1. Days of Reparation.
The Catholic Church celebrates the first Fridays of the month and the first Saturdays of the month devotion. The first is as an act of reparation for blasphemies against the Sacred Heart. The other is as an act of reparation for blasphemies against the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Why do we make reparations? To fulfill the law of Justice, i.e. to give Jesus and Mary their dues that had been denied them by the sins of men. Without fulfilling this law of Justice, the anger of God will be aroused and the sinners would surely go to hell. The Act of Reparation would probably not save the sinner because the demands of Justice by God is so great man has no way to restore what is due to God. So why make reparations? In the hope that the puny attempt might move the mercy of God. So Justice or at least attempts to satisfy the Justice of God is what earns the mercy of God, without which absolutely no mercy would be forthcoming.
2. Penance. Virtue of Penance and Sacrament of Penance.
During this Jubilee Year, Catholics are being encouraged to avail of the Sacrament of Penance. St. Thomas of Aquinas differentiates the virtue of Penance from the Sacrament of Penance. We must have the virtue of Penance before we receive the Sacrament of Penance. Without the virtue there can be no sacrament. The virtue is the proper disposition for a good confession.
On the other hand if there is a virtue of Penance, sins can be forgiven without the Sacrament of Penance. Though Catholics are still encouraged to go to confession after having attained the virtue of Penance, to play safe, as we would like to say.
3. The virtue of Penance is the life of repentance.
In the primitive Church, the virtue of Penance is often referred to as the ‘life of repentance’ that is lived in the monastic life. The monastic life is the way the life of repentance is lived, and is the way that sins committed in the past are forgiven. That is why monasticism is considered as a second Baptism that forgives sins.
In the monastic life, there are ways by which a sinner can know for certain that past sins had been forgiven. In the Sacrament of Penance, there is absolutely no way by which it can be known that past sins are forgiven. That is why the virtue of Penance must come before the Sacrament of Penance. Priests hearing confession must look for those monastic signs by which the forgiveness of past sin can be know for certain. Since most parish priest are not trained in monasticism, most of the time they do not know if the sins of the penitent are forgiven. They just guess. What if those sins are not forgiven and the penitent got the wrong idea that they are forgiven? Confusion and even possible damnation without knowing it. St. Augustine had warned us of the possibility that there are many priests have given absolution for sins that have not been forgiven due to lack of the virtue of penance. Such absolutions cannot forgive sins.
4. Virtue of Penance.
These are the elements of the virtue of Penance. First, you must know your sins; i.e. knowledge of the commandments of God that have been disobeyed. This entails knowing all the commandments of God as listed in both the Old and New Testament. And knowing which ones the sinner had disobeyed. For example adultery and same sex marriage are against the commands of God. The sinner must accept that these are sins.
Secondly, the sinner must be sorry for saving committed these sins. This is called contrition. The sinner should not flaunt these sins or forced others to accept these sins as morally right.
Thirdly, the sinner must promise never to commit these sins again. This is called purpose of amendment. No more adultery and no more same sex marriage ever again.
Now, the fourth is the important aspect of Justice. Sins are usually an offense against man and against God. Adultery is an offense against the real wife, against the children and against the new mistress. And in most cases adultery, due to the scandal, can be an offense against the entire congregation in the Church because it is a sin of scandal.
Out of Justice, because all these above have been denied what is due to them, respect, love and consideration, the sinner is obliged to make reparation for the injustice due to all of them. If the sinner does not make reparation he is guilty of great injustice. And that is not all.
Since sins, aside from being an offense against one’s neighbor is, also, primarily an offense against God. So the sinner must go, also, through steps one, two and three to God. And fourthly, more importantly, make reparation to God and restore what is due to Him that was denied Him due to the sin. Though it is easy to make reparations to human, like giving them gifts, it is almost impossible to make reparation to God due to His omnipotence. What do you give God that He does not have? Well, God, Himself had decreed that the Mass will be the most apt way for reparation. Devoutly assisting in the First Friday and First Saturday of the month Masses. St. Thomas describes, also, other ways of making reparations to God like the acts of fasting practice during Lent.
This dual obligation to men and God makes the virtue of Penance difficult. So most Catholic content themselves just by going to confession not knowing that for a good confession we must first have the virtue of Penance. This neglect of the virtue of Penance had piled up the world with unforgiven sins because it is the virtue of Penance or the Life of Repentance that forgives our past sins. And there can be absolutely NO mercy from God unless we go through the dual obligation of Reparation both to men and God whom we have offended.
There can be no mercy unless what is due God and our neighbor that had been denied them due to sins committed had been restored by reparation.
5. The common defect.
We mentioned the tragedy that occurred during the Bishop’s Synod of 2012. When in spite of Pope Benedict’s instruction that ‘repentance’ be discussed as the foundation of the ‘new’ evangelization, the head of the Synod, Bishop Eterovic omitted the topic erroneously believing that, anyway, all the bishops attending had probably repented for their past sins and that there was no need to discuss such a topic. After that Synod, the word ‘repentance’ never appeared again in the Bishop’s Synod. Instead what appeared is the opposite; encouragement to commit the sins of adultery and same sex marriage. And encouragement even to more sins were added in the next Bishop’s Synod.
Today sinners do not go through any of the four above steps. They do not do what is required to attain the virtue of Penance. And so, most confession are sacrilegious. Having said that, such persons cannot reach Faith, Hope and Charity; i.e. in short they cannot belong to the Catholic Church. If Catholics find it almost impossible to do these steps which are required for salvation, how much more the atheist, the Evangelicals, the Orthodox, The Buddhists and all other religions. We Catholics would want them to be one with us? With our unrepentant and unjust selves?
6. Christ preached ‘repentance.’
Christ preached repentance, ‘Repent and believe.’ The apostles just repeated the message of Christ, St. Peter: ‘..wants none to perish, but to come to repentance.’ The Fathers and the Doctors of the Church preached repentance. Blessed John Newman; ‘repentance during the future sin of infidelity.’ The Blessed Virgin like a real loving nagging mother had reminded men of ‘repentance’ in practically all her apparitions. Then suddenly, today, the whole Church under Pope Francis is claiming that forgiveness of sin is possible without repentance. That just be passing through a door one’s sins can be forgiven.
St. Thomas of Aquinas made it very clear. It is the VIRTUE of Penance or the ‘Life of Repentance’ that leads to the forgiveness of sins. Or to be more precise; the life of repentance leads to the theological virtue of Faith. And it is the virtue of Faith that forgives our past sins and informs us with certainly that our past sins are forgiven. Without Faith, our sins cannot be forgiven and we will never be able to know that our past sins are forgiven. So as St. Augustine wrote, we could end up like the living dead, walking around dead without knowing it.
7. Lost of the sense of sin.
The way every one talks, from Pope Francis down to the youngest tot looks like every body is not conscious of the sense of evil. I don’t blame them. Even St. Thomas of Aquinas had a difficult time explaining the concept of evil. I do not expect even priests and bishops would know the essence of evil. To even get a hint of its reality will immediately give us the realization that practically everything we are doing is evil. And that is precisely the case.
Without a sense of evil, there can be no need for repentance especially since today sins had become civil rights. Why should one repent in doing what is his right?
Without the sense of evil, without the necessity of repentance, there can be no sorrow for one’s sin, there be no purpose of amendment and there can be no need for reparation for damage done. Absolutely No repentance. In such a situation, who can go to heaven? Nobody.
8. But there are always a few who do not want to make their heavens here on earth. They are wiser for that. They want to go to heaven. So what should they do. How about grabbing the treatise of St.Thomas of Aquinas on the Sacrament of Penance. There one can learn the whole process on how to have our past sins forgiven. From the virtue of Penance, one can easily proceed to the virtue of Faith. Then to the virtues of Hope and Charity…….straight to heaven.
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