time to time, this gentleman's wife, a lady of great piety, would prick the conscience of her husband in order to lead him to suspect the validity of all those absolutions. He only turned her efforts into ridicule. Do you want to become a theologian? Take care of your own soul. Leave me to take care of mine. If my confessor was not warranted and absolving me, then he would not do it. He continued to live and to confess as before and at his death. His confession was in keeping with those you've been accustomed make during his life.
Speaker 0 01:02 One day his widow was praying in the chapel when all of a sudden she saw before her a monster in human form surrounded by flames and seated on the shoulders of another man. The good lady would have fled. Stop. He cried out to her. Know that I am the soul of your husband. Condemned to hell, and that he who bears me is my confessor. We are both down. He then disappeared. What exactly is going on? What is the exact reason why a man who went to confession regularly, why was he damned and his confessor along with him? So those are important questions in order to answer them. Today, we'll take a closer look at the sacrament of penance, but in order to make sure that we have a clear understanding of what we'll be talking about, we'll quickly review mortal and venial sin. And the three things required for sacrament.
Speaker 0 02:13 The minister, the matter of the sacrament and the form of the sacrament. Moto sin. What is moral sin? Mortal sin is of course the problem. The one problem that can land us in the fires of hell, mortal sin is a grievous offense against the laws of God, a single mortal sin, prizes of sanctifying grace. Sanctifying grace is the supernatural life of the soul. It deprives the soul of sanctifying grace. It also makes the soul an enemy of God. It takes away all the merits of its good actions. It deprives of the right to everlasting happiness in heaven and it makes it deserving of an everlasting punishment in hell. The man who commits a mortal sin turns his back completely on God and turn toward some creature. In effect, the sinner says to God, get away from me. I will not obey you. I will not serve you.
Speaker 0 03:24 I will not acknowledge you as Lord. I will not have you. For my God, this sinful pleasure, that worldly advantage, this gratification, my revenge that will be my God. There are three things necessary to make a sin mortal. First, the thought desire word action or a mission must be seriously wrong or at least considered seriously wrong by the sinner. Second, the sinner must be mindful of a serious wrong, and third, the center must fully consent to it. Again, the three things necessary to make a sin mortal are serious matter, sufficient reflection and full consent of the will, so that's a mortal sin. Venial sin a venial sin is a less serious offense against the law of God, which does not deprive the soul of sanctifying grace in which can be pardoned even without sacramental. Confession. That's venial sin. Now let's quickly review the three things required for a sacrament.
Speaker 0 04:45 The minister, the matter of the sacrament and the form of the sacrament, the minister of the sacrament is the person with the power to confer the sacrament in the name of Jesus Christ and by his authority, the minister must have the intention of doing what the church in tens the matter is the material used for the sacrament. It's the sensible part of the sacrament. For example, water is the matter for baptism. Wheat bread and grape wine are the matter for the most. Plus it's sacrament. The form is the words that the minister must pronounce in order to confect the sacrament. For example, the form of the sacrament of baptism is I baptize you, the name of the father and the son and the Holy spirit. Okay? Now, let's suppose that a priest were saying mass nit the offertory. We lifted the PA, the Paul off the patent.
Speaker 0 05:42 He saw that instead of a wheat host lying there on his patent, there's a vanilla wafer lying on the pattern, obviously of vanilla wafers, not proper matter. So what would happen to that vanilla wafer if this priest were so wicked as to pronounce the words of institution over it? What would happen to that vanilla wafer? Nothing. Absolutely nothing at all. Even if heaven forbid the priest were to say those words, nothing would happen to the vanilla wafer because nothing could happen to them in a wafer because it isn't proper matter for the sacrament. It's not wheat bread. At the same time though, if a priest were so wicked as to pronounce those words, even though nothing would happen to the vanilla wafer, something would happen to him because he would at that very moment be guilty of committing the very terrible sin of sacrilege, which is a mistreatment of sacred persons.
Speaker 0 06:48 Places where things, okay, all that by way of background. Now let's turn to the problem at hand. Remember, we're trying to get a precise understanding of exactly why this man who'd been regularly going to confession was damned and his confessor along with him. We'll break the answer to two parts. First we'll figure out why the man was damned and then we'll take a look at why the priest was damned. Okay, so why was that man damned? We'll start answering the question by quickly reviewing the matter and form of the sacrament of penance. The form of the sacrament of penance, which is applied by the priest to the Pentatude is I absolve you. EGL te absolvo. That's the form of the sacrament of penance. I absolve you Eggo Tay absolve. Let me put a parent DentiCal remark in here. Listen for those words. It's a strange time we live in.
Speaker 0 07:55 If you don't hear, I absolve you. Ask the priest if he absolved you. When it comes to confession, we're in exactly the same position as you and sometimes we have to say father, repeat after me. It's a strange time. We're in the form of the sacrament of penance is <inaudible>. I absolve you. The matter of the sacrament of penance is brought by the penitent to the confession, and it consists of three parts. There are three parts to the matter of the sacrament of penance. These are brought by the penitent contrition, confession, and satisfaction. The three parts, the matter of contrition, confession, and satisfaction. Today we're only going to look at the first of those three parts, which is contrition. According to the council of Trent, contrition is a sorrow of mind and a detestation for sin committed with the purpose of not sinning in the future.
Speaker 0 09:05 And out of the three things that the penitent brings to confession, again, contrition, confession, satisfaction, the council Trent teaches that contrition is by far the most important. It holds the first place, the patron Saint of confessors and moral theologians, the doctor of moral theology, the great Saint Alphonsus Liguori comments on this quote, Sarah, for sin is so necessary for obtaining forgiveness that without it, even God himself cannot forgive sin. A person who dies without making an examination of conscience or a confession of his sins, maybe say by making an act of sincere, perfect contrition when he has not time to confess his sins, nor a priest to whom he can confess them, but without sorrow, it is impossible for the sinner to be saved. And here's the mistake of those people who in preparing for confession, endeavor only to call the mind their sins, but make no effort to arrive at true sorrow for them.
Speaker 0 10:17 For this, we must earnestly ask God's help and before we go to the confessional, let us say a hail Mary in honor of the sorrows of the blessed Virgin that she may see that we reached true sorrow for our sins. Close quote the doctor of moral theology of the universal church. Now Saint Alphonsus describes the necessary qualities of this sorrow that we should bring to the confessional quote. Our sorrow must not be from the lips, but from the heart. We must hate in a poor our sins. Close quote. Now, this hatred and this hop hearts of our sins is not a question of feelings. We may have feelings of hatred toward the sins, but we may not. That is not important. Presumably. For example, a man who uses cocaine likes to use it. I assume that he's not driving to a bad part of town and buying drugs from some bad people, you know, and using them.
Speaker 0 11:22 If he doesn't like it, if he's taking cocaine, it's because he likes it. But if he has a sincere sorrow for his past sins of using cocaine, even if his body still craves that feeling, he would hate in a pour the sin. It is the will that counts and not the feelings. Saint Alphonsus points out that what God requires is a deliberate determination of the will, not the feelings in the will, which means that we would prefer to lose all things rather than having offended God. We'd rather lose everything than lose the grace and friendship of God that's in the will, not in the feelings. Saint Alphonsus points out that the sorrow, which is rooted in a purely natural motive, like the loss of a job, the destruction of a marriage coming down with the disease, this kind of sorrow is not sufficient. Our Sarah must have a supernatural motive.
Speaker 0 12:17 In other words, we must be sorry for having offended God or for having lost heaven over having merited eternal damnation in hell. He also points out that we have to have this sorrow for all our mortal sins, each and every one of them. Quote, with regard to mortal sins, it is necessary to have true sorrow for all of them and it's a SERE purpose not to commit them again. Otherwise, no sin, mortal or venial will be pardoned. The reason for this is that grace cannot exist in the soul along with any mortal sin. Therefore, no one can obtain the pardon of one mortal sin without receiving the pardon of them all. However, if someone is confessing only venial sins, one venial sin can be forgiven without obtaining pardon of another to pertain forgiveness of any venial sin. It is enough to have true sorrow for it.
Speaker 0 13:14 Close quotes, Saint Alphonsus, so we have to have this saw for all our moral sins or none of them can be forgiven. If we're only confessing venial sins, we have to have a syrup for at least one of the venial sins and then it can be forgiven. Even if other venial sins that we may have committed, we're not sorrowful for. Now that we've taken a look at the properties of sorrow, let's consider the possible types of sorrow for sin will follow. Father Alphonsus Sutton, FIS analysis of Saint Alphonsus here, I think he's the greatest living moral theologian, but that's my parents' medical quote. Saint Alphonsus explains that there are four possible conditions of a soul following mortal sin. The first possible condition of a soul falling moral sin is the reprobate, since a reprobate sense occurs when someone by God's just decree has had so much of his wisdom withdrawn as a punishment for having abused it, that he no longer seriously or intelligently cares about his salvation or repeat that a reprobate sense occurs when someone by God's just decree has had so much of his wisdom withdrawn as a punishment for having abused it, that he no longer Seuss.
Speaker 0 14:32 Your intelligently cares about his salvation. Go down to a rough bar on Saturday night and ask somebody where he thinks he's going to end up after he dies, I'll probably just go to hell where all my friends are. That's a quote. I've heard that with my very own ears from living that kind of life, Saint Alphonsus considers the final repentance and salvation of such souls, normally quite improbable, but one should pray for them and give them a good example is that our degrees of this state, and it is not definitive. That's important. Give them good example and pray is their degrees and they're not definitive. And I am. I have one person I'm very close to. The definitely was absolutely a reprobate by the mercy of God has been converted. So this does happen occasionally. That's the reprobate. Since the second possible condition of a soul after mortal sin is defective contrition, defective contrition occurs when the sinner's feels some regret for his sins.
Speaker 0 15:42 Perhaps he will even cry over them, but he remains unwilling to put God first in his life. And here's the key. He lacks a firm purpose of amendment. For example, a man with the fact of contrition may very well go to confession, but he will not return ill gotten goods. He will not start paying overdue debts, which he's able to pay. He will not stop living with a concubine or keeping company with a sinful companion. He will not abandon a drug or alcohol habit. He will not stop using contraception. He will not put a filter on his computer. He will not quit refusing his spouse marital debt. He will not stop watching evil shows on TV. He will not repent of a sterilization. He will not forgive an enemy, et cetera, et cetera. Here's the point. As long as a man is in a state of defective contrition, even if he were to go to confession, the act of contrition would be a lie.
Speaker 0 16:59 The act of contrition would be a lie. Since a man with defective contrition is not serious about avoiding sin and the near occasion of sin, and even we're a priest, pronounced the words of absolution over him, the confession is bad. The absolution is invalid, and not only would he remain in his sins, he'd also add the sin of a sack logistic confession to the tally sinners with the fact that contrition can often be helped by a good confessor or devote friend to take the necessary steps which will make it possible for him to validly receive absolution. So that's defective contrition. The third possible condition of a soul attra mortal sin is imperfect contrition. It's also called attrition. Contrition is called imperfect. When the sinner indeed has the first beginning, the first spark of the love of God, which Saint Alphonsus says is present. If the sinner has a firm purpose of amendment, but he is moved by a less perfect motive than God's lovableness motives such as considering the ugliness of sin or the fact that he deserves hell or he's lost heaven and punishment for this sin.
Speaker 0 18:16 If someone guilty of a mortal sin has imperfect contrition, he cannot be pardoned until the moment he makes a good confession. So that's imperfect contrition. The fourth possible condition of a soul after mortal sin is perfect contrition. Contrition is called perfect. When the sitter is mowed principally by considering God's goodness and lovableness, although he may still be moved very strongly, although secondarily by a fear of God in his justice and a fear of hell perfect contrition is regret for sin on account of the wrong done to God. Love is the principle motive and perfect contrition, which is why it wins God's pardon as soon as his soul arrives at it, assuming that the sinner includes in it the will to fulfill all that God requires for reconciliation with him and for all properly catechized Catholics, we realize that this includes the intention to make a good confession.
Speaker 0 19:19 That's perfect contrition. Okay, so we began by trying to get a clear understanding of exactly why the man who'd been regularly going to confession was damned along with his confessor. It should be obvious to everyone by now. He's Dan because he's guilty of mortal sin, but he didn't have true sorrow for his sins. He kept going to confession shows he wasn't a complete reprobate. That's true, but he was unwilling to put God first in his life. He lacked a firm purpose of amendment. He would not quit keeping company with a sinful companion. And so he had defective contrition. Every time he made the act of contrition, he was telling a lie to God cause he wasn't serious about avoiding the woman. And because of this, every time his confessor pronounced the words of absolution, the absolution was invalid. Nothing happened. The confessions were bad. The absolutions weren't valid, which means not only do they remain in his sin, every time he made one of those confessions, he increased the burden of his guilt by adding another sacrilegious confession to the piles of sins Yardi had he'd actually come out of the confessional worst state that he went in.
Speaker 0 20:37 Since each time he came out, he had made a Sackler his confession. So now we can see why that poor man was damned. But what about the priest? Why was the priest damned? The priest was Dan, because in the first place, even though it would have been obvious in the man's confession that he was penitent was living in sin, he didn't require the man to separate from a sinful companion. This is a no brainer. Bless me, father, for I've sinned. I'm committing adultery. Are you still seeing her? You don't need to. You don't need to have a detailed course in moral theology. That's a question that must be asked. It's just a no brainer. And if the answer is yes, you've got to do something about it. Is the Proust.
Speaker 0 21:25 Okay? So it would have been obvious from the man's confession that is penitent is living in sin and he still didn't require them to sit and break from the sinful companion. He did nothing to stop that man from falling into hell, not a thing which shows in the part of the priest a complete lack of charity for the center. In fact, it shows a true hatred of him. Oh, he might have felt nice towards him, but feelings don't matter. It's what's in the will. He hated that guy. He really hated him. To make matters worse in spite of the fact that it was obvious that the penitent was lacking the most important part of the matter, the sacrament, which is true condition for his sins. The priest would invalidly pronounced the words of absolution anyway, and that resulted in two more sins on the part of the penitent, a sacrilegious confession, and on the part of the priest, the terrible sin of sacrilege, showing an utter contempt for God and the holiness of his sacraments as the invalidly pronounce the sacramental form over improper matter, my friends. It's just the same as the vanilla way for a priest that were so wicked to pronounce. The words of institution over Manila wafer is committing the same kind of sin, worry to pronounce the words of absolution over an unpermitted center. It's horrific.
Speaker 0 23:00 Compare the way this poor Dan priest handled his poor damn Panamint to the fatherly advice. Pope Leo the 12th gave the confessors, confronted with these types of situations. Hopefully Leo, the 12th quote, who are the penitents that are to be judged indisposed for absolution, they who are prudently judged to lack that attitude of sorrow and repentance. Whereby souls are ready to obtain divine grace in the sacrament, but see to it that the need for things have been done for these souls by the priest, and that in this process they are not severely treated beyond what is do. See to it that every diligent effort is made to arouse them I hatred for sin and that one accompanies this with very earnest prayers poured forth to God. The minister should be aware of nothing more than he should be aware of this, namely that through his fault, one goes away disbelieving in God's goodness or antagonistic towards the sacrament of reconciliation.
Speaker 0 24:08 Therefore, if there is a just reason to delay absolution with the kindest words he is capable of, the minister should speak persuasively to the penitence to show them that the delay is necessary, that his duty and his office and even their salvation definitively demand it. Also, he should induce in them the kindest way to return properly. So when they have faithfully performed the things which have been profitably prescribed, they may be loosed from the bonds of sin and be restored. A knew by the sweetness of divine grace. Close quote, the vicar of Christ, how different that is from the treatment to his poor sinner, God from that priest, my friends of a priest is following these principles and delays wrap solution till you have the proper contrition until you remove yourself from the occasion as sin. He's not your enemy.
Speaker 0 25:10 He's not your enemy. He loves you enough to try to keep you from hurling yourself into the abyss. I fully recognize this is not the standard confessional procedure in our day and age. If confessors were held up to the kind of professional standards that physicians are held up to, there probably wouldn't be very many of us allowed to practice. There's a lot of spiritual malpractice going on. A lot of it we each need to take to heart the Psalm warning given in the catechism of the council of Trent, quote the faithful. Therefore, we'll see the great care that each one should take and selecting as a confessor, a priest who was recommended by integrity of life, by learning and prudence, who is deeply impressed with the awful weight and responsibility of the station which he holds, who understands well the punishment due to every sin and can also discern who are to be loosed and who are to be bound. Close. Quote the catechism of the council of Trent. We'll cover confession and satisfaction the next time we pick up this topic.
