Sober
for Christ
S piritually O bedient B eatitude E ucharist R econciliation
POST-SYNODAL
APOSTOLIC EXHORTATION
RECONCILIATION
AND PENANCE
OF JOHN PAUL II
TO THE BISHOPS
CLERGY AND FAITHFUL
ON RECONCILIATION AND PENANCE
IN THE
INTRODUCTION
ORIGIN
AND MEANING OF THE DOCUMENT
1. To speak of reconciliation and penance is for
the men and women of our time an invitation to rediscover, translated into
their own way of speaking, the very words with which our savior and teacher
Jesus Christ began his preaching: "Repent, and believe in the
Gospel,"(1) that is to say, accept the good news of love, of adoption as
children of God and hence of brotherhood.
Why does the church put forward once more this
subject and this invitation?
The concern to know better and to understand
modern man and the contemporary world, to solve their puzzle and reveal their
mystery, to discern the ferments of good and evil within them, has long caused
many people to direct at man and the world a questioning gaze. It is the gaze
of the historian and sociologist, philosopher and theologian, psychologist and
humanist, poet and mystic: Above all, it is the gaze, anxious yet full of hope,
of the pastor.
In an exemplary fashion this is shown on every
page of the important pastoral constitution of the Second Vatican Council
Gaudium et Spes on the church in the modern world, particularly in its
wide-ranging and penetrating introduction. It is likewise shown in certain
documents issued through the wisdom and charity of my esteemed predecessors,
whose admirable pontificates were marked by the historic and prophetic event of
that ecumenical council.
In common with others, the pastor too can
discern among the various unfortunate characteristics of the world and of
humanity in our time the existence of many deep and painful divisions.
A Shattered World
2. These divisions are seen in the relationships
between individuals and groups, and also at the level of larger groups: nations
against nations and blocs of opposing countries in a headlong quest for
domination. At the root of this alienation it is not hard to discern conflicts
which, instead of being resolved through dialogue, grow more acute in
confrontation and opposition.
Careful observers, studying the elements that
cause division, discover reasons of the most widely differing kinds: from the
growing disproportion between groups, social classes and-countries, to
ideological rivalries that are far from dead; from the opposition between
economic interests to political polarization; from tribal differences to
discrimination for social and religious reasons. Moreover, certain facts that
are obvious to all constitute as it were the pitiful face of the division of
which they are the fruit and demonstrate its seriousness in an inescapably
concrete way. Among the many other painful social phenomena of our times one
can noted.
Moreover, the church-without identifying herself
with the world or being of the world-is in the world and is engaged in dialogue
with the world.(4) It is therefore not surprising if one notices in the
structure of the church herself repercussions and signs of the division
affecting human society. Over and above the divisions between the Christian
communions that have afflicted her for centuries, the church today is
experiencing within herself sporadic divisions among her own members, divisions
caused by differing views or options in the doctrinal and pastoral field.(5)
These divisions too can at times seem incurable.
However disturbing these divisions may seem at
first sight, it is only by a careful examination that one can detect their
root: It is to be found in a wound in man's inmost self. In the light of faith
we call it sin: beginning with original sin, which all of us bear from birth as
an inheritance from our first parents, to the sin which each one of us commits
when we abuse our own freedom.
Longing for Reconciliation
3. Nevertheless, that same inquiring gaze, if it
is discerning enough, detects in the very midst of division an unmistakable
desire among people of good will and true Christians to mend the divisions, to
heal the wounds and to re-establish at all levels an essential unity. This
desire arouses in many people a real longing for reconciliation even in cases
where there is no actual use of this word.
Some consider reconciliation as an impossible
dream which ideally might become the lever for a true transformation of
society. For others it is to be gained by arduous efforts and therefore a goal
to be reached through serious reflection and action. Whatever the case, the
longing for sincere and consistent reconciliation is without a shadow of doubt
a fundamental driving force in our society, reflecting an irrepressible desire
for peace. And it is as strongly so as the factors of division, even though
this is a paradox.
But reconciliation cannot be less profound than
the division itself. The longing for reconciliation and reconciliation itself
will be complete and effective only tot he extent that they reach-in order to
heal it-that original wound which is the root of all other wounds: namely sin.
The Synod's View
4. Therefore every institution or organization
concerned with serving people and saving them in their fundamental dimensions
must closely study reconciliation in order to grasp more fully its meaning and
significance and in order to draw the necessary practical conclusions.
The
My predecessors constantly preached
reconciliation and invited to reconciliation the whole of humanity and every
section and portion of the human community that they saw wounded and
divided.(6) And I myself, by an interior impulse which-I am certain-was obeying
both an inspiration from on high and the appeals of humanity, decided to
emphasize the subject of reconciliation and to do this in two ways, each of
them solemn and exacting. In the first place, by convoking the Sixth General
Assembly of the Synod of Bishops; in the second place, by making reconciliation
the center of the jubilee year called to celebrate the 1,950th anniversary of
the redemption.(7) Having to assign a theme to the synod, I found myself fully
in accord with the one suggested by many of my brothers in the episcopate,
namely, the fruitful theme of reconciliation in close connection with the theme
of penance.(8)
The term and the very concept of penance are
very complex. If we link penance with the metanoia which the synoptics refer
to, it means the inmost change of heart under the influence of the word of God
and in the perspective of the kingdom.(9) But penance also means changing one's
life in harmony with the change of heart, and in this sense doing penance is
completed by bringing forth fruits worthy of penance:(10) It is one's whole
existence that becomes penitential, that is to say, directed toward a
continuous striving for what is better. But doing penance is something
authentic and effective only if it is translated into deeds and acts of
penance. In this sense penance means, in the Christian theological and
spiritual vocabulary, asceticism, that is to say, the concrete daily effort of
a person, supported by God's lose his or her own life for Christ as the only
means of gaining it;(11) an effort to put off the old man and put on the
new;(12) an effort to overcome in oneself what is of the flesh in order that
what is spiritual(13) may prevail; a continual effort to rise from the things
of here below to the things of above, where Christ is.(14) Penance is therefore
a conversion that passes from the heart to deeds and then to the Christian's
whole life.
In each of these meanings penance is closely
connected with reconciliation, for reconciliation with God, with oneself and
with others implies overcoming that radical break which is sin. And this is
achieved only through the interior transformation or conversion which bears
fruit in a person s life through acts of penance.
The basic document of the synod (also called the
lineamenta), which was prepared with the sole purpose of presenting the theme
while stressing certain fundamental aspects of it, enabled the ecclesial
communities throughout the world to reflect for almost two years on these
aspects of a question-that of conversion and reconciliation-which concerns
everyone. It also enabled them to draw from it a fresh impulse for the
Christian life And Apostolate, That reflection was further deepened in the more
immediate preparation for the work of the synod, thanks to the instrumentum
laboris which was sent in due course to the bishops and their collaborators.
After that, the synod fathers, assisted by all those called to attend the
actual sessions, spent a whole month assiduously dealing with the theme itself
and with the numerous and varied questions connected with it. There emerged
from the discussions, from the common study and from the diligent and accurate
work done, a large and precious treasure which the final propositions sum up in
their essence.
The synod's view does not ignore the acts of
reconciliation (some of which pass almost unobserved in their daily
ordinariness) which, though in differing degrees, serve to resolve the many
tensions, to overcome the many conflicts and to conquer the divisions both
large and small by restoring unity. But the synod's main concern was to
discover in the depth of these scattered acts the hidden root- reconciliation
so to speak at the source," which takes place in people's hearts and
minds.
The church's charism and likewise her unique
nature vis-a-vis reconciliation, at whatever level it needs to be achieved, lie
in the fact that she always goes back to that reconciliation at the source. For
by reason of her essential mission, the church feels an obligation to go to the
roots of that original wound of sin in order to bring healing and to
re-establish, so to speak, an equally original reconciliation which will be the
effective principle of all true reconciliation. This is the reconciliation
which the church had in mind and which she put forward through the synod.
Sacred Scripture speaks to us of this
reconciliation, inviting us to make every effort to attain it.(15) But
Scripture also tells us that it is above all a merciful gift of God to
humanity.(16) The history of salvation-the salvation of the whole of humanity
as well as of every human being of whatever period-is the wonderful history of
a reconciliation: the reconciliation whereby God, as Father, in the blood and
the cross of his Son made man, reconciles the world to himself and thus brings
into being a new family of those who have been reconciled.
Reconciliation becomes necessary because there
has been the break of sin from which derive all the other forms of break within
man and about him. Reconciliation, therefore, in order to be complete
necessarily requires liberation from sin, which is to be rejected in its
deepest roots. Thus a close internal link unites conversion and reconciliation.
It is impossible to split these two realities or to speak of one and say
nothing of the other.
The synod at the same time spoke about the
reconciliation of the whole human family and of the conversion of the heart of
every individual, of his or her return to God: It did so because it wished to
recognize and proclaim the fact that there can be no union among people without
an internal change in each individual. Personal conversion is the necessary
path to harmony between individuals.(17) When the church proclaims the good
news of reconciliation or proposes achieving it through the sacraments, she is
exercising a truly prophetic role, condemning the evils of man in their
infected source, showing the root of divisions and bringing hope in the
possibility of overcoming tensions and conflict and reaching brotherhood,
concord and peace at all levels and in all sections of human society. She is
changing a historical condition of hatred and violence into a civilization of
love. She is offering to everyone the evangelical and sacramental principle of
that reconciliation at the source, from which comes every other gesture or act
of reconciliation, also at the social level.
It is this reconciliation, the result of
conversion, which is dealt with in the present apostolic exhortation. For, as
happened at the end of the three previous assemblies of the synod, this time too
the fathers who had taken part presented the conclusions of the synod's work to
the bishop of
The document which I now entrust to the sons and
daughters of the church and also to all those who, whether they are believers
or not, look to the church with interest and sincerity, is meant to be a
fitting response to what the synod asked of me. But it is also-and I wish to
say this dearly as a duty to truth and justice-something produced by the synod
itself. For the contents of these pages come from the synod: from its remote
and immediate preparation, from the instrumentum laboris, from the
interventions in the Synod Hall and the circuli minores, and especially from
the sixty-three propositions. Here we have the result of the joint work of the
fathers, who included the representatives of the Eastern churches, whose
theological, spiritual and liturgical heritage is so rich and venerable, also
with regard to the subject that concerns us here. Furthermore, it was the
Council of the Synod Secretariat which evaluated, in two important sessions, the
results and orientations of the synod assembly just after it had ended, which
highlighted the dynamics of the already mentioned propositions and which then
indicated the lines considered most suitable for the preparation of the present
document. I am grateful to all those who did this work and, in fidelity to my
mission, I wish here to pass on the elements from the doctrinal and pastoral
treasure of the synod which seem to me providential for people's lives at this
magnificent yet difficult moment in history.
It is appropriate-and very significant-to do
this while there remains fresh in people's minds the memory of the Holy Year,
which was lived in the spirit of penance, conversion and reconciliation. May
this exhortation, entrusted to my brothers in the episcopate and to their
collaborators, the priests and deacons, to men and women religious, and to all
men and women of upright conscience, be a means of purification, enrichment and
deepening in personal faith. May it also be a leaven capable of encouraging the
growth in the midst of the world of peace and brotherhood, hope and joy-values
which spring from the Gospel as it is accepted, meditated upon and lived day by
day after the example of Mary, mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom it
pleased God to reconcile all things to himself.(18)
PART
ONE
CONVERSION AND RECONCILIATION: THE CHURCH'S TASK AND COMMITMENT
CHAPTER
ONE
A
PARABLE OF RECONCILIATION
5. At the beginning of this apostolic
exhortation there comes into my mind that extraordinary passage in St. Luke,
the deeply religious as well as human substance of which I have already sought
to illustrate in a previous document.(19) I refer to the parable of the
prodigal son.(20)
From the Brother Who Was Lost...
"There was a man who had two sons; the
younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that
falls to me,' " says Jesus as he begins the dramatic story of that young
man: the adventurous departure from his father's house, the squandering of all
his property in a loose and empty life, the dark days of exile and hunger, but
even more of lost dignity, humiliation and shame and then nostalgia for his own
home, the courage to go back, the father's welcome. The father had certainly
not forgotten his son, indeed he had kept unchanged his affection and esteem
for him. So he had always waited for him, and now he embraces him and he gives
orders for a great feast to celebrate the return of him who" was dead, and
is alive; he was lost, and is found."
This prodigal son is man every human being:
bewitched by the temptation to separate himself from his Father in order to
lead his own independent existence; disappointed by the emptiness of the mirage
which had fascinated him; alone, dishonored, exploited when he tries to build a
world all for himself sorely tried, even in the depths of his own misery, by
the desire to return to communion with his Father. Like the father in the
parable, God looks out for the return of his child, embraces him when he
arrives and orders the banquet of the new meeting with which the reconciliation
is celebrated.
The most striking element of the parable is the
father's festive and loving welcome of the returning son: It is a sign of the
mercy of God, who is always willing to forgive. Let us say at once: Reconciliation
is principally a gift of the heavenly Father.
... To the Brother Who Stayed at Home
6. But the parable also brings into the picture
the elder brother, who refuses to take his place at the banquet. He rebukes his
younger brother for his dissolute wanderings, and he rebukes his father for the
welcome given to the prodigal son while he himself, a temperate and
hard-working person, faithful to father and home, has never been allowed-he
says to have a celebration with his friends. This is a sign that he does not
understand the father's goodness. To the extent that this brother, too sure of
himself and his own good qualities, jealous and haughty, full of bitterness and
anger, is not converted and is not reconciled with his father and brother, the banquet
is not yet fully the celebration of a reunion and rediscovery.
Man every human being-is also this elder
brother. Selfishness makes him jealous, hardens his heart, blinds him and shuts
him off from other people and from God. The loving kindness and mercy of the
father irritate and enrage him; for him the happiness of the brother who has
been found again has a bitter taste.(21) From this point of view he too needs
to be converted in order to be reconciled.
The parable of the prodigal son is above all the
story of the inexpressible love of a Father-God-who offers to his son when he
comes back to him the gift of full reconciliation. But when the parable evokes,
in the figure of the elder son, the selfishness which divides the brothers, it
also becomes the story of the human family: It describes our situation and
shows the path to be followed. The prodigal son, in his anxiety for conversion,
to return to the arms of his father and to be forgiven, represents those who
are aware of the existence in their inmost hearts of a longing for
reconciliation at all levels and without reserve, and who realize with an inner
certainty that this reconciliation is possible only if it derives from a first
and fundamental reconciliation-the one which brings a person back from distant
separation to filial friendship with God, whose infinite mercy is clearly
known. But if the parable is read from the point of view of the other son, it
portrays the situation of the human family, divided by forms of selfishness. It
throws light on the difficulty involved in satisfying the desire and longing
for one reconciled and united family. It therefore reminds us of the need for a
profound transformation of hearts through the rediscovery of the Father's mercy
and through victory over misunderstanding and over hostility among brothers and
sisters.
In the light of this inexhaustible parable of
the mercy that wipes out sin, the church takes up the appeal that the parable
contains and grasps her mission of working, in imitation of the Lord, for the conversion
of hearts and for the reconciliation of people with God and with one
another-these being two realities that are intimately connected.
CHAPTER
TWO
AT THE
SOURCES OF RECONCILIATION
In the Light of Christ the Reconciler
7. As we deduce from the parable of the prodigal
son, reconciliation is a gift of God, an initiative on his part. But our faith
teaches us that this initiative takes concrete form in the mystery of Christ
the redeemer, the reconciler and the liberator of man from sin in all its forms.
We too can start with this central mystery of
the economy of salvation, the key to
This mission of reconciliation through death on
the cross is spoken of in another terminology by the evangelist John, when he
observes that Christ had to die " to gather into one the children of God
who are scattered abroad."(24)
But it is once more St. Paul who enables us to
broaden our vision of Christ's work to cosmic dimensions when he writes that in
Christ the Father has reconciled to himself all creatures, those in heaven and
those on earth.(25) It can rightly be said of Christ the redeemer that "in
the time of wrath he was taken in exchange"(26) and that, if he is
"our peace,"(27) he is also our reconciliation.
With every good reason his passion and death,
sacramentally renewed in the eucharist, are called by the liturgy the
"sacrifice of reconciliation":(28) reconciliation with God and with
the brethren, since Jesus teaches that fraternal reconciliation must take place
before the sacrifice is offered.(29)
Beginning with these and other significant
passages in the New Testament, we can therefore legitimately relate all our
reflections on the whole mission of Christ to his mission as the one who
reconciles. Thus there must be proclaimed once more the church's belief in
Christ's redeeming act, in the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection,
as the cause of man's reconciliation in its twofold aspect of liberation from
sin and communion of grace with God.
It is precisely before the sad spectacle of the
divisions and difficulties in the way of reconciliation between people that I
invite all to look to the mysterium crucis as the loftiest drama in which
Christ perceives and suffers to the greatest possible extent the tragedy of the
division of man from God, so that he cries out in the words of the psalmist:
"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?"(30) and at the same time
accomplishes our reconciliation. With our eyes fixed on the mystery of Golgotha
we should be reminded always of that "vertical" dimension of division
and reconciliation concerning the relationship between man and God, a dimension
which in the eyes of faith always prevails over the "horizontal"
dimension, that is to say, over the reality of division between people and the
need for reconciliation between them For we know that reconciliation between
people is and can only be the fruit of the redemptive act of Christ, who died
and rose again to conquer the kingdom of sin, to re- establish the covenant
with God and thus break down the dividing wall which sin had raised up between
people.
The Reconciling Church
8. But, as Pope St. Leo said, speaking of
Christ's passion, "Everything that the Son of God did and taught for the
reconciliation of the world we know not only from the history of his past
actions, but we experience it also in the effectiveness of what he accomplishes
in the present."(32) We experience the reconciliation which he accomplished
in his humanity in the efficacy of the sacred mysteries which are celebrated by
his church, for which he gave his life and which he established as the sign and
also the means of salvation.
This is stated by
To the hands and lips of the apostles, his
messengers, the Father has mercifully entrusted a ministry of reconciliation,
which they carry but in out in a singular way by virtue of the power to act
"in persona Christi. " But the message of reconciliation has also
been entrusted to the whole community of believers, to the whole fabric of the
church, that is to say, the task of doing everything possible to witness to
reconciliation and to bring it about in the world.
It can be said that the Second Vatican Council
too, in defining the church as a "sacrament-a sign and instrument, that
is, of communion with God and of unity among all people," and in
indicating as the church's function that of obtaining "full unity in
Christ" for the "people of the present day...drawn ever more closely
together by social, technical and cultural bonds,"(34) recognized that the
church must strive above all to bring all people to full reconciliation.
In intimate connection with Christ's mission,
one can therefore sum up the church's mission, rich and complex as it is, as
being her central task of reconciling people: with God, with themselves, with
neighbor, with the whole of creation; and this in a permanent manner since, as
I said on another occasion, "the church is also by her nature always
reconciling."(35)
The church is reconciling inasmuch as she
proclaims the message of reconciliation as she has always done throughout her
history, from the apostolic Council of Jerusalem(36) down to the latest synod
and the recent jubilee of the redemption. The originality of this proclamation
is in the fact that for the church reconciliation is closely linked with
conversion of heart: This is the necessary path to understanding among human
beings.
The church is also reconciling inasmuch as she
shows man the paths and offers the means for reaching this fourfold
reconciliation. The paths are precisely those of conversion of heart and
victory over sin, whether this latter is selfishness or injustice, arrogance or
exploitation of others, attachment to material goods or the unrestrained quest
for pleasure. The means are those of faithful and loving attention to God's
word; personal and community prayer; and in particular the sacraments, true
signs and instruments of reconciliation, among which there excels, precisely
under this aspect, the one which we are rightly accustomed to call the sacrament
of reconciliation or penance and to which we shall return later on.
The Reconciled Church
9. My venerable predecessor Paul VI commendably
highlighted the fact that the church, in order to evangelize, must begin by
showing that she herself has been evangelized, that is to say, that she is open
to the full and complete proclamation of the good news of Jesus Christ in order
to listen to it and put it into practice.(37) I too, by bringing together in
one document the reflections of the fourth general assembly of the synod, have
spoken of a church that is catechized to the extent that she carries out
catechesis.(38)
I now do not hesitate to resume the comparison,
insofar as it applies to the theme I am dealing with, in order to assert that
the church, if she is to be reconciling, must begin by being a reconciled
church. Beneath this simple and indicative expression lies the conviction that
the church, in order ever more effectively to proclaim and propose
reconciliation to the world, must become ever more genuinely a community of
disciples of Christ (even though it were only "the little flock" of
the first days), united in the commitment to be continually converted to the
Lord and to live as new people in the spirit and practice of reconciliation.
To the people of our time, so sensitive to the
proof of concrete living witness, the church is called upon to give an example
of reconciliation particularly within herself. And for this purpose we must all
work to bring peace to people's minds, to reduce tensions, to overcome
divisions and to heal wounds that may have been inflicted by brother on brother
when the contrast of choices in the field of what is optional becomes acute;
and on the contrary we must try to be united in what is essential for Christian
faith and life, in accordance with the ancient maxim: In what is doubtful,
freedom; in what is necessary, unity; in all things, charity.
It is in accordance with this same criterion
that the church must conduct her ecumenical activity. For in order to be
completely reconciled, she knows that she must continue the quest for unity
among those who are proud to call themselves Christians but who are separated
from one another, also as churches or communions, and from the church of Rome.
The latter seeks a unity which, if it is to be the fruit and expression of true
reconciliation, is meant to be based neither upon a disguising of the points
that divide nor upon compromises which are as easy as they are superficial and
fragile. Unity must be the result of a true conversion of everyone, the result
of mutual forgiveness, of theological dialogue and fraternal relations, of
prayer and of complete docility to the action of the Holy Spirit, who is also
the Spirit of reconciliation.
Finally, in order that the church may say that she
is completely reconciled, she feels that it is her duty to strive ever harder,
by promoting the "dialogue of salvation,"(39) to bring the Gospel to
those vast sections of humanity in the modern world that do not share her
faith, but even, as a result of growing secularism, keep their distance from
her and oppose her with cold indifference when they do not actually hinder and
persecute her. She feels the duty to say once more to everyone in the words of
At any rate, the church promotes reconciliation
in the truth, knowing well that neither reconciliation nor unity is possible
outside or in opposition to the truth.
CHAPTER
THREE
GOD'S
INITIATIVE AND THE CHURCH'S MINISTRY
10. The church, as a reconciled and reconciling
community, cannot forget that at the source of her gift and mission of
reconciliation is the initiative, full of compassionate love and mercy, of that
God who is love(41) and who out of love created human beings;(42) and he
created them so that they might live in friendship with him and in communion
with one another.
Reconciliation Comes from God
God is faithful to his eternal plan even when
man, under the impulse of the evil one(43) and carried away by his own pride,
abuses the freedom given to him in order to love and generously seek what is
good, and refuses to obey his Lord and Father. God is faithful even when man,
instead of responding with love to God's love, opposes him and treats him like
a rival, deluding himself and relying on his own power, with the resulting
break of relationship with the one who created him. In spite of this
transgression on man's part, God remains faithful in love. It is certainly true
that the story of the Garden of Eden makes us think about the tragic
consequences of rejecting the Father, which becomes evident in man's inner
disorder and in the breakdown of harmony between man and woman, brother and
brother.(44) Also significant is the gospel parable of the two brothers who, in
different ways, distance themselves from their father and cause a rift between
them. Refusal of God's fatherly love and of his loving gifts is always at the
root of humanity's divisions.
But we know that God, "rich in
mercy,"(45) like the father in the parable, does not close his heart to
any of his children. He waits for them, looks for them, goes to meet them at
the place where the refusal of communion imprisons them in isolation and
division. He calls them to gather about his table in the joy of the feast of
forgiveness and reconciliation.
This initiative on God's part is made concrete
and manifest in the redemptive act of Christ, which radiates through the world
by means of the ministry of the church.
For, according to our faith, the word of God
became flesh and came to dwell in the world; he entered into the history of the
world) summing it up and recapitulating it in himself.(46) He revealed to us
that God is love, and he gave us the new commandment" of love,(47) at the
same time communicating to us the certainty that the path of love is open for
all people, so that the effort to establish universal brotherhood is not a vain
one.(48) By conquering through his death on the cross evil and the power of
sin, by his loving obedience, he brought salvation to all and became
"reconciliation for all. In him God reconciled man to himself.
The church carries on the proclamation of
reconciliation which Christ caused to echo through the villages of
Those who accept this appeal enter into the
economy of reconciliation and experience the truth contained in that other
affirmation of St. Paul, that Christ "is our peace, who has made us both
one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility..., so making peace"
that he "might reconcile us both to God."(51) This text directly
concerns the overcoming of the religious division between
The Church, the Great Sacrament of
Reconciliation
11. The church has the mission of proclaiming
this reconciliation and as it were of being its sacrament in the world. The
church is the sacrament, that is to say, the sign and means of reconciliation
in different ways which differ in value but which all come together to obtain
what the divine initiative of mercy desires to grant to humanity.
She is a sacrament in the first place by her
very existence as a reconciled community which witnesses to and represents in
the world the work of Christ.
She is also a sacrament through her service as
the custodian and interpreter of sacred Scripture, which is the good news of
reconciliation inasmuch as it tells each succeeding generation about God's
loving plan and shows to each generation the paths to universal reconciliation
in Christ.
Finally she is a sacrament by reason of the
seven sacraments which, each in its own way, " make the church. "(52)
For since they commemorate and renew Christ's paschal mystery, all the
sacraments are a source of life for the church and in the church's hands they
are means of conversion to God and of reconciliation among people.
Other Means of Reconciliation
12 The mission of reconciliation is proper to
the whole church, also and especially to that church which has already been
admitted to the full sharing in divine glory with the Virgin Mary, the angels
and the saints, who contemplate and adore the thrice-holy God The church in
heaven, the-church on earth and the church in purgatory are mysteriously united
in this cooperation with Christ in reconciling the world to God.
The first means of this salvific action is that
of prayer. It is certain that the Blessed Virgin, mother of Christ and of the
church,(53) and the saints, who have now reached the end of their earthly
journey and possess God's glory, sustain by their intercession their brethren
who are on pilgrimage through the world, in the commitment to conversion, to
faith, to getting up again after every fall, to acting in order to help the
growth of communion and peace in the church and in the world. In the mystery of
the communion of saints, universal reconciliation is accomplished in its most
profound form, which is also the most fruitful for the salvation of all.
There is yet another means: that of preaching.
The church, since she is the disciple of the one teacher Jesus Christ, in her
own turn as mother and teacher untiringly exhorts people to reconciliation. And
she does not hesitate to condemn the evil of sin, to proclaim the need for
conversion, to invite and ask people to "let themselves be
reconciled." In fact, this is her prophetic mission in today's world, just
as it was in the world of yesterday. It is the same mission as that of her
teacher and head, Jesus. Like him, the church will always carry out this
mission with sentiments of merciful love and will bring to all people those
words of forgiveness and that invitation to hope which come from the cross.
There is also the often so difficult and
demanding means of pastoral action aimed at bringing back every
individual-whoever and wherever he or she may be-to the path, at times a long
one, leading back to the Father in the communion of all the brethren.
Finally there is the means of witness, which is
almost always silent. This is born from a twofold awareness on the part of the
church: that of being in herself "unfailingly holy,"(54) but also the
awareness of the need to go forward and "daily be further purified and
renewed, against the day when Christ will present her to himself in all her
glory without spot or wrinkle," for, by reason of her sins, sometimes
"the radiance of the church's face shines less brightly" in the eyes
of those who behold her.(55) This witness cannot fail to assume two fundamental
aspects. This first aspect is that of being the sign of that universal charity
which Jesus Christ left as an inheritance to his followers, as a proof of
belonging to his kingdom. The second aspect is translation into ever new
manifestations of conversion and reconciliation both within the church and
outside her, by the overcoming of tensions, by mutual forgiveness, by growth in
the spirit of brotherhood and peace which is to be spread throughout the world.
By this means the church will effectively be able to work for the creation of
what my predecessor Paul VI called the "civilization of love."
PART
TWO
THE LOVE THAT IS GREATER THAN SIN
The Tragedy of Man
13. In the words of
To acknowledge one's sin, indeed-penetrating
still more deeply into the consideration of one's own personhood-to recognize
oneself as being a sinner, capable of sin and inclined to commit sin, is the
essential first step in returning to God. For example, this is the experience
of David, who "having done what is evil in the eyes of the Lord" and
having been rebuked by the prophet Nathan,(58) exclaims: "For I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you alone, have I
sinned and done what is evil in your sight."(59) Similarly, Jesus himself
puts the following significant words on the lips and in the heart of the
prodigal son: "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before
you."(60)
In effect, to become reconciled with God
presupposes and includes detaching oneself consciously and with determination
from the sin into which one has fallen. It presupposes and includes, therefore,
doing penance in the fullest sense of the term: repenting, showing this
repentance, adopting a real attitude of repentance- which is the attitude of
the person who starts out on the road of return to the Father. This is a
general law and one which each individual must follow in his or her particular
situation. For it is not possible to deal with sin and conversion only in
abstract terms.
In the concrete circumstances of sinful
humanity, in which there can be no conversion without the acknowledgment of
one's own sin, the church's ministry of reconciliation intervenes in each
individual case with a precise penitential purpose. That is, the church's
ministry intervenes in order to bring the person to the "knowledge of
self"-in the words of St. Catherine of
In order to carry out this penitential ministry
adequately, we shall have to evaluate the consequences of sin with "eyes
enlightened"(63) by faith. These consequences of sin are the reasons for
division and rupture not only within each person, but also within the various
circles of a person's life: in relation to the family, to the professional and
social environment, as can often be seen from experience; it is confirmed by the
passage in the Bible about the city of Babel and its tower.(64) Intent on
building what was to be at once a symbol and a source of unity, those people
found themselves more scattered than before, divided in speech, divided among
themselves, incapable of consensus and agreement.
Why did the ambitious project fail? Why did
"the builders labor in vain?"(65) They failed because they had set up
as a sign and guarantee of the unity they desired a work of their own hands
alone and had forgotten the action of the Lord. They had attended only to the
horizontal dimension of work and social life, forgetting the vertical dimension
by which they would have been rooted in God, their creator and Lord, and would
have been directed toward him as the ultimate goal of their progress.
Now it can be said that the tragedy of humanity
today, as indeed of every period in history, consists precisely in its
similarity to the experience of
CHAPTER
ONE
THE
MYSTERY OF SIN
14 If we read the passage in the Bible on the
city and
Disobedience to God
A first point which helps us to understand sin
emerges from the biblical narrative on the building of the tower of Babel: The
people sought to build a city, organize themselves into a society and to be
strong and powerful without God, if not precisely against God.(68) In this
sense the story of the first sin in Eden and the story of Babel, in spite of
notable differences in content and form, have one thing in common: In both
there is an exclusion of God through direct opposition to one of his
commandments, through an act of rivalry, through the mistaken pretension of
being "like him."(69) In the story of
Exclusion of God, rupture with God, disobedience
to God: Throughout the history of mankind this has been and is, in various
forms, sin. It can go as far as a very denial of God and his existence: This is
the phenomenon called atheism.
It is the disobedience of a person who, by a
free act, does not acknowledge God's sovereignty over his or her life, at least
at that particular moment in which he or she transgresses God's law.
Division Between Brothers
15. In the biblical narratives mentioned above,
man's rupture with God leads tragically to divisions between brothers.
In the description of the "first sin,"
the rupture with Yahweh simultaneously breaks the bond of friendship that had
united the human family. Thus the subsequent pages of Genesis show us the man
and the woman as it were pointing an accusing finger at each other.(70) Later
we have the brother hating his brother and finally taking his life.(71)
According to the
No one wishing to investigate the mystery of sin
can ignore this link between cause and effect. As a rupture with God, sin is an
act of disobedience by a creature who rejects, at least implicitly, the very
one from whom he came and who sustains him in life. It is therefore a suicidal
act. Since by sinning man refuses to submit to God, his internal balance is
also destroyed and it is precisely within himself that contradictions and
conflicts arise. Wounded in this way, man almost inevitably causes damage to
the fabric of his relationship with others and with the created world. This is
an objective law and an objective reality, verified in so many ways in the
human psyche and in the spiritual life as well as in society, where it is easy
to see the signs and effects of internal disorder.
The mystery of sin is composed of this twofold
wound which the sinner opens in himself and in his relationship with his
neighbor. Therefore one can speak of personal and social sin: From one point of
view, every sin is personal; from another point of view, every sin is social
insofar as and because it also has social repercussions.
Personal Sin and Social Sin
16. Sin, in the proper sense, is always a
personal act, since it is an act of freedom on the part of an individual person
and not properly of a group or community. This individual may be conditioned,
incited and influenced by numerous and powerful external factors. He may also
be subjected to tendencies, defects and habits linked with his personal
condition. In not a few cases such external and internal factors may attenuate,
to a greater or lesser degree, the person's freedom and therefore his
responsibility and guilt. But it is a truth of faith, also confirmed by our
experience and reason, that the human person is free. This truth cannot be
disregarded in order to place the blame for individuals' sins on external
factors such as structures, systems or other people. Above all, this would be
to deny the person's dignity and freedom, which are manifested-even though in a
negative and disastrous way-also in this responsibility for sin committed.
Hence there is nothing so personal and untransferable in each individual as
merit for virtue or responsibility for sin.
As a personal act, sin has its first and most
important consequences in the sinner himself: that is, in his relationship with
God, who is the very foundation of human life; and also in his spirit,
weakening his will and clouding his intellect.
At this point we must ask what was being
referred to by those who during the preparation of the synod and in the course
of its actual work frequently spoke of social sin.
The expression and the underlying concept in
fact have various meanings.
To speak of social sin means in the first place
to recognize that, by virtue of human solidarity which is as mysterious and
intangible as it is real and concrete, each individual's sin in some way
affects others. This is the other aspect of that solidarity which on the
religious level is developed in the profound and magnificent mystery of the
communion of saints, thanks to which it has been possible to say that
"every soul that rises above itself, raises up the world." To this
law of ascent there unfortunately corresponds the law of descent. Consequently
one can speak of a communion of sin, whereby a soul that lowers itself through
sin drags down with itself the church and, in some way, the whole world. In
other words, there is no sin, not even the most intimate and secret one, the
most strictly individual one, that exclusively concerns the person committing
it. With greater or lesser violence, with greater or lesser harm, every sin has
repercussions on the entire ecclesial body and the whole human family.
According to this first meaning of the term, every sin can undoubtedly be
considered as social sin.
Some sins, however, by their very matter constitute
a direct attack on one's neighbor and more exactly, in the language of the
Gospel, against one's brother or sister. They are an offense against God
because they are offenses against one's neighbor. These sins are usually called
social sins, and this is the second meaning of the term. In this sense social
sin is sin against love of neighbor, and in the law of Christ it is all the
more serious in that it involves the Second Commandment, which is "like
unto the first."(72) Likewise, the term social applies to every sin
against justice in interpersonal relationships, committed either by the
individual against the community or by the community against the individual.
Also social is every sin against the rights of the human person, beginning with
the right to nd including the life of the unborn or against a person's physical
integrity. Likewise social is every sin against others' freedom, especially
against the supreme freedom to believe in God and adore him; social is every
sin against the dignity and honor of one's neighbor. Also social is every sin
against the common good and its exigencies in relation to the whole broad
spectrum of the rights and duties of citizens. The term social can be applied
to sins of commission or omission-on the part of political, economic or trade
union leaders, who though in a position to do so, do not work diligently and
wisely for the improvement and transformation of society according to the
requirements and potential of the given historic moment; as also on the part of
workers who through absenteeism or non-cooperation fail to ensure that their
industries can continue to advance the well-being of the workers themselves, of
their families and of the whole of society.
The third meaning of social sin refers to the
relationships between the various human communities. These relationships are
not always in accordance with the plan of God, who intends that there be
justice in the world and freedom and peace between individuals, groups and
peoples. Thus the class struggle, whoever the person who leads it or on
occasion seeks to give it a theoretical justification, is a social evil.
Likewise obstinate confrontation between blocs of nations, between one nation
and another, between different groups within the same nation all this too is a
social evil. In both cases one may ask whether moral responsibility for these
evils, and therefore sin, can be attributed to any person in particular. Now it
has to be admitted that realities and situations such as those described, when
they become generalized and reach vast proportions as social phenomena, almost
always become anonymous, just as their causes are complex and not always
identifiable. Hence if one speaks of social sin here, the expression obviously
has an analogical meaning. However, to speak even analogically of social sins
must not cause us to underestimate the responsibility of the individuals
involved. It is meant to be an appeal to the consciences of all, so that each
may shoulder his or her responsibility seriously and courageously in order to
change those disastrous conditions and intolerable situations.
Having said this in the clearest and most
unequivocal way, one must add at once that there is one meaning sometimes given
to social sin that is not legitimate or acceptable even though it is very
common in certain quarters today.(74) This usage contrasts social sin and
personal sin, not without ambiguity, in a way that leads more or less
unconsciously to the watering down and almost the abolition of personal sin,
with the recognition only of social gilt and responsibilities. According to
this usage, which can readily be seen to derive from non-Christian ideologies
and systems-which have possibly been discarded today by the very people who
formerly officially upheld them-practically every sin is a social sin, in the
sense that blame for it is to be placed not so much on the moral conscience of
an individual, but rather on some vague entity or anonymous collectivity such
as the situation, the system, society, structures or institutions.
Whenever the church speaks of situations of sin
or when the condemns as social sins certain situations or the collective
behavior of certain social groups, big or small, or even of whole nations and
blocs of nations, she knows and she proclaims that such cases of social sin are
the result of the accumulation and concentration of many personal sins. It is a
case of the very personal sins of those who cause or support evil or who
exploit it; of those who are in a position to avoid, eliminate or at least
limit certain social evils but who fail to do so out of laziness, fear or the
conspiracy of silence, through secret complicity or indifference; of those who
take refuge in the supposed impossibility of changing the world and also of
those who sidestep the effort and sacrifice required, producing specious
reasons of higher order. The real responsibility, then, lies with individuals.
A situation-or likewise an institution, a
structure, society itself-is not in itself the subject of moral acts. Hence a
situation cannot in itself be good or bad.
At the heart of every situation of sin are
always to be found sinful people. So true is this that even when such a
situation can be changed in its structural and institutional aspects by the
force of law or-as unfortunately more often happens by the law of force, the
change in fact proves to be incomplete, of short duration and ultimately vain
and ineffective-not to say counterproductive if the people directly or
indirectly responsible for that situation are not converted.
Mortal and Venial
17. But here we come to a further dimension in
the mystery of sin, one on which the human mind has never ceased to ponder: the
question of its gravity. It is a question which cannot be overlooked and one
which the Christian conscience has never refused to answer. Why and to what
degree is sin a serious matter in the offense it commits against God and in its
effects on man? The church has a teaching on this matter which she reaffirms in
its essential elements, while recognizing that it is not always easy in
concrete situations to define clear and exact limits.
Already in the Old Testament, individuals guilty
of several kinds of sins - sins committed deliberately,(75) the various forms
of impurity,(76) idolatry,(77) the worship of false gods (78) - were ordered to
be "taken away from the people," which could also mean to be
condemned to death.(79) Contrasted with these were other sins especially sins
committed through ignorance, that were forgiven by means of a sacrificial
offering.(80)
In reference also to these texts, the church has
for centuries spoken of mortal sin and venial sin. But it is above all the New
Testament that sheds light on this distinction and these terms. Here there are
many passages which enumerate and strongly reprove sins that are particularly
deserving of condemnation.(81) There is also the confirmation of the Decalogue
by Jesus himself.(82) Here I wish to give special attention to two passages
that are significant and impressive.
In a text of his First Letter,
In another passage of the New Testament, namely
in St. Matthew's Gospel,(88)Jesus himself speaks of a "blasphemy against
the Holy Spirit" that " will not be forgiven" by reason of the
fact that in its manifestation, it is an obstinate refusal to be converted to
the love of the Father of mercies.
Here of course it is a question of external
radical manifestations: rejection of God, rejection of his grace and therefore
opposition to the very source of salvation(89)-these are manifestations whereby
a person seems to exclude himself voluntarily from the path of forgiveness. It
is to be hoped that very few persist to the end in this attitude of rebellion
or even defiance of God. Moreover, God in his merciful love is greater than our
hearts, as
But when we ponder the problem of a rebellious
will meeting the infinitely just God, we cannot but experience feelings of
salutary "fear and trembling," as St. Paul suggests.(92) Moreover,
Jesus' warning about the sin "that will not be forgiven" confirms the
existence of sins which can bring down on the sinner the punishment of
"eternal death."
In the light of these and other passages of
sacred Scripture, doctors and theologians, spiritual teachers and pastors have
divided sins into mortal and venial.
In defining and distinguishing between mortal
and venial sins, St. Thomas and the theology of sin that has its source in him
could not be unaware of the biblical reference and therefore of the concept of
spiritual death. According to
Furthermore, when sin is considered from the
point of view of the punishment it merits, for
Considering sin from the point of view of its
matter, the ideas of death, of radical rupture with God, the supreme good, of
deviation from the path that leads to God or interruption of the journey toward
him (which are all ways of defining mortal sin) are linked with the idea of the
gravity of sin's objective content. Hence, in the church's doctrine and pastoral
action, grave sin is in practice identified with mortal sin.
Here we have the core of the church's
traditional teaching, which was reiterated frequently and vigorously during the
recent synod. The synod in fact not only reaffirmed the teaching of the Council
of Trent concerning the existence and nature of mortal and venial sins,(95) but
it also recalled that mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which
is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent. It must be
added-as was likewise done at the synod-that some sins are intrinsically grave
and mortal by reason of their matter. That is, there exist acts which, per se
and in themselves, independently of circumstances, are always seriously wrong
by reason of their object. These acts, if carried out with sufficient awareness
and freedom, are always gravely sinful.(96)
This doctrine, based on the Dccalogue and on the
preaching of the Old Testament, and assimilated into the kerygma of the
apostles and belonging to the earliest teaching of the church, and constantly
reaffirmed by her to this day, is exactly verified in the experience of the men
and women of all times. Man knows well by experience that along the road of
faith and justice which leads to the knowledge and love of God in this life and
toward perfect union with him in eternity, he can cease to go forward or can go
astray without abandoning the way of God; and in this case there occurs venial
sin. This however must never be underestimated, as though it were automatically
something that can be ignored or regarded as "a sin of little
importance."
For man also knows, through painful experience,
that by a conscious and free act of his will he can change course and go in a
direction opposed to God's will, separating himself from God (aversio a Deo),
rejecting loving communion with him, detaching himself from the life principle
which God is and consequently choosing death.
With the whole tradition of the church, we call
mortal sin the act by which man freely and consciously rejects God, his law,
the covenant of love that God offers, preferring to turn in on himself or to
some created and finite reality, something contrary to the divine will
(conversio ad creaturam). This can occur in a direct and formal way in the sins
of idolatry, apostasy and atheism; or in an equivalent way as in every act of
disobedience to God's commandments in a grave matter. Man perceives that this
disobedience to God destroys the bond that unites him with his life principle:
It is a mortal sin, that is, an act which gravely offends God and ends in
turning against man himself with a dark and powerful force of destruction.
During the synod assembly some fathers proposed
a threefold distinction of sins, classifying them as venial, grave and mortal.
This threefold distinction might illustrate the fact that there is a scale of
seriousness among grave sins. But it still remains true that the essential and
decisive distinction is between sin which destroys charity and sin which does
not kill the supernatural life: There is no middle way between life and death.
Likewise, care will have to be taken not to
reduce mortal sin to an act of " fundamental option"-as is commonly
said today-against God, intending thereby an explicit and formal contempt for
God or neighbor. For mortal sin exists also when a person knowingly and
willingly, for whatever reason, chooses something gravely disordered. In fact,
such a choice already includes contempt for the divine law, a rejection of
God's love for humanity and the whole of creation; the person turns away from
God and loses charity. Thus the fundamental orientation can be radically
changed by individual acts. Clearly there can occur situations which are very
complex and obscure from a psychological viewpoint and which have an influence
on the sinner's subjective culpability. But from a consideration of the
psychological sphere one cannot proceed to the construction of a theological
category, which is what the "fundamental option" precisely is,
understanding it in such a way that it objectively changes or casts doubt upon
the traditional concept of mortal sin.
While every sincere and prudent attempt to
clarify the psychological and theological mystery of sin is to be valued, the
church nevertheless has a duty to remind all scholars in this field of the need
to be faithful to the word of God that teaches us also about sin. She likewise
has to remind them of the risk of contributing to a further weakening of the
sense of sin in the modern world.
The Loss of the Sense of Sin
18. Over the course of generations, the
Christian mind has gained from the Gospel as it is read in the ecclesial
community a fine sensitivity and an acute perception of the seeds of death
contained in sin, as well as a sensitivity and an acuteness of perception for
identifying them in the thousand guises under which sin shows itself. This is
what is commonly called the sense of sin.
This sense is rooted in man's moral conscience
and is as it were its thermometer. It is linked to the sense of God, since it
derives from man's conscious relationship with God as his Creator, Lord and
Father. Hence, just as it is impossible to eradicate completely the sense of
God or to silence the conscience completely, so the sense of sin is never
completely eliminated.
Nevertheless, it happens not infrequently in
history, for more or less lengthy periods and under the influence of many
different factors, that the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously
clouded. "Have we the right idea of conscience?"-I asked two years
ago in an address to the faithful" Is it not true that modern man is
threatened by an eclipse of conscience? By a deformation of conscience? By a
numbness or 'deadening' of conscience,"(97) Too many signs indicate that
such an eclipse exists in our time. This is all the more disturbing in that
conscience, defined by the council as "the most secret core and sanctuary
of a man,"(98) is "strictly related to human freedom.... For this
reason conscience, to a great extent, constitutes the basis of man's interior
dignity and, at the same time, of his relationship to God."(99) It is
inevitable therefore that in this situation there is an obscuring also of the
sense of sin, which is closely connected with the moral conscience, the search
for truth and the desire to make a responsible use of freedom. When the
conscience is weakened the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with
the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost.
This explains why my predecessor Pius XI, one day declared, in words that have
almost become proverbial, that "the sin of the century is the loss of the
sense of sin."(100)
Why has this happened in our time. A glance at
certain aspects of contemporary culture can help us to understand the
progressive weakening of the sense of sin, precisely because of the crisis of
conscience and crisis of the sense of God already mentioned.
"Secularism" is by nature and
definition a movement of ideas and behavior which advocates a humanism totally
without God, completely centered upon the cult of action and production and
caught up in the heady enthusiasm of consumerism and pleasure seeking,
unconcerned with the danger of "losing one's soul." This secularism
cannot but undermine the sense of sin. At the very most, sin will be reduced to
what offends man. But it is precisely here that we are faced with the bitter
experience which I already alluded to in my first encyclical namely, that man
can build a world without God, but this world will end by turning against
him."(101) In fact, God is the origin and the supreme end of man, and man
carries in himself a divine seed.(102) Hence it is the reality of God that
reveals and illustrates the mystery of man. It is therefore vain to hope that
there will take root a sense of sin against man and against human values, if
there is no sense of offense against God, namely the true sense of sin.
Another reason for the disappearance of the
sense of sin in contemporary society is to be found in the errors made in
evaluating certain findings of the human sciences. Thus on the basis of certain
affirmations of psychology, concern to avoid creating feelings of guilt or to
place limits on freedom leads to a refusal ever to admit any shortcoming.
Through an undue extrapolation of the criteria of the science of sociology, it
finally happens-as I have already said-that all failings are blamed upon
society, and the individual is declared innocent of them. Again, a certain
cultural anthropology so emphasizes the undeniable environmental and historical
conditioning and influences which act upon man, that it reduces his
responsibility to the point of not acknowledging his ability to perform truly
human acts and therefore his ability to sin.
The sense of sin also easily declines as a
result of a system of ethics deriving from a certain historical relativism.
This may take the form of an ethical system which relativizes the moral norm,
denying its absolute and unconditional value, and as a consequence denying that
there can be intrinsically illicit acts independent of the circumstances in
which they are performed by the subject. Herein lies a real "overthrowing
and downfall of moral values," and "the problem is not so much one of
ignorance of Christian ethics," but ignorance "rather of the meaning,
foundations and criteria of the moral attitude."(103) Another effect of
this ethical turning upside down is always such an attenuation of the notion of
sin as almost to reach the point of saying that sin does exist, but no one
knows who commits it.
Finally the sense of sin disappears when-as can
happen in the education of youth, in the mass media and even in education
within the family-it is wrongly identified with a morbid feeling of guilt or
with the mere transgression of legal norms and precepts.
The loss of the sense of sin is thus a form or
consequence of the denial of God: not only in the form of atheism but also in
the form of secularism. If sin is the breaking, off of one's filial
relationship to God in order to situate one's life outside of obedience to him,
then to sin is not merely to deny God. To sin is also to live as if he did not
exist, to eliminate him from one's daily life. A model of society which is
mutilated or distorted in one sense or another, as is often encouraged by the
mass media, greatly favors the gradual loss of the sense of sin. In such a
situation the obscuring or weakening of the sense of sin comes from several
sources: from a rejection of any reference to the transcendent in the name of
the individual's aspiration to personal independence; from acceptance of ethical
models imposed by general consensus and behavior, even when condemned by the
individual conscience; from the tragic social and economic conditions that
oppress a great part of humanity, causing a tendency to see errors and faults
only in the context of society; finally and especially, from the obscuring of
the notion of God's fatherhood and dominion over man's life.
Even in the field of the thought and life of the
church certain trends inevitably favor the decline of the sense of sin. For
example, some are inclined to replace exaggerated attitudes of the past with
other exaggerations: From seeing sin everywhere they pass to not recognizing it
anywhere; from too much emphasis on the fear of eternal punishment they pass to
preaching a love of God that excludes any punishment deserved by sin; from
severity in trying to correct erroneous consciences they pass to a kind of
respect for conscience which excludes the duty of telling the truth. And should
it not be added that the confusion caused in the consciences of many of the
faithful by differences of opinions and teachings in theology, preaching,
catechesis and spiritual direction on serious and delicate questions of
Christian morals ends by diminishing the true sense of sin almost to the point
of eliminating it altogether? Nor can certain deficiencies in the practice of
sacramental penance be overlooked. These include the tendency to obscure the
ecclesial significance of sin and of conversion and to reduce them to merely
personal matters; or vice versa, the tendency to nullify the personal value of
good and evil and to consider only their community dimension. There also exists
the danger, never totally eliminated, of routine ritualism that deprives the
sacrament of its full significance and formative effectiveness.
The restoration of a proper sense of sin is the
first way of facing the grave spiritual crisis looming over man today. But the
sense of sin can only be restored through a clear reminder of the unchangeable
principles of reason and faith which the moral teaching of the church has
always upheld.
There are good grounds for hoping that a healthy
sense of sin will once again flourish, especially in the Christian world and in
the church. This will be aided by sound catechetics, illuminated by the biblical
theology of the covenant, by an attentive listening and trustful openness to
the magisterium of the church, which; never ceases to enlighten consciences,
and by an ever more careful practice of the sacrament of penance.
CHAPTER
II
"MYSTERIUM
PIETATIS"
19. In order to understand sin we have had to
direct our attention to its nature as made known to us by the revelation of the
economy of salvation: This is the mysterium iniquitatis. But in this economy
sin is not the main principle, still less the victor. Sin fights against
another active principle which-to use a beautiful and evocative expression of
We find this expression in one of
Without in the least betraying the literal sense
of the text, we can broaden this magnificent theological insight of St. Paul
into a more complete vision of the role which the truth proclaimed by him plays
in the economy of salvation: "Great indeed," we repeat with him,
"is the mystery of our religion," because it conquers sin.
But what is the meaning of this expression, in
Paul's mind?
It Is Christ Himself
20. It is profoundly significant that when Paul
presents this mysterium pietatis he simply transcribes, without making a
grammatical link with what he has just written,(105) three lines of a
Christological hymn which-in the opinion of authoritative scholars- has used in
the Greek-speaking Christian communities.
In the words of that hymn, full of theological
content and rich in noble beauty, those first-century believers professed their
faith in the mystery of Christ, whereby:
The mystery or sacrament of pietas, therefore,
is the very mystery of Christ. It is, in a striking summary, the mystery of the
incarnation and redemption, of the full passover of Jesus, the Son of God and
son of Mary: the mystery of his passion and death, of his resurrection and
glorification. What
The Effort of the Christian
21. But there is another aspect to the mysterium
pietatis: The loving kindness of God toward the Christian must be matched by
the piety of the Christian toward God. In this second meaning of the word,
piety (eusebeia) means precisely the conduct of the Christian who responds to
God's fatherly loving kindness with his own filial Piety.
In this sense too we can say with
Toward a Reconciled Life
22. Thus the word of Scripture, as it reveals to
us the mystery of pietas, opens the intellect to conversion and reconciliation,
understood not as lofty abstractions but as concrete Christian values to be
achieved in our daily lives.
Deceived by the loss of the sense of sin and at
times tempted by an illusion of sinlessness which is not at all Christian, the
people of today too need to listen again to St. John's admonition, as addressed
to each one of them personally: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us,"(110) and indeed, "the whole
world is in the power of the evil one."(111) Every individual therefore is
invited by the voice of divine truth to examine realistically his or her
conscience and to confess that he or she has been brought forth in iniquity, as
we say in the Miserere psalm."(112)
Nevertheless, though threatened by fear and
despair, the people of today can feel uplifted by the divine promise which
opens to them the hope of full reconciliation.
The mystery of pietas, on God's part, is that
mercy in which our Lord and Father-I repeat it again-is infinitely rich.(113)
As I said in my encyclical on the subject of divine mercy,(114) it is a love
more powerful than sin, stronger than death. When we realize that God's love
for us does not cease in the face of our sin or recoil before our offenses, but
becomes even mere attentive and generous; when we realize that this love went
so far as cause the passion and death of the Word made flesh who consented to
redeem us at the price of his own blood, then we exclaim in gratitude:
"Yes, the Lord is rich in mercy,n and even: "The Lord is mercy."
The mystery of pietas is the path opened by
divine mercy to a reconciled life.
PART
THREE
THE PASTORAL MINISTRY OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
Promoting Penance and Reconciliation
23. To evoke conversion and penance in man's
heart and to offer him the gift of reconciliation is the specific mission of
the church as she continues the redemptive work of her divine founder. It is
not a mission which consists merely of a few theoretical statements and the
putting forward of an ethical ideal unaccompanied by the energy with which to
carry it out. Rather it seeks to express itself in precise ministerial
functions directed toward a concrete practice of penance and reconciliation.
We can call this ministry, which is founded on and
illumined by the principles of faith which we have explained and which is
directed toward precise objectives and sustained by adequate means, the
pastoral activity of penance and reconciliation. Its point of departure is the
church's conviction that man, to whom every form of pastoral activity is
directed but principally that of penance and reconciliation, is the man marked
by sin whose striking image is to be found in King David. Rebuked by the
prophet Nathan, David faces squarely his own iniquity and confesses: "I
have sinned against the Lord,"(115) and proclaims: "I know my
transgressions, and my sin is ever before me."(116) But he also prays:
"Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be
whiter than snow,"(117) and he receives the response of the divine mercy:
"The Lord has put away your sin; you shall not die."(118)
The church thus finds herself face to face with
man-with the whole human world-wounded by sin and affected by sin in the
innermost depths of his being. But at the same time he is moved by an
unrestrainable desire to be freed from sin and, especially if he is a
Christian, he is aware that the mystery of pietas, Christ the Lord, is already
acting in him and in the world by the power of the redemption.
The church's reconciling role must therefore be
carried out in accordance with that intimate link which closely connects the
forgiveness and remission of the sin of each person with the fundamental and
full reconciliation of humanity which took place with the redemption. This link
helps us to understand that, since sin is the active principle of
division-division between man and the nature created by God-only conversion
from sin is capable of bringing about a profound and lasting reconciliation
wherever division has penetrated.
I do not need to repeat what I have already said
about the importance of this "ministry of reconciliation,"(119) and
of the pastoral activity whereby it is carried out in the church's
consciousness and life. This pastoral activity would be lacking an essential
aspect of its being and failing in an indispensable function if the
"message of reconciliation"(120) were not proclaimed with clarity and
tenacity in season and out of season, and if the gift of reconciliation were
not offered to the world. But it is worth repeating that the importance of the
ecclesial service of reconciliation extends beyond the confines of the church
to the whole world.
To speak of the pastoral activity of penance and
reconciliation, then, is to refer to all the tasks incumbent on the church, at
all levels, for their promotion. More concretely, to speak of this
pastoral-activity is to evoke all the activities whereby the church, through
each and every one of her members-pastors and faithful, at all levels and in
all spheres, and with all the means at her disposal, words and actions,
teaching and prayer-leads people individually or as groups to true penance and
thus sets them on the path to full reconciliation.
The fathers of the synod, as representatives of
their brother bishops and as leaders of the people entrusted to them, concerned
themselves with the most practical and concrete elements of this pastoral
activity. And I am happy to echo their concerns by associating myself with
their anxieties and hopes, by receiving the results of their research and
experiences, and by encouraging them in their plans and achievements. May they
find in this part of the present apostolic exhortation the contribution which
they themselves made to the synod, a contribution the usefulness of which I
wish to extend, through these pages, to the whole church.
I therefore propose to call attention to the
essentials of the pastoral activity of penance and reconciliation by
emphasizing, with the synod assembly, the following two points:
CHAPTER
ONE
THE
PROMOTION OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION: WAYS AND MEANS
24. In order to promote penance and reconciliation,
the church has at her disposal two principal means which were entrusted to her
by her founder himself: catechesis and the sacraments. Their use has always
been considered by the church as fully in harmony with the requirements of her
salvific mission and at the same time as corresponding to the requirements and
spiritual needs of people in all ages. This use can be in forms and ways both
old and new, among which it will be a good idea to remember in particular what
we can call, in the expression of my predecessor Paul VI, the method of
dialogue.
Dialogue
25. For the church, dialogue is in a certain
sense a means and especially a way of carrying out her activity in the modern
world.
The Second Vatican Council proclaims that
"the church, by virtue of her mission to shed on the whole world the
radiance of the gospel message, and to unify under one Spirit all people...
stands forth as a sign of that fraternal solidarity which allows honest
dialogue and invigorates it." The council adds that the church should be
capable of "establishing an ever more fruitful dialogue among all those
who compose the one people of God" and also of "establishing a
dialogue with human society."(122)
My predecessor Paul VI devoted to dialogue a
considerable part of his first encyclical, Ecclesism Suam, in which he
describes it and significantly characterizes it as the dialogue of
salvation.(123)
The church in fact uses the method of dialogue
in order the better to lead people-both those who through baptism and the
profession of faith acknowledge their membership of the Christian community and
also those who are outside-to conversion and repentance, along the path of a
profound renewal of their own consciences and lives in the light of the mystery
of the redemption and salvation accomplished by Christ and entrusted to the
ministry of his church. Authentic dialogue, therefore, is aimed above all at
the rebirth of individuals through interior conversion and repentance, but
always with profound respect for consciences and with patience and at the
step-by-step pace indispensable for modern conditions.
Pastoral dialogue aimed at reconciliation
continues to be today a fundamental task of the church in different spheres and
at different levels.
The church in the first place promotes an
ecumenical dialogue, that is, with churches and ecclesial communities which
profess faith in Christ, the Son of God and only savior. She also promotes
dialogue with the other communities of people who are seeking God and wish to
have a relationship of communion with him.
At the basis of this dialogue with the other
churches and Christian communities and with the other religions, and as a
condition of her credibility and effectiveness, there must be a sincere effort
of permanent and renewed dialogue within the Catholic Church herself. She is
aware that, by her nature, she is the sacrament of the universal communion of
charity;(124) but she is equally aware of the tensions within her, tensions
which risk becoming factors of division.
The heartfelt and determined invitation which
was already extended by my predecessor in preparation for the 1975 Holy
Year(125) is also valid at the present moment. In order to overcome conflicts
and to ensure that normal tensions do not prove harmful to the unity of the church,
we must all apply to ourselves the word of God; we must relinquish our own
subjective views and seek the truth where it is to be found, namely in the
divine word itself and in the authentic interpretation of that word provided by
the magisterium of the church. In this light, listening to one another,
respect, refraining from all hasty judgments, patience, the ability to avoid
subordinating the faith which unites to the opinions, fashions and ideological
choices which divide-these are all qualities of a dialogue within the church
which must be persevering, open and sincere. Obviously dialogue would not have
these qualities and would not become a factor of reconciliation if the
magisterium were not heeded and accepted.
Thus actively engaged in seeking her own
internal communion, the Catholic Church can address an appeal for
reconciliation to the other churches with which there does not exist full
communion, as well as to the other religions and even to all those who are
seeking God with a sincere heart. This she has been doing for some time.
In the light of the council and of the
magisterium of my predecessors, whose precious inheritance I have received and
am making every effort to preserve and put into effect, I can affirm that the
Catholic Church at every level is committed to frank ecumenical dialogue,
without facile optimism but also without distrust and without hesitation or
delays. The fundamental laws which she seeks to follow in this dialogue are, on
the one hand, the conviction that only a spiritual ecumenism-namely an
ecumenism founded on common prayer and in a common docility to the one
Lord-enables us to make a sincere and serious response to the other exigencies
of ecumenical action.(126) The other law is the conviction that a certain
facile irenicism in doctrinal and especially dogmatic matters could perhaps
lead to a form of superficial and short-lived coexistence, but it could not
lead to that profound and stable communion which we all long for. This
communion will be reached at the hour willed by divine providence. But in order
to reach it, the Catholic Church, for her part, knows that she must be open and
sensitive to all "the truly Christian endowments from our common heritage
which are to be found among our separated brethren";(127) but she also
knows that she must likewise base a frank and constructive dialogue upon a
clarity regarding her own positions and upon fidelity and consistency with the
faith transmitted and defined in accordance with the perennial tradition of her
magisterium. Notwithstanding the threat of a certain defeatism and despite the
inevitable slowness which rashness could never correct, the Catholic Church
continues with all other Christian brethren to seek the paths to unity, and
with the followers of the other religions she continues to seek to have sincere
dialogue. May this inter-religious dialogue lead to the overcoming of all
attitudes of hostility, distrust, mutual condemnation and even mutual
invective, which is the precondition for encounter at least in faith in one God
and in the certainty of eternal life for the immortal soul. May the Lord
especially grant that ecumenical dialogue will also lead to a sincere
reconciliation concerning everything that we already have in common with the
other Christian churches- faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God made man, our
savior and Lord; a listening to the word; the study of revelation and the
sacrament of baptism.
To the extent to which the church is capable of
generating active harmony-unity in variety-within herself and of offering
herself as a witness to and humble servant of reconciliation with the other
churches and ecclesial communities and the other religions, she becomes, in the
expressive definition of St. Augustine, a "reconciled world."(128)
Then she will be able to be a sign of reconciliation in the world and for the
world.
The church is aware of the extreme seriousness
of the situation created by the forces of division and war, which today
constitute a grave threat not only to the balance and harmony of nations but to
the very survival of humanity, and she feels it her duty to offer and suggest
her own unique collaboration for the overcoming of conflicts and the
restoration of concord.
It is a complex and delicate dialogue of
reconciliation in which the church is engaged, especially through the work of
the Holy See and its different organisms. The Holy See already endeavors to
intervene with the leaders of nations and the heads of the various
international bodies or seeks to associate itself with them, conduct a dialogue
with them and encourage them to dialogue with one another for the sake of
reconciliation in the midst of the many conflicts. It does this not for
ulterior motives or hidden interests. since it has none-but "out of a
humanitarian concern,"(129) placing its institutional structure and moral
authority, which are altogether unique, at the service of concord and peace. It
does this in the conviction that as "in war two parties rise against one
another" so "in the question of peace there are also necessarily two
parties which must know how to commit themselves," and in this "one
finds the true meaning of a dialogue for peace."(130)
The church engages in dialogue for
reconciliation also through the bishops in the competency and responsibility
proper to them, either individually in the direct;on of their respective local
churches or united in their episcopal conferences, with the collaboration of
the priests and of all those who make up the Christian communities. They truly
fulfill their task when they promote this indispensable dialogue and proclaim
the human and Christian need for reconciliation and peace. In communion with
their pastors, the laity who have as "their own field of evangelizing
activity...the vast and complicated world of politics, society...economics...(and)
international life,"(131) are called upon to engage directly in dialogue
or to work for dialogue aimed at reconciliation. Through them too the church
carries out her reconciling activity. Thus the fundamental presupposition and
secure basis for any lasting renewal of society and for peace between nations
lies in the regeneration of hearts through conversion and penance.
It should be repeated that, on the part of the
church and her members, dialogue, whatever form it takes (and these forms can
be and are very diverse since the very concept of dialogue has an analogical
value) can never begin from an attitude of indifference to the truth. On the
contrary, it must begin from a presentation of the truth, offered in a calm
way, with respect for the intelligence and consciences of others. The dialogue
of reconciliation can never replace or attenuate the proclamation of the truth
of the Gospel, the precise goal of which is conversion from sin and communion
with Christ and the church. It must be at the service of the transmission and
realization of that truth through the means left by Christ to the church for
the pastoral activity of reconciliation, namely catechesis and penance.
Catechesis
26. In the vast area in which the church has the
mission of operating through dialogue, the pastoral ministry of penance and
reconciliation is directed to the members of the body of the church principally
through an adequate catechesis concerning the two distinct and complementary
realities to which the synod fathers gave a particular importance and which
they emphasized in some of the concluding propositions: These are penance and
reconciliation. Catechesis is therefore the first means to be used.
At the basis of the synod's very opportune
recommendation is a fundamental presupposition; What is pastoral is not opposed
to what is doctrinal. Nor can pastoral action prescind from doctrinal content,
from which in fact it draws its substance and real validity. Now if the church
is the pillar and bulwark of the truth'(132) and is placed in the world as
mother and teacher, how could she neglect the task of teaching the truth which
constitutes a path of life?
From the pastors of the church one expects,
first of all, catechesis on reconciliation. This must be founded on the teaching
of the Bible, especially the New Testament, on the need to rebuild the covenant
with God in Christ the redeemer and reconciler. And in the light of this new
communion and friendship, and as an extension of it, it must be founded on the
teaching concerning the need to be reconciled with one's brethren, even if this
means interrupting the offering of the sacrifice.(133) Jesus strongly insists
on this theme of fraternal reconciliation: for example, when he invites us to
turn the other cheek to the one who strikes us, and to give our cloak too to
the one who has taken our coat,(134) or when he instills the law of
forgiveness: forgiveness which each one receives in the measure that he or she
foresee forgiveness to be offered even to enemies,(136) forgiveness to be
granted seventy times seven times,(137) which means in practice without any
limit. On these conditions, which are realizable only in a genuinely
evangelical climate, it is possible to have a true reconciliation between
individuals, families, communities, nations and peoples. From these biblical
data on reconciliation there will naturally derive a theological catechesis,
which in its synthesis will also integrate the elements of psychology,
sociology and the other human sciences which can serve to clarify situations,
describe problems accurately and persuade listeners or readers to make concrete
resolutions.
The pastors of the church are also expected to
provide catechesis on penance. Here too the richness of the biblical message
must be its source. With regard to penance this message emphasizes particularly
its value for conversion, which is the term that attempts to translate the word
in the Greek text, metanoia,(138) which literally means to allow the spirit to
be overturned in order to make it turn toward God. These are also the two
fundamental elements which emerge from the parable of the son who was lost and
found: his "coming to himself"(139) and his decision to return to his
father. There can be no reconciliation unless these attitudes of conversion
come first, and catechesis should explain them with concepts and terms adapted
to people's various ages and their differing cultural, moral and social
backgrounds.
This is a first value of penance and it extends
into a second: Penance also means repentance. The two meanings of metanoia
appear in the significant instruction given by Jesus: "If your brother
repents (returns to you), forgive him; and if he sins against you seven times
in the day, and turns to you seven times and says, 'I repent,' you must forgive
him."(140) A good catechesis will show how repentance, just like
conversion, is far from being a superficial feeling but a real overturning of
the soul.
A third value is contained in penance, and this
is the movement whereby the preceding attitudes of conversion and repentance
are manifested externally: This is doing penance. This meaning is clearly
perceptible in the term metanoia, as used by John the Baptist in the texts of
the synoptics.(141) To do penance means above all to restablish the balance and
harmony broken by sin, to change direction even at the cost of sacrifice.
A catechesis on penance, therefore, and one that
is as complete and adequate as possible, is absolutely essential at a time like
ours when dominant attitudes in psychology and social behavior are in such
contrast with the threefold value just illustrated. Contemporary man seems to
find it harder than ever to recognize his own mistakes and to decide to retrace
his steps and begin again after changing course. He seems very reluctant to say
"I repent" or "I am sorry." He seems to refuse
instinctively and often irresistibly anything that is penance in the sense of a
sacrifice accepted and carried out for the correction of sin. In this regard I
would like to emphasize that the church's penitential discipline, even though
it has been mitigated for some time, cannot be abandoned without grave harm
both to the interior life of individual Christians and of the ecclesial
community and also to their capacity for missionary influence. It is not
uncommon for non-Christians to be surprised at the negligible witness of true
penance on the part of Christ's followers. It is clear, however, that Christian
penance will only be authentic if it is inspired by love and not by mere fear;
if it consists in a serious effort to crucify the " old man " so that
the " new" can be born by the power of Christ; if it takes as its
model Christ, who though he was innocent chose the path of poverty, patience,
austerity and, one can say, the penitential life.
As the synod recalled, the pastors of the church
are also expected to provide catechesis on conscience and its formation. This
too is a very relevant topic in view of the fact that in the upheavals to which
our present culture is subjected this interior sanctuary, man's innermost self,
his conscience, is too often attacked, put to the test, confused and obscured.
Valuable guidelines for a wise catechesis on conscience can be found both in
the doctors of the church and in the theology of the Second Vatican Council,
and especially in the documents on the church in the modern world(142) and on
religious liberty.(143) Along these same lines, Pope Paul VI often reminded us
of the nature and role of conscience in our life.(144) I myself, following his
footsteps, miss no opportunity to throw light on this most lofty element of
man's greatness and dignity,(145) this "sort of moral sense which leads us
to discern what is good and what is evil...like an inner eye, a visual capacity
of the spirit, able to guide our steps along the path of good." And I have
reiterated the need to form one's conscience, lest it become "a force
which is destructive of the true humanity of the person, rather than that holy
place where God reveals to him his true good."(146)
On other points too, of no less relevance for
reconciliation, one looks to the pastors of the church for catechesis.
On the sense of sin, which, as I have said, has
become considerably weakened in our world.
On temptation and temptations: The Lord Jesus
himself, the Son of God, "who in every respect has been tempted as we are,
yet without sin,"(147) allowed himself to be tempted by the evil one(148)
in order to show that, like himself, his followers too would be subjected to
temptation, and in order to show how one should behave when subjected to
temptation. For those who beseech the Father not to be tempted beyond their own
strength(149) and not to succumb to temptation,(150) and for those who do not
expose themselves to occasions of sin, being subjected to temptation does not mean
that they have sinned; rather it is an opportunity for growing in fidelity and
consistency through humility and watchfulness.
Catechesis is also expected on fasting: This can
be practiced in old forms and new as a sign of conversion, repentance and personal
mortification and, at the same time, as a sign of union with Christ crucified
and of solidarity with the starving and suffering.
Catechesis on almsgiving: This is a means of
making charity a practical thing by sharing what one possesses with those suffering
the consequences of poverty.
Catechesis on the intimate connection which
links the overcoming of divisions in the world with perfect communion with God
and among people, which is the eschatological purpose of the church.
Catechesis on the concrete circumstances in
which reconciliation has to be achieved (in the family, in the civil community,
in social structures) and particularly catechesis on the four reconciliations
which repair the four fundamental rifts; reconciliation of man with God, with
self, with the brethren and with the whole of creation.
Nor can the church omit, without serious
mutilation of her essential message, a constant catechesis on what the
traditional Christian language calls the four last things of man: death,
judgment (universal and particular), hell and heaven. In a culture which tends
to imprison man in the earthly life at which he is more or less successful, the
pastors of the church are asked to provide a catechesis which will reveal and
illustrate with the certainties of faith what comes after the present life:
beyond the mysterious gates of death, an eternity of joy in communion with God
or the punishment of separation from him. Only in this eschatological vision
can one realize the exact nature of sin and feel decisively moved to penance
and reconciliation.
Pastors who are zealous and creative never lack
opportunities for imparting this broad and varied catechesis, taking into
account the different degrees of education and religious formation of those to
whom they speak. Such opportunities are often given by the biblical readings
and the rites of the Mass and the sacraments, as also by the circumstances of
their celebration. For the same purpose many initiatives can be taken such as
sermons, lectures, discussions, meetings, courses of religious education, etc.,
as happens in many places. Here I wish to point out in particular the
importance and effectiveness of the old-style popular missions for the purposes
of such catechesis. If adapted to the peculiar needs of the present time, such
missions can be, today as yesterday, a useful instrument of religious education
also regarding penance and reconciliation.
In view of the great relevance of reconciliation
based on conversion in the delicate field of human relationships and social
interaction at all levels, including the international level, catechesis cannot
fail to inculcate the valuable contribution of the church's social teaching.
The timely and precise teaching of my predecessors from Pope Leo XIII onward,
to which was added the substantial contribution the pastoral constitution
Gaudium et Spes of the Second Vatican Council and the contributions of the
different episcopates elicited by various circumstances in their respective
countries, has made up an ample and solid body of doctrine. This regards the
many different needs inherent in the life of the human community, in
relationships between individuals, families, groups in their different spheres
and in the very constitution of a society that intends to follow the moral law,
which is the foundation of civilization.
At the basis of this social teaching of the
church there is obviously to be found the vision which the church draws from
the word of God concerning the rights and duties of individuals, the family and
the community; concerning the value of liberty and the nature of justice,
concerning the primacy of charity, concerning the dignity of the human person
and the exigencies of the common good to which politics and the economy itself
must be directed. Upon these fundamental principles of the social magisterium,
which confirm and repropose the universal dictates of reason and of the
conscience of peoples, there rests in great part the hope for a peaceful
solution to many social conflicts and, in short, the hope for universal
reconciliation.
The Sacraments
27. The second divinely instituted means which
the church offers for the pastoral activity of penance and reconciliation is
constituted by the sacraments.
In the mysterious dynamism of the sacraments, so
rich in symbolism and content, one can discern one aspect which is not always
emphasized: Each sacrament, over and above its own proper grace, is also a sign
of penance and reconciliation. Therefore in each of them it is possible to
relive these dimensions of the spirit.
Baptism is of course a salvific washing which,
as St Peter says, is effective "not as a removal of dirt from the body but
as an appeal to God for a clear conscience."(151) It is death, burial and
resurrection with the dead, buried and risen Christ.(152) It is a gift of the
Holy Spirit through Christ.(153) But this essential and original constituent of
Christian baptism, far from eliminating the penitential element already present
in the baptism which Jesus himself received from John "to fulfill all righteousness,"(154)
in fact enriches it. In other words, it is a fact of conversion and of
reintegration into the right order of relationships with God, of reconciliation
with God, with the elimination of the original stain and the consequent
introduction into the great family of the reconciled.
Confirmation likewise, as a ratification of
baptism and together with baptism a sacrament of initiation, in conferring the
fullness of the Holy Spirit and in bringing the Christian life to maturity,
signifies and accomplishes thereby a greater conversion of the heart and brings
about a more intimate and effective membership of the same assembly of the
reconciled, which is the church of Christ.
The definition which St. Augustine gives of the
eucharist as "sacramentum pietatis, signum unitatis, vinculum
caritatis"(155) clearly illustrates the effects of personal sanctification
(pietas) and community reconciliation (unitas and caritas) which derive from
the very essence of the eucharistic mystery as an unbloody renewal of the sacrifice
of the cross, the source of salvation and of reconciliation for all people.
However, it must be remembered that the church,
guided by faith in this great sacrament, teaches that no Christian who is
conscious of grave sin can receive the eucharist before having obtained God's
forgiveness. This we read in the instruction Eucharisticum Mysterium which,
duly approved by Paul VI, fully confirms the teaching of the Council of Trent:
"The eucharist is to be offered to the faithful also 'as a remedy, which
frees us from daily faults and preserves us from mortal sin' and they are to be
shown the fitting way of using the penitential parts of the liturgy of the
Mass. The person who wishes to receive holy communion is to be reminded of the
precept: Let a man examine himself" (1 Cor
The sacrament of orders is intended to give to
the church the pastors who, besides being teachers and guides, are called to be
witnesses and workers of unity, builders of the family of God, and defenders
and preservers of the communion of this family against the sources of division
and dispersion.
The sacrament of matrimony, the exaltation of
human love under the action of grace, is a sign of the love of Christ for the
church. But it is also a sign of the victory which Christ grants to couples in
resisting the forces which deform and destroy love, in order that the family
born from this sacrament may be a sign also of the reconciled and reconciling
church for a world reconciled in all its structures and institutions.
Finally, the anointing of the sick in the trial
of illness and old age and especially at the Christian's final hour is a sign
of definitive conversion to the Lord and of total acceptance of suffering and
death as a penance for sins. And in this is accomplished supreme reconciliation
with the Father.
However, among the sacraments there is one
which, though it has often been called the sacrament of confession because of
the accusation of sins which takes place in it, can more appropriately be
considered by antonomasia the sacrament of penance, as it is in fact called.
And thus it is the sacrament of conversion and reconciliation. The recent synod
particularly concerned itself with this sacrament because of its importance
with regard to reconciliation.
CHAPTER
TWO
THE
SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION
28. In all its phases and at all its levels the
synod considered with the greatest attention that sacramental sign which
represents and at the same time accomplishes penance and reconciliation. This
sacrament in itself certainly does not contain all possible ideas of conversion
and reconciliation. From the very beginning, in fact, the church has recognized
and used many and varying forms of penance. Some are liturgical or
paraliturgical and include the penitential actin the Mass, services of
atonement and pilgrimages; others are of an ascetical character, such as
fasting. But of all such acts none is more significant, more divinely
efficacious or more lofty and at the same time easily accessible as a rite than
the sacrament of penance.
From its preparatory stage and then in the
numerous interventions during the sessions, in the group meetings and in the
final propositions, the synod took into account the statement frequently made
with varying nuances and emphases, namely: The sacrament of penance is in
crisis. The synod took note of this crisis. It recommended a more profound
catechesis, but it also recommended a no less profound analysis of a
theological, historical, psychological, sociological and juridical character of
penance in general and of the sacrament of penance in particular. In all of
this the synod's intention was to clarify the reasons for the crisis and to
open the way to a positive solution for the good of humanity. Meanwhile, from
the synod itself the church has received a clear confirmation of its faith
regarding the sacrament which gives to every Christian and to the whole
community of believers the certainty of forgiveness through the power of the
redeeming blood of Christ.
It is good to renew and reaffirm this faith at a
moment when it might be weakening, losing something of its completeness or
entering into an area of shadow and silence, threatened as it is by the
negative elements of the above-mentioned crisis. For the sacrament of
confession is indeed being undermined, on the one hand by the obscuring of the
mortal and religious conscience, the lessening of a sense of sin, the
distortion of the concept of repentance and the lack of effort to live an
authentically Christian life. And on the other hand, it is being undermined by
the sometimes widespread idea that one can obtain forgiveness directly from
God, even in a habitual way, without approaching the sacrament of
reconciliation. A further negative influence is the routine of a sacramental
practice sometimes lacking in fervor and real spontaneity, deriving perhaps
from a mistaken and distorted idea of the effects of the sacrament.
It is therefore appropriate to recall the
principal aspects of this great sacrament.
"Whose Sins You Shall Forgive"
29. The books of the Old and New Testament
provide us with the first and fundamental fact concerning the Lord's mercy and forgiveness.
In the Psalms and in the preaching of the prophets, the name merciful is
perhaps the one most often given to the Lord, in contrast to the persistent
cliche whereby the God of the Old Testament is presented above all as severe
and vengeful. Thus in the Psalms there is a long sapiential passage drawing
from the Exodus tradition, which recalls God's kindly action in the midst of
his people. This action, though represented in an anthropomorphic way, is
perhaps one of the most eloquent Old Testament proclamations of the divine
mercy. Suffice it to quote the verse: "Yet he, being compassionate,
forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; he restrained his anger often,
and did not stir up all his wrath. He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind
that passes and comes not again."(157)
In the fullness of time the Son of God, coming
as the lamb who takes away and bears upon himself the sin of the world appears
as the one who has the power both to judge(159) and to forgive sins,(160) and
who has come not to condemn but to forgive and save.(161)
Now this power to " forgive sins"
Jesus confers through the Holy Spirit upon ordinary men, themselves subject to
the snare of sin, namely his apostles: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose
sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they
are retained."(162) This is one of the most awe-inspiring innovations of
the Gospel! He confers this power on the apostles also as something which they
can transmit-as the church has understood it from the beginning-to their
successors, charged by the same apostles with the mission and responsibility of
continuing their work as proclaimers of the Gospel and ministers of Christ's
redemptive work.
Here there is seen in all its grandeur the
figure of the minister of the sacrament of penance who by very ancient custom
is called the confessor.
Just as at the altar where he celebrates the
eucharist and just as in each one of the sacraments, so the priest, as the
minister of penance, acts "in persona Christi" The Christ whom he
makes present and who accomplishes the mystery of the forgiveness of sins is
the Christ who appears as the brother of man,(163) the merciful high priest,
faithful and compassionate,(164) the shepherd intent on finding the lost
sheep,(165) the physician who heals and comforts,(166) the one master who
teaches the truth and reveals the ways of God,(167) the judge of the living and
the dead,(168) who judges according to the truth and not according to
appearances.(169)
This is undoubtedly the most difficult and
sensitive, the most exhausting and demanding ministry of the priest, but also
one of the most beautiful and consoling. Precisely for this reason and with
awareness also of the strong recommendation of the synod, I will never grow
weary of exhorting my brothers, the bishops and priests, to the faithful and
diligent performance of ministry.(170) Before the consciences of the faithful,
who open up to him with a mixture of fear and trust, the confessor is called to
a lofty task which is one of service and penance and human reconciliation. It
is a task of learning the weaknesses and falls of those faithful people,
assessing their desire for renewal and their efforts to achieve it, discerning
the action of the Holy Spirit in their hearts, imparting to them a forgiveness
which God alone can grant, "celebrating" their reconciliation with
the Father, portrayed in the parable of the prodigal son, reinstating these
redeemed sinners in the ecclesial community with their brothers and sisters, and
paternally admonishing these penitents with a firm, encouraging and friendly
"Do not sin again."(171)
For the effective performance of this ministry,
the confessor must necessarily have human qualities of prudence, discretion,
discernment and a firmness tempered by gentleness and kindness. He must
likewise have a serious and careful preparation, not fragmentary but complete
and harmonious, in the different branches of theology, pedagogy and psychology,
in the methodology of dialogue and above all in a living and communicable
knowledge of the word of God. But it is even more necessary that he should live
an intense and genuine spiritual life. In order to lead others along the path
of Christian perfection the minister of penance himself must first travel this
path. More by actions than by long speeches he must give proof of real
experience of lived prayer, the practice of the theological and moral virtues
of the Gospel, faithful obedience to the will of God, love of the church and
docility to her magisterium.
All this fund of human gifts, Christian virtues
and pastoral capabilities has to be worked for and is only acquired with
effort. Every priest must be trained for the ministry of sacramental penance
from his years in the seminary, not only through the study of dogmatic, moral,
spiritual and pastoral theology (which are simply parts of a whole), but also
through the study of the human sciences, training in dialogue and especially in
how to deal with people in the pastoral context. He must then be guided and
looked after in his first activities. He must always ensure his own improvement
and updating by means of permanent study. What a wealth of grace, true life and
spiritual radiation would be poured out on the church if every priest were
careful never to miss through negligence or various excuses the appointment
with the faithful in the confessional and if he were even more careful never to
go to it unprepared or lacking the necessary human qualities and spiritual and
pastoral preparation!
In this regard I cannot but recall with devout
admiration those extraordinary apostles of the confessional such as St. John
Nepomucene, St. John Vianney, St. Joseph Cafasso and St. Leopold of
Castelnuovo, to mention only the best-known confessors whom the church has
added to the list of her saints. But I also wish to pay homage to the
innumerable host of holy and almost always anonymous confessors to whom is owed
the salvation of so many souls who have been helped by them in conversion, in
the struggle against sin and temptation, in spiritual progress and, in a word,
in achieving holiness. I do not hesitate to say that even the great canonized
saints are generally the fruit of those confessionals, and not only the saints
but also the spiritual patrimony of the church and the flowering of a
civilization permeated with the Christian spirit! Praise then to this silent
army of our brothers who have served well and serve each day the cause of
reconciliation through the ministry of sacramental penance!
The Sacrament of Forgiveness
30. From the revelation of the value of this
ministry and power to forgive sins, conferred by Christ on the apostles and
their successors, there developed in the church an awareness of the sign of
forgiveness, conferred through the sacrament of penance. It is the certainty
that the Lord Jesus himself instituted and entrusted to the church-as a gift of
his goodness and loving kindness(172) to be offered to all-a special sacrament
for the forgiveness of sins committed after baptism.
The practice of this sacrament, as regards its
celebration and form, has undergone a long process of development as is
attested to by the most ancient sacramentaries, the documents of councils and
episcopal synods, the preaching of the fathers and the teaching of the doctors
of the church. But with regard to the substance of the sacrament there has
always remained firm and unchanged in the consciousness of the church the
certainty that, by the will of Christ, forgiveness is offered to each
individual by means of sacramental absolution given by the ministers of
penance. It is a certainty reaffirmed with particular vigor both by the Council
of Trent(173) and by the Second Vatican Council: "Those who approach the
sacrament of penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offenses committed
against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the church which they
have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example and by prayer works
for their conversion."(174) And as an essential element of faith
concerning the value and purpose of penance it must be reaffirmed that our
savior Jesus Christ instituted in his church the sacrament of penance so that
the faithful who have fallen into sin after baptism might receive grace and be
reconciled with God (175)
The church's faith in this sacrament involves
certain other fundamental truths which cannot be disregarded. The sacramental
rite of penance, in its evolution and variation of actual forms, has always
preserved and highlighted these truths. When it recommended a reform of this
rite, the Second Vatican Council intended to ensure that it would express these
truths even more clearly,(176) and this has come about with the new Rite of
Penance.(177) For the latter has made its own the whole of the teaching brought
together by the Council of Trent, transferring it from its particular
historical context (that of a resolute effort to clarify doctrine in the face
of the serious deviations from the church's genuine teaching), in order to
translate it faithfully into terms more in keeping with the context of our own
time.
Some Fundamental Convictions
31. The truths mentioned above, powerfully and
clearly confirmed by the synod and contained in the propositions, can be
summarized in the following convictions of faith, to which are connected all
the other affirmations of the Catholic doctrine on the sacrament of penance.
I. The first conviction is that for a Christian
the sacrament of penance is the primary way of obtaining forgiveness and the
remission of serious sin committed after baptism. Certainly the Savior and his
salvific action are not so bound to a sacramental sign as to be unable in any
period or area of the history of salvation to work outside and above the
sacraments. But in the school of faith we learn that the same Savior desired
and provided that the simple and precious sacraments of faith would ordinarily
be the effective means through which his redemptive power passes and operates.
It would therefore be foolish, as well as presumptuous, to wish arbitrarily to
disregard the means of grace and salvation which the Lord has provided and, in
the specific case, to claim to receive forgiveness while doing without the
sacrament which was instituted by Christ precisely for forgiveness. The renewal
of the rites carried out after the council does not sanction any illusion or
alteration in this direction. According to the church's intention, it was and
is meant to stir up in each one of us a new impulse toward the renewal of our
interior attitude; toward a deeper understanding of the nature of the sacrament
of penance; toward a reception of the sacrament which is more filled with
faith, not anxious but trusting; toward a more frequent celebration of the
sacrament which is seen to be completely filled with the Lord's merciful love.
II. The second conviction concerns the function
of the sacrament of penance for those who have recourse to it. According to the
most ancient traditional idea, the sacrament is a kind of judicial action; but
this takes place before a tribunal of mercy rather than of strict and rigorous
justice, which is comparable to human tribunals only by analogy namely insofar
as sinners reveal their sins and their condition as creatures subject to sin;
they commit themselves to renouncing and combating sin; accept the punishment
(sacramental penance) which the confessor imposes on them and receive
absolution from him.
But as it reflects on the function of this
sacrament, the church's consciousness discerns in it, over and above the
character of judgment in the sense just mentioned, a healing of a medicinal
character. And this is linked to the fact that the Gospel frequently presents
Christ as healer,(179) while his redemptive work is often called, from
Christian antiquity, medicina salutis. "I wish to heal, not accuse,"
St. Augustine said, referring to the exercise of the pastoral activity
regarding penance,(180) and it is thanks to the medicine of confession that the
experience of sin does not degenerate into despair.(181) The Rite of Penance
alludes to this healing aspect of the sacrament,(182) to which modern man is
perhaps more sensitive, seeing as he does in sin the element of error but even
more the element of weakness and human frailty.
Whether as a tribunal of mercy or a place of
spiritual healing, under both aspects the sacrament requires a knowledge of the
sinner's heart in order to be able to judge and absolve, to cure and heal.
Precisely for this reason the sacrament involves on the part of the penitent a
sincere and complete confession of sins. This therefore has a raison d'etre not
only inspired by ascetical purposes (as an exercise of humility and
mortification), but one that is inherent in the very nature of the sacrament.
III. The third conviction, which is one that I
wish to emphasize, concerns the realities or parts which make up the
sacramental sign of forgiveness and reconciliation. Some of these realities are
acts of the penitent, of varying importance but each indispensable either for
the validity, the completeness or the fruitfulness of the sign.
First of all, an indispensable condition is the
rectitude and clarity of the penitent's conscience. People cannot come to true
and genuine repentance until they realize that sin is contrary to the ethical
norm written in their in most being;(183) until they admit that they have had a
personal and responsible experience of this contrast; until they say not only
that "sin exists" but also "I have sinned"; until they
admit that sin has introduced a division into their consciences which then
pervades their whole being and separates them from God and from their brothers
and sisters. The sacramental sign of this clarity of conscience is the act
traditionally called the examination of conscience, an act that must never be
one of anxious psychological introspection, but a sincere and calm comparison
with the interior moral law, with the evangelical norms proposed by the church,
with Jesus Christ himself, who is our teacher and model of life, and with the
heavenly Father, who calls us to goodness and perfection.(184)
But the essential act of penance, on the part of
the penitent, is contrition, a clear and decisive rejection of the sin
committed, together with a resolution not to commit it again,(185) out of the
love which one has for God and which is reborn with repentance. Understood in
this way, contrition is therefore the beginning and the heart of conversion, of
that evangelical metanoia which brings the person back to God like the prodigal
son returning to his father, and which has in the sacrament of penance its
visible sign and which perfects attrition. Hence "upon this contrition of
heart depends the truth of penance."(186)
While reiterating everything that the church,
inspired by God's word, teaches about contrition, I particularly wish to
emphasize here just one aspect of this doctrine. It is one that should be
better known and considered. Conversion and contention are often considered
under the aspect of the undeniable demands which they involve and under the
aspect of the mortification which they impose for the purpose of bringing about
a radical change of life. But we all to well to recall and emphasize the fact
that contrition and conversion are even more a drawing near to the holiness of
God, a rediscovery of one's true identity, which has been upset and disturbed
by sin, a liberation in the very depth of self and thus a regaining of lost
joy, the joy of being saved,(187) which the majority of people in our time are
no longer capable of experiencing.
We therefore understand why, from the earliest
Christian times, in line with the apostles and with Christ, the church has
included in the sacramental sign of penance the confession of sins. This latter
takes on such importance that for centuries the usual name of the sacrament has
been and still is that of confession. The confession of sins is required, first
of all, because the sinner must be known by the person who in the sacrament
exercises the role of judge. He has to evaluate both the seriousness of the
sins and the repentance of the penitent; he also exercises the role of the
healer and must acquaint himself with the condition of the sick person in order
to treat and heal him. But the individual confession also has the value of a
sign: a sign of the meeting of the sinner with the mediation of the church in
the person of the minister, a sign of the person's revealing of self as a
sinner in the sight of God and the church,.of facing his own sinful condition
in the eyes of God. The confession of sins therefore cannot be reduced to a
mere attempt at psychological self-liberation even though it corresponds to
that legitimate and natural need, inherent in the human heart, to open oneself
to another. It is a liturgical act, solemn in its dramatic nature, yet humble
and sober in the grandeur of its meaning. It is the act of the prodigal son who
returns to his Father and is welcomed by him with the kiss of peace. It is an
act of honesty and courage. It is an act of entrusting oneself, beyond sin, to
the mercy that forgives.(188) Thus we understand why the confession of sins
must ordinarily be individual not collective, just as sin is a deeply personal
matter. But at the same time this confession in a way forces sin out of the
secret of the heart and thus out of the area of pure individuality, emphasizing
its social character as well, for through the minister of penance it is the
ecclesial community, which has been wounded by sin, that welcomes anew the
repentant and forgiven sinner.
The other essential stage of the sacrament of
penance this time along to the confessor as judge and healer, a figure of God
the Father welcoming and forgiving the one who returns: This is the absolution.
The words which express it and the gestures that accompany it in the old and in
the new Rite of Penance are significantly simple in their-grandeur. The
sacramental formula "I absolve you" and the imposition of the hand
and the Sign of the Cross made over the penitent show that at this moment the
contrite and converted sinner comes into contact with the power and mercy of
God. It is the moment at which, in response to the penitent, the Trinity
becomes present in order to blot out sin and restore innocence. And the saving
power of the passion, death and resurrection of Jesus is also imparted to the
penitent as the "mercy stronger than sin and offense," as I defined
it in my encyclical Dives in Misericordia. God is always the one who is
principally offended by sin-"Tibi soli peccavi!"-and God alone can
forgive. Hence the absolution that the priest, the minister of forgiveness,
though himself a sinner, grants to the penitent is the effective sign of the
intervention of the Father in every absolution and the sign of the
"resurrection" from "spiritual death" which is renewed each
time that the sacrament of penance is administered. Only faith can give us
certainty that at that moment every sin is forgiven and blotted out by the
mysterious intervention of the Savior.
Satisfaction is the final act which crowns the
sacramental sign of penance. In some countries the act which the forgiven and
absolved penitent agrees to perform after receiving absolution is called
precisely the penance. What is the meaning of this satisfaction that one makes
or the penance that one performs? Certainly it is not a price that one pays for
the sin absolved and for the forgiveness obtained: No human price can match
what is obtained, which is the fruit of Christ's precious blood. Acts of
satisfaction-which, while remaining simple and humble, should be made to
express more clearly all that they signify-mean a number of valuable things:
They are the sign of the personal commitment that the Christian has made to God
in the sacrament to begin a new life (and therefore they should not be reduced
to mere formulas to be recited, but should consist of acts of worship, charity,
mercy or reparation). They include the idea that the pardoned sinner is able to
join his own physical and spiritual mortification-which has been sought after
or at least accepted-to the passion of Jesus, who has obtained the forgiveness
for him. They remind us that even after absolution there remains in the
Christian a dark area due to the wound of sin, to the imperfection of love in
repentance, to the weakening of the spiritual faculties. It is an area in which
there still operates an infectious source of sin which must always be fought
with mortification and penance. This is the meaning of the humble but sincere
act of satisfaction.(189)
IV. There remains to be made a brief mention of
other important convictions about the sacrament of penance.
First of all, it must be emphasized that nothing
is more personal and intimate that this sacrament, in which the sinner stands
alone before God with his sin, repentance and trust. No one can repent in his
place or ask forgiveness in his name. There is a certain solitude of the sinner
in his sin, and this can be seen dramatically represented in Cain with sin
"crouching at his door," as the Book of Genesis says so effectively,
and with the distinctive mark on his forehead;(190) in David, admonished by the
prophet Nathan;(191) or in the prodigal son when he realizes the condition to
which he has reduced himself by staying away from his father and decides to
return to him.(192) Everything takes place between the individual alone and
God. But at the same time one cannot deny the social nature of this sacrament,
in which the whole church-militant, suffering and glorious in heaven- comes to
the aid of the penitent and welcomes him again into her bosom, especially as it
was the whole church which had been offended and wounded by his sin. As the
minister of penance, the priest by virtue of his sacred office appears as the
witness and representative of this ecclesial nature of the sacrament. The
individual nature and ecclesial nature are two complementary aspects of the
sacrament which the progressive reform of the Rite of Penance, especially that
contained in the Ordo Paenitentiae promulgated by Paul VI, has sought to
emphasize and to make more meaningful in its celebration.
V. Second, it must be emphasized that the most
precious result of the forgiveness obtained in the sacrament of penance
consists in reconciliation with God, which takes place in the inmost heart of
the son who was lost and found again, which every penitent is. But it has to be
added that this reconciliation with God leads, as it were, to other
reconciliations which repair the breaches caused by sin. The forgiven penitent
is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where he regains his own true
identity. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he has in some way attacked
and wounded. He is reconciled with the church. He is reconciled with all
creation.
As a result of an awareness of this, at the end
of the celebration there arises in the penitent a sense of gratitude to God for
the gift of divine mercy received, and the church invites the penitent to have
this sense of gratitude.
Every confessional is a special and blessed
place from which, with divisions wiped away, there is born new and
uncontaminated a reconciled individual-a reconciled world!
VI. Last, I particularly wish to speak of one
final consideration, one which concerns all of us priests, who are the
ministers of the sacrament of penance.(193) The priest's celebration of the
eucharist and administration of the other sacraments, his pastoral zeal, his
relationship with the faithful his communion with his brother priests, his
collaboration with his bishop, his life of prayer-in a word, the whole of his
priestly existence, suffers an inexorable decline if by negligence or for some
other reason he fails to receive the sacrament of penance at regular intervals
and in a spirit of genuine faith and devotion. If a priest were no longer to go
to confession or properly confess his sins, his priestly being and his priestly
action would feel its effects very soon and this would also be noticed by the
community of which he was the pastor.
But I also add that even in order to be a good
and effective minister of penance the priest needs to have recourse to the
source of grace and holiness present in this sacrament We priests, on the basis
of our personal experience, can certainly say that the more careful we are to
receive the sacrament of penance and to approach it frequently and with good
dispositions, the better we fulfill our own ministry as confessors and ensure
that our penitents benefit from it. And on the other hand, this ministry would
lose much of its effectiveness if in some way we were to stop being good
penitents. Such is the internal logic of this great sacrament. It invites all
of us priests of Christ to pay renewed attention to our personal confession.
Personal experience in its turn becomes and must
become today an incentive for the diligent, regular, patient and fervent
exercise of the sacred ministry of penance, to which we are committed by the
very fact of our priesthood and our vocation as pastors and servants of our
brothers and sisters. Also with this present exhortation I therefore address an
earnest invitation to all the priests of the world, especially to my brothers
in the episcopacy and to pastors of souls, an invitation to make every effort to
encourage the faithful to make use of this sacrament. I urge them to use all
possible and suitable means to ensure that the greatest possible number of our
brothers and sisters receive the "grace that has been given to us"
through penance for the reconciliation of every soul and of the whole world
with God in Christ.
Forms of Celebration
32. Following the suggestions of the Second
Vatican Council, the Ordo Paenitentiae provided three rites which, while always
keeping intact the essential elements, make it possible to adapt the
celebration of the sacrament of penance to particular pastoral circumstances.
The first form-reconciliation of individual
penitents is the only normal and ordinary way of celebrating the sacrament, and
it cannot and must not be allowed to fall into disuse or be neglected. The
second form-reconciliation of a number of penitents with individual confession
and absolution-even though in the preparatory acts it helps to give greater
emphasis to the community aspects of the sacrament, is the same as the first
form in the culminating sacramental act, namely individual confession and
individual absolution of sins. It can thus be regarded as equal to the first
form as regards the normality of the rite. The third form however-
reconciliation of a number of penitents with general confession and
absolution-is exceptional in character. It is therefore not left to free choice
but is regulated by a special discipline.
The first form makes possible a highlighting of
the more personal- and essential-aspects which are included in the penitential
process. The dialogue between penitent and confessor, the sum of the elements
used (the biblical texts, the choice of the forms of "satisfaction,"
etc.), make the sacramental celebration correspond more closely to the concrete
situation of the penitent. The value of these elements are perceived when one
considers the different reasons that bring a Christian to sacramental penance:
a need for personal reconciliation and readmission to friendship with God by
regaining the grace lost by sin; a need to check one's spiritual progress and
sometimes a need for a more accurate discernment of one's vocation; on many
other occasions a need and a desire to escape from a state of spiritual apathy
and religious crisis. Thanks then to its individual character, the first form
of celebration makes it possible to link the sacrament of penance with
something which is different but readily linked with it: I am referring to
spiritual direction. So it is certainly true that personal decision and
commitment are clearly signified and promoted in this first form.
The second form of celebration, precisely by its
specific dimension, highlights certain aspects of great importance: The word of
God listened to in common ha s remarkable effect as compared to its individual
reading and better emphasizes the ecclesial character of conversion and
reconciliation. It is particularly meaningful at various seasons of the
liturgical year and in connection with events of special pastoral importance.
The only point that needs mentioning here is that for celebrating the second
form there should be an adequate number of confessors present.
It is therefore natural that the criteria for
deciding which of the two forms of celebration to use should be dictated not by
situational and subjective reasons, but by a desire to secure the true
spiritual good of the faithful in obedience to the penitential discipline of
the church.
We shall also do well to recall that, for a
balanced spiritual and pastoral orientation in this regard, great importance
must continue to be given to teaching the faithful also to make use of the
sacrament of penance for venial sins alone, as is borne out by a centuries-old
doctrinal tradition and practice.
Though the church knows and teaches that venial
sins are forgiven in other ways too-for instance, by acts of sorrow, works of
charity, prayer, penitential rites-she does not cease to remind everyone of the
special usefulness of the sacramental moment for these sins too. The frequent
use of the sacrament-to which some categories of the faithful are in fact
held-strengthens the awareness that even minor sins offend God and harm the
church, the body of Christ. Its celebration then becomes for the faithful
"the occasion and the incentive to conform themselves more closely to
Christ and tomake themselves more docile to the voice of the Spirit."(194)
Above all it should be emphasized that the grace proper to the sacramental
celebration has a great remedial power and helps to remove the very roots of sin.
Attention to the actual celebration,(195) with
special reference to the importance of the word of God which is read, recalled
and explained, when this is possible and suitable, to the faithful and with
them, will help to give fresh life to the practice of the sacrament and prevent
it from declining into a mere formality and routine. The penitent will be
helped rather to discover that he or she is living a salvific event capable of
inspiring fresh life and giving true peace of heart. This careful attention to
the celebration will also lead the individual churches to arrange special times
for the celebration of the sacrament. It will also be an incentive to teaching
the faithful especially children and young people, to accustom themselves to
keeping to these times except in cases of necessity, when the parish priest
must always show a ready willingness to receive whoever comes to him.
Celebration of the Sacrament with General
Absolution
33. The new liturgical regulation and, more
recently, the Code of Canon Law,196 specify the conditions which make it lawful
to use "the rite of reconciliation of a number of penitents with general
confession and absolution." The norms and regulations given on this point,
which are the result of mature and balanced consideration, must be accepted and
applied in such a way as to avoid any sort of arbitrary interpretation.
It is opportune to reflect more deeply on the
reasons which order the celebration of penance in one of the first two forms
and permit the use of the third form. First of all, there is the reason of
fidelity to the will of the Lord Jesus, transmitted by the doctrine of the
church, and also the reason of obedience to the church's laws. The synod
repeated in one of its propositions the unchanged teaching which the church has
derived from the most ancient tradition, and it repeated the law with which she
has codified the ancient penitential practice: The individual and integral
confession of sins with individual absolution constitutes the only ordinary way
in which the faithful who are conscious of serious sin are reconciled with God
and with the church. From this confirmation of the church's teaching it is
clear that every serious sin must always be stated, with its determining
circumstances, in an individual confession.
Then there is a reason of the pastoral order.
While it is true that, when the conditions required by canonical discipline
occur, use may be made of the third form of celebration, it must not be
forgotten that this form cannot become an ordinary one, and it cannot and must
not be used-as the synod repeated-except "in cases of grave
necessity." And there remains unchanged the obligation to make an
individual confession of serious sins before again having recourse to another
general absolution. The bishop therefore, who is the only one competent in his
own diocese to assess whether the conditions actually exist which canon law
lays down for the use of the third form, will give this judgment with a grave
obligation on his own conscience, with full respect for the law and practice of
the church and also taking into account the criteria and guidelines agreed
upon- on the basis of the doctrinal and pastoral considerations explained
above-with the other members of the episcopal conference. Equally it will always
be a matter of genuine pastoral concern to lay down and guarantee the
conditions that make recourse to the third form capable of producing the
spiritual fruits for which it is meant. The exceptional use of the third form
of celebration must never lead to a lesser regard for, still less an
abandonment of, the ordinary forms nor must it lead to this form being
considered an alternative to the other two forms. It is not in fact left to the
freedom of pastors and the faithful to choose from among these forms the one
considered most suitable. It remains the obligation of pastors to facilitate
for the faithful the practice of integral and individual confession of sins,
which constitutes for them not only a duty but also an inviolable and
inalienable right, besides being something needed by the soul. For he faithful,
the use of the third form of celebration involves the obligation of following
all the norms regulating its exercise, including that of not having recourse
again to general absolution before a normal integral and individual confession
of sins, which must be made as soon as possible. Before granting absolution the
priest must inform and instruct the faithful about this norm and about the
obligation to observe it.
With this reminder of the doctrine and the law
of the church I wish to instill into everyone the lively sense of
responsibility which must guide us when we deal with sacred things like the
sacraments, which are not our property, or like consciences, which have a right
not to be left in uncertainty and confusion. The sacraments and consciences, I
repeat, are sacred, and both require that we serve them in truth.
This is the reason for the church's law.
Some More Delicate Cases
34. I consider it my duty to mention at this
point, if very briefly, a pastoral case that the synod dealt with-insofar as it
was able to do so-and which it also considered in one of the propositions. I am
referring to certain situations, not infrequent today, affecting Christians who
wish to continue their sacramental religious practice, but who are prevented
from doing so by their personal condition, which is not in harmony with the
commitments freely undertaken before God and the church. These are situations
which seem particularly delicate and almost inextricable.
Numerous interventions during the synod,
expressing the general thought of the fathers, emphasized the coexistence and
mutual influence of two equally important principles in relation to these
cases. The first principle is that of compassion and mercy, whereby the church,
as the continuer in history of Christ's presence and work, not wishing the
death of the sinner but that the sinner should be converted and live,(197) and
careful not to break the bruised reed or to quench the dimly burning wick,(198)
ever seeks to offer, as far as possible, the path of return to God and of
reconciliation with him. The other principle is that of truth and consistency,
whereby the church does not agree to call good evil and evil good. Basing
herself on these two complementary principles, the church can only invite her
children who find themselves in these painful situations to approach the divine
mercy by other ways, not however through the sacraments of penance and the
eucharist until such time as they have attained the required dispositions.
On this matter, which also deeply torments our
pastoral hearts, it seemed my precise duty to say clear words in the apostolic
exhortation Familiaris Consortio, as regards the case of the divorced and
remarried,(199) and likewise the case of Christians living together in an
irregular union.
At the same time and together with the synod, I
feel that it is my clear duty to urge the ecclesial communities and especially
the bishops to provide all possible assistance to those priests who have fallen
short of the grave commitments which they undertook at their ordination and who
are living in irregular situations. None of these brothers of ours should feel
abandoned by the church.
For all those who are not at the present moment
in the objective conditions required by the sacrament of penance, the church's
manifestations of maternal kindness, the support of acts of piety apart from
sacramental ones, a sincere effort to maintain contact with the Lord,
attendance at Mass and the frequent repetition of acts of faith, hope, charity
and sorrow made as perfectly as possible can prepare the way for full
reconciliation at the hour that providence alone knows.
CONCLUDING
EXPRESSION OF HOPE
35. At the end of this document I hear echoing
within me and I desire to repeat to all of you the exhortation which the first
bishop of Rome, at a critical hour of the beginning of the church, addressed
"to the exiles of the dispersion...chosen and destined by God the
Father...: Have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart
and a humble mind."(200) The apostle urged: "Have unity of
spirit." But he immediately went on to point out the sins against harmony
and peace which must be avoided: "Do not return evil for evil or reviling
for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that
you may obtain a blessing." And he ended with a word of encouragement and
hope: "Who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is
right?"(201)
At an hour of history which is no less critical,
I dare to join my exhortation to that of the prince of the apostles, the first
to occupy this See of Rome as a witness to Christ and as pastor of the church,
and who here "presided in charity" before the entire world. In
communion with the bishops who are the successors of the apostles and supported
by the collegial reflection that many of them, meeting in the synod, devoted to
the topics and problems of reconciliation, I too wish to speak to you with the
same spirit of the fisherman of Galilee when he said to our brothers and
sisters in the faith, distant in time but so closely linked in heart:
"Have unity of spirit.... Do not return evil for evil.... Be zealous for
what is right."(202) And he added: "It is better to suffer for doing
right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong."(203)
This exhortation is completely permeated by
words which Peter had heard from Jesus himself and by ideas which formed part
of his "good news": the new commandment of love of neighbor; the
yearning for and commitment to unity; the beatitudes of mercy and patience in
persecution for the sake of justice; the repaying of evil with good; the
forgiveness of offenses; the love of enemies. In these words and ideas is the
original and transcendent synthesis of the Christian ethic or, more accurately
and more profoundly, of the spirituality of the new covenant in Jesus Christ.
I entrust to the Father, rich in mercy, I
entrust to the Son of God, made man as our redeemer and reconciler, I entrust
to the Holy Spirit, source of unity and peace, this call of mine, as father and
pastor, to penance and reconciliation. May the most holy and adorable Trinity
cause to spring up in the church and in the world the small seed which at this
hour I plant in the generous soil of many human hearts.
In order that in the not too distant future
abundant fruits may come from it, I invite you all to join me in turning to
Christ's heart, the eloquent sign of the divine mercy, the "propitiation
for our sins," "our peace and reconciliation,"(204) that we may draw
from it an interior encouragement to hate sin and to be converted to God, and
find in it the divine kindness which lovingly responds to human repentance.
I likewise invite you to turn with me to the
immaculate heart of Mary, mother of Jesus, in whom "is effected the
reconciliation of God with humanity..., is accomplished the work of
reconciliation, because she has received from God the fullness of grace in
virtue of the redemptive sacrifice of Christ."(205) Truly Mary has been
associated with God, by virtue of her divine motherhood, in the work of
reconciliation.(206)
Into the hands of this mother, whose fiat marked
the beginning of that "fullness of time" in which Christ accomplished
the reconciliation of humanity with God, to her immaculate heart-to which we
have repeatedly entrusted the whole of humanity, disturbed by sin and tormented
by so many tensions and conflicts-I now in a special way entrust this
intention: that through her intercession humanity may discover and travel the
path of penance, the only path that can lead it to full reconciliation.
To all of you who in a spirit of ecclesial
communion in obedience and faith(207) receive the indications, suggestions and
directives contained in this document and seek to put them into living pastoral
practice, I willingly impart my apostolic blessing.
Given in
NOTES
1. Mk 1:15.
2. Cf Pope John Paul II, opening speech at the
Third General Conference of the Latin American Episcopate: AAS 71 (1979),
198-204.
3. The idea of a "shattered world" is
seen in the works of numerous contemporary writers, both Christian and
non-Christian, witnesses of man's condition in this tormented period of
history.
4. Cf Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the
Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 3, 43 and 44; Decree on the Ministry and Life of
Priests Presbyterorum Ordinis, 12; Pope Paul VI, encyclical Ecclesiam Suam: AAS
56 (1964), 609-659.
5. At the very beginning of the church, the
apostle Paul wrote with words of fire about division in the body of the church,
in the famous passage 1 Cor 1:10-16. Years later, St. Clement of
6. The encyclical Pacem in Terris, John XXIII's
spiritual testament, is often considered a "social document" and even
a "political message," and in fact it is if these terms are
understood in their broadest sense. As is evident more than twenty years after
its publication, the document is in fact more than a strategy for the peaceful
coexistence of people and nations; it is a pressing reminder of the higher
values without which peace on earth becomes a mere dream. One of these values
is precisely that of reconciliation among people, and John XXIII often referred
to this subject. With regard to Paul VI, it will sufflce to recall that in
calling the church and the world to celebrate the Holy Year of 1975, he wished
"renewal and reconciliation" to be the central idea of that important
event. Nor can one forget the catechesis which he devoted to this key theme,
also in explaining the jubilee itself.
7. As I wrote in the bull of indiction of the
Jubilee Year of the Redemption: "This special time, when all Christians
are called upon to realize more profoundly their vocation to reconciliation
with the Father in the Son, will only reach its full achievement if it leads to
a fresh commitment by each and every person to the service of reconciliation,
not only among all the disciples of Christ but also among all men and
women": bull Aperite Portas Redemptori, 3: AAS 75 (1983), 93.
8. The theme of the synod was, more precisely,
"Reconciliation and Penance in the
9. Cf Mt 4:17; Mk 1:15.
10. Cf Lk 3:8.
11. Cf Mt 16:24-26; Mk 8:34-36; Lk 9:23-25.
12. Eph 4:23f.
13. Cf 1 Cor 3:1-20.
14. Cf
15. "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be
reconciled to God": 2 Cor 5:20.
16. "We also rejoice in God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received our reconciliation":
Rom
17. The Second
18. Cf
19. Cf Pope John Paul II, encyclical Dives in
Misencordia, 5-6: AAS 72 (1980), 1193-1199.
20. Cf Lk 15:11-32.
21. In the Old Testament, the Book of Jonah is a
wonderful anticipation and figure of this aspect of the parable. Jonah's sin is
that he was "displeased...exceedingly and he was angry" because God
is "a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast
love, and repentest of evil. His sin is also that of pitying a castor oil plant
"which came into being in a night and perished in a night" and not
understanding that the Lord pities Niniveh. cf Jon 4.
22. Cf Rom 5:10f.; cf
23. Cf 2 Cor
24. Jn 11:52.
25. Cf
26. Cf Sir 44:17.
27. Eph 2:14.
28. Eucharistic Prayer 3.
29. Cf Mt 5:23f.
30. Ibid., 27:46; Mk
31. Cf Eph 2:14-16.
32. St. Leo the Great, Tractatus 63 (De Passione
Domini, 12), 6: CCL 138/A, 386.
33. Cf 2 Cor 5:18f.
34. Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen
Gentium, 1.
35. "The church is also by her nature
always reconciling, handing on to others the gift that she herself has
received, the gift of having been forgiven and made one with God": Pope
John Paul II, Homily at Liverpool, May 30, 1982: Insegnamenti, V, 2 (1982),
1992.
36. Cf Acts 15:2-33.
37. Cf Apostolic exhortation Evangelii
Nuntiandi, 13: AAS 68 (1976), 12f.
38. Cf Pope John Paul II, apostolic exhortation
Catechesi Tradendae, 24: AAS 71 (1979), 1297.
39. Cf Pope Paul VI, encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam:
ASS 56 (1964), 609-659.
40. Cf 2 Cor
41. Cf 1 Jn 4:8.
42. Cf
43. Cf
44. Cf Gn 3:12f; 4:1-16.
45. Cf Eph 2:4.
46. Cf ibid., 1:10.
47. Jn 13:34.
48. Cf Second
49. Cf Mk 1:15.
50. Cf 2 Cor
51. Cf Eph 2:14-16.
52. Cf St. Augustine, De Civitate Dei, XXII 17:
CCL 48, 835f; St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, III pars, q. 64, art. 2 ad
tertium.
53. Cf Pope Paul VI, Allocution at the Closing
of the Third Session of the Second
54. Second
55.Ibid., Decree on Ecumenism Unitatis
Redintegratio, 4.
56.1 Jn 1:8-9.
57. 1 Jn
58. Cf 2 Sm 11-12.
59. Cf Ps 50(51):3-4.
60. Cf Lk 15:18, 21.
61. Lettere,
62. Cf Rom 3:23-26.
63. Cf Eph 1:18.
64. Cf Gn 11:1-9.
65. Cf Ps 127 (126):1.
66. Cf 2 1 hes 2:7.
67. Cf Rom 7:7-25; Eph 2:2;
68. The terminology used in the Septuagint Greek
translation and in the New Testament for sin is significant. The most common
term for sin is hamartia, with its various derivatives. It expresses the
concept of offending more or less gravely against a norm or law, or against a
person or even a divinity. But sin is also called adikia, and the concept here
is of acting unjustly. The Bible also speaks of parabasis (transgression),
asebeis (impiety) and other concepts. They all convey the image of sin.
69. Gn 3:5: "And you will be like God,
knowing good and evil"; cf also v. 22.
70. Cf ibid.,
71. Cf ibid., 4:2-16.
72. The expression from the French writer
Elizabeth Leseur, Journal et Pensees de Chaque Jour,
73. Cf Mt 22:39; Mk 12:31; Lk 10:27f.
74. Cf Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith: Instruction on Certain Aspects of the Theology of Liberation
Libertatis Nuntius;
75. Cf Nm 15:30.
76. Cf Lv 18:26-30.
77. Cf ibid., 19:4.
78. Cf ibid., 20:1-7.
79. Cf Ex
80. Cf Lv 4:2ff; 5:1ff; Nm
81. Cf Mt
82. Cf Mt 5:17; 15:1-10; Mk 10:19; Lk 18:20.
83. Cf 1 Jn 5:16f.
84. Cf 1 Jn 17:3.
85. Cf 1 Jn 2:22.
86. Cf 1 Jn 5:21.
87. Cf 1 Jn 5:16-21.
88. Cf Mt 12:31f.
89. Cf St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae
II-II, q. 14, aa. 1-8.
90. Cf 1 Jn 3:20.
91. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II,
q. 14, a. 3, ad primum.
92. Cf Phil 2:12.
93. Cf St. Augustine, De Spintu et Littera,
XXVIII: CSEL 60, 202f; Enarrat. in ps. 39, 22: CCL 38, 441; Enchiridion ad
Laurentium de Fide et Spe et Cantate, XIX, 71: CCL 46, 88; In Ioannis
Evangelium Tractatus, 12, 3,14: CCL 36, 129.
94. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II,
q. 72, a. 5.
95. Cf Council of
96. Cf Council of Trent, Session IV De
Iustificatione, Chapt. 15: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum Decreta, ed. dt. 677 (DS
1544).
97. Pope John Paul II, Angelus Message of
98. Gaudium et Spes, 16.
99. Pope John Paul II, Angelus Message of
100. Pope Pius XII, Radio Message to the
101. Cf Pope John Paul II, encyclical Redemptor
Hominis, 15: AAS 71 (1979), 286-289.
102. Cf Gaudium et Spes, 3; cf 1 Jn 3:9.
103. Pope John Paul II, Address to the Bishops
of the Eastern Region of
104.1 Tm 3:15f.
105. The text presents a certain difficulty,
since the relative pronoun which opens the literal translation does not agree
with the neuter mysterion. Some late manuscripts have adjusted the text in
order to correct the grammar. But it was Paul's intention merely to put next to
what he had written a venerable text which for him was fully explanatory.
106. The early Christian community expresses its
faith in the crucified and glorified Christ, whom the angels adore and who is
the Lord. But the striking element of this message remains the
phrase"manifested in the flesh": that the eternal Son of God became
man is the "great mystery.
107. 1 Jn 5:18f.
108. Ibid., 3:9.
109. 1 Tm 3:15.
110. 1 Jn 1:8.
111. Ibid.,
112. Cf Ps. 51(50):5.
113. Cf Eph. 2:4.
114 Cf Pope John Paul II, Dives in Misericordia,
8; 15: AAS 72 (1980), 1203-1207; 1231.
115. 2 Sm 12:13.
116. Ps 51(50):3.
117. Ibid., 51(50):7.
118. 2 Sm 12:13.
119. Cf 2 Cor
120. Cf 2 Cor
121. Gaudium et Spes, 92.
122. Decree on the Pastoral Offlce of Bishops in
the Church Christus Dominus, 13; cf Declaration on Christian Education
Gravissimum Educationis, 8; Decree on the Church's Missionary Activity Ad
Gentes, 11-12.
123. Cf Pope Paul VI, Ecclesiam Suam, III: AAS
56 (1964), 639-659.
124. Lumen Gentium, 1, 9,13.
125. Pope Paul VI, apostolic exhortation Paterna
Cum Benevolentia: AAS 67 (1975), 5-23.
126. Cf Unitatis Redintegratio, 7-8.
127. Ibid., 4.
128.
129. Pope John Paul II, Speech to Members of the
Diplomatic Corps Accredited to the Holy See
130. Pope John Paul II, Homily at the Mass for
the 16th World Day of Peace (January 1, 1983), 6: Insegnamenti VI, 1 (1983), 7.
131. Pope Paul VI, apostolic exhortation
Evangelii Nuntiandi, 70: AAS 68 (1976), 59f.
132. 1 Tm 3:15.
133. Cf Mt 5:23f.
134. Cf ibid., 5:38-40.
135. Cf ibid.,
136. Cf ibid., 5:43ff.
137. Cf ibid., 18:21f.
138. Cf Mk 1:14; Mt 3:2;
139. Cf Lk 15:17.
140. Ibid., 17:3f.
141. Cf Mt 3:2; Mk 1:2-6; Lk 3:1-6.
142. Cf Gaudium et Spes, 8, 16, 19, 26, 41,48.
143. Cf Declaration on Religious Liberty
Dignitatis Humanae, 2, 3, 4.
144. Cf among many others the addresses at the
general audiences of
145. Cf PopeJohn Paul II, Angelus Message of
146. Cf Pope John Paul II, General Audience
Address of
147. Heb 4:15.
148. Cf Mt 4:1-11; Mk 1:12f; Lk 4:1-13.
149. Cf 1 Cor
150. Cf Mt 6:13; Lk 11:4.
151. 1 Pt 3:21.
152. Cf Rom 6:3f;
153. Cf Mt 3:11; Lk 3:16; Jn 1:33; Acts 1:5;
154. Cf Mt 3:15.
155.
156. Sacred Congregation of Rites, Instruction
on the Worship of the Eucharistic Mystery Eucharisticum Mysterium (May 25,
1967) 35 AAS 59 (1967), 560f.
157. Ps 78(77):38f.
158. Cf Jn
159. Cf Jn 5:27.
160. Cf Mt 9:2-7; Lk 5.-18-25; 7:47-49; Mk
2:3-12.
161. Cf Jn 3:17.
162. Jn
163. Cf Mt 12:49f; Mk 3:33f; Lk 8:20f; Rom 8:29:
"the firstborn among many brethren."
164. Cf Heb
165. Cf Mt 18:12f; Lk 15:4-6.
166. Cf Lk 5:31f.
167. Cf Mt 22:16.
168. Cf Acts
169. Cf Jn 8:16.
170. Cf the address to the penitentiaries of the
Roman patriarchal basilicas and to the priest confessors at the closing of the
Jubilee of the Redemption auly 9, 1984): L'Osservatore Romano,
171. Jn 8:11.
172. Cf Ti 3:4.
173. Cf Council of
174. Lumen Gentium, 11.
175. Cf Council of
176. Cf Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy
Suaosanctum Concilium, 72.
177. Cf Rituale Romanum ex Decreto Sacrosancti
Conalii Oecumenici Vaticani II Instauratum, Auctoritate Pauli Vl Promulgatum:
Ordo Paenitenttae,
178. The Council of Trent uses the attenuated
expression "ad instar actus iudicialis" (Session XIV De Sacramento
Poenitentiae, Chap. 6: ConciliorumOecumenicorum Decreta, ed. dt., 707 (DS
1685), in order to emphasize the difference from human tribunals. The new Rite
of Penance makes reference to this function, Nos. 6b and 10a.
179. Cf Lk 5:31f: "Those who are well have
no need of a physician, but those who are sick" concluding: "I
have...come to call...sinners to repentance"; Lk 9:2: "And he sent
them out to preach the
180.
181. Ibid., Sermo, 352, 3, 8:9: PL 39, 1558f.
182. Cf Ordo Paenitentiae, 6c.
183. Even the pagans recognized the existence of
"divine" moral laws which have "always" existed and which
are written in the depths of the human heart, cf Sophocles (Antigone, w. 450-460)
ant Aristotle (Rhetor., Book I, Chap.15, 1375 a-b).
184. On the role of conscience cf what I said at
the general audience of
185. Cf Council of Trent, Session XIV De
Sacramento Poenitentiae, Chap.4 De Contritione: Conciliorum Oecumenicorum
Decreta, ed. cit., 705 (DS 1676-1677). Of course, in order to approach the
sacrament of penance it is sufficient to have attrition, or imperfect
repentance, due more to fear than to love. But in the sphere of the sacrament,
the penitent, under the action of the grace that he receives, "ex attrito
fit conmtus," since penance really operates in the person who is
welldisposed to conversion in love: cf Council of
186. Ordo Paenitentiae, 6c.
187. Cf Ps 51(50):12.
188. I had occasion to speak of these
fundamental aspects of penance at the general audiences of
189. I dealt with this subject concisely at the
general audience of
190. Cf Gn 4:7, 15.
191. Cf 2 Sm 12.
192. Cf Lk 15:17-21.
193. Cf Presbyterorum Ordinis, 18.
194. Ordo Paenitentiae, 7b.
195. Cf ibid., 17.
196. Canons 961-963.
197. Cf Ez 18:23.
198. Cf Is 42:3; Mt 12:20.
199. Cf Familiaris Consortio, 84: AAS 74 (1982),
184-186.
200. Cf 1 Pt 1:1f; 3:8.
201. Ibid., 3:9, 13.
202. Ibid., 3:8, 9, 13.
203. Ibid.,
204. Litany of the Sacred Heart, cf 1 Jn 2:2;
Eph
205. Pope John Paul II, General Audience Address
of
206. Ibid., General Audience Address of
207. Cf Rom 1:5;
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