ther and his children, between a master and his servants. The third end is, to reinstate himself in the favor and friendship of God, whom he has offended, and whose hatred he has earned by the turpitude of sin."*

steps by which we The mercy of God

"We must also point out the may ascend to this divine virtue. first prevents us and converts our hearts to him; this was the object of the prophet's prayer: Convert us, O Lord! and we shall be converted.' Illumined by this celestial light, the soul next tends to God by faith; a salutary fear of God's judgments follows, and, the soul, contemplating the punishments that await sin, is recalled from the paths of vice. We are also animated with a hope of obtaining mercy from God, and, cheered by this hope, we resolve on a change of life. Lastly, our hearts are inflamed by charity, and hence we conceive that filial fear which a dutiful, ingenuous child experiences toward a parent. Thus, dreading only to offend the majesty of God in any thing, we entirely abandon the ways of sin. These are, as it were, the steps by which we ascend to this most exalted virtue, a virtue altogether heavenly and divine, to which the sacred Scriptures promise the inheritance of heaven. 'Do penance,' says the Redeemer, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.' 'If,' says the Prophet Ezekiel, 'the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die." "+

6

ture by the phrase of Doing Penance. But setting aside this, with a few other exceptions, the portions which I have quoted from the Catechism of the Council of Trent are, in the main, sound and correct. And I next pass on to the other features of their system, in which the errors will be found numerous and of serious consequence.

Having treated of the internal virtue of repentance under the term of penance, the Catechism of Trent proceeds as follows:

“ With regard to external penance, the pastor will teach that it is that which constitutes the sacrament of

penance : it consists of certain sensible things sig. nificant of that which passes interiorly in the soul ; and the faithful are to be informed, in the first place, why the Redeemer was pleased to give it a place among the sacraments. His object was, no doubt, to remove, in a great measure, all uncertainty as to the pardon of sin promised by our Lord. Pronouncing upon his own actions, every man has reason to question the accuracy of his own judgment, and hence, at the sincerity of interior penance, the mind must be held in anxious suspense.

To calm this our solicitude, the Redeemer instituted the sacrament of penance, in which we cherish a well-grounded hope that our sins are forgiven us by the absolution of the priest, and the faith which we justly have in the efficacy of the sacraments has much influence in tranquilizing the troubled conscience and giving peace to the soul. The voice of the priest, who is legitimately constituted a minister for the remission of sins, is to be heard as that of Christ himself, who said to the lame man, •Son, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee.'"* “ That penance is a sacrament, the pastor will not * Catechism of the Council of Trent, first Am. ed., p. 239.

CHAP. II.] PENANCE AS A SACRAMENT.

19 find it difficult to establish: baptism is a sacrament because it washes away all, particularly original sin: penance also washes away all sins of thought or deed committed after baptism : on the same principle, therefore, penance is a sacrament. Again, and the argument is conclusive, a sacrament is the sign of a sacred thing, and what is done externally, by the priest and penitent, is a sign of what takes place internally in the soul : the penitent unequivocally expresses, by words and actions, that he has turned away from sin : the priest, too, by words and actions, gives us easily to understand that the mercy of God is exercised in the remission of sin: this is, also, clearly evinced by these words of the Saviour : "I will give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: Whatever sins you loose on earth, shall be loosed, also, in heaven. The absolution of the priest, which

expressed in words, seals, therefore, the remission of sins, which it accomplishes in the soul, and thus is penance invested with all the necessary conditions of a sacrament, and is, therefore, truly a sacrament.”* 6 That

penance is not only to be numbered among the sacraments, but also among the sacraments that may be repeated, the faithful are next to be taught. To Peter, asking if sin may be forgiven seven times, our Lord replies: "I say, not seven times, but seventy times seven.'”+

“As, then, among the sacraments there is none on which the faithful should be better informed, they are to be taught that it differs from the other sacraments in this: the matter of the other sacraments is some production of nature or art; but the acts of the

penitent, contrition, confession, and satisfaction, consti

tute, as has been defined by the Council of Trent, the matter, as it were (quasi materia), of the sacrament of penance. They are called parts of penance, because required in the penitent, by divine institution, for the integrity of the sacrament, and the full and entire remission of sin. When the holy Synod says that they are the matter, as it were,' it is not because they are not the real matter, but because they are not, like water in baptism and chrism in confirmation, matter that may be applied externally. With regard to the opinion of some, who hold that the sins themselves constitute the matter of this sacrament, if well weighed, it will not be found to differ from what has been already laid down. We say that wood which is consumed by fire is the matter of fire; and sins which are destroyed by penance, may also be called, with propriety, the matter of penance."*

"The form also, because well calculated to excite the faithful to receive with fervent devotion the grace of this sacrament, the pastor will not omit to explain. The words that compose the form are: I ABSOLVE THEE, as may be inferred not only from those words of the Redeemer: Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven,' but also from the same doctrine of Jesus Christ, as recorded by the apostles. That this is the perfect form of the sacrament of penance, the very nature of the form of a sacrament proves. The form of a sacrament signifies what the sacrament accomplishes: these words, 'I absolve thee,' signify the accomplishment of absolution from sin through the instrumentality of this sacrament: they therefore constitute its form. Sins are, as it were, the chains by which the soul is fet*Catechism of the Council of Trent, first Am. ed., p. 240-1.

tered, and from the bondage of which it is loosed' by the sacrament of penance. This form is not less true when pronounced by the priest over him, who, by means of perfect contrition, has already obtained the pardon of his sins. Perfect contrition, it is true, reconciles the sinner to God, but his justification is not to be ascribed to perfect contrition alone, independently of the desire which it includes of receiving the sacrament of penance. Many prayers accompany the form, not because they are deemed necessary, but in order to remove every obstacle which the unworthiness of the penitent may oppose to the efficacy of the sacrament. Let then the sinner pour out his heart in fervent thanks to God, who has invested the ministers of his Church with such ample powers! Unlike the authority given to the priests of the Old Law, to declare the leper cleansed from his leprosy, the power with which the priests of the New Law are invested is not simply to declare that sins are forgiven, but, as the ministers of God, really to absolve from sin: a power which God himself, the author and source of grace and justification, exercises through their ministry."*

"The rites used in the administration of this sacrament also demand the serious attention of the faithful. Humbled in spirit, the sincere penitent casts himself down at the feet of the priest, to testify, by this his humble demeanor, that he acknowledges the necessity of eradicating pride, the root of all those enormities which he now deplores. In the minister of God, who sits in the tribunal of penance as his legitimate judge, he venerates the power and person of our Lord Jesus Christ; for in the administration of this, as in that of the other sacraments, the priest

* Catechism of the Council of Trent, first Am. ed., p. 241-2.