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The Sacrament of

PENANCE
A Prayer of Love

by Rev. John L. Reedy, C.S.C.

AVE MARIA PRESS

Notre Dame, Indiana



NIHIL OBSTAT—John Maguire, C.S.C.

Censor Deputatus

IMPRIMATUR—^ Most Rev. L. A. Pursley, D.D.
Bishop of Fort Wayne-South Bend

November, 1960

All rights reserved. This pamphlet may not be

reproduced by any means in whole or in part

without prior permission.

Fourth Printing, January 1963

© 1960, Ave Maria Press

Oeatfdied



Far too many Catholics look on the sac-

rament of Penance as some kind of super-

natural vending machine. You put in a

list of your sins, crank it with a minimum

amount of sincere sorrow, and out comes

an absolution.

This comparison may sound irreverent,

but ask the ordinary Catholic you meet

on the street what his first thought is when

he hears the word “confession.” He will

probably say: “a way of getting rid of

mortal sin.”

He should say: “a special form of pray-

er.”

Penance is one of the seven great sources

of supernatural life by which the Chris-

tian takes giant strides toward God. He

walks the paths of mystery and divine life,

even while on the human level he seems

to live a drab and monotonous routine as

a bank clerk, elevator operator or used car

salesman.

The sacrament of Penance, like every

other act of worship, must be seen in rela-

tion to the supernatural life. We must real-
ize that there is a whole world of super-

natural reality hovering over the world

which we see and feel and touch. And God

has called us to be a part of this world.

The term “supernatural life” is not ec-

clesiastical jargon, hollow as the platitudes

in most second-rate political speeches. It

is a life which is real, vibrant and inescap-

3



able. We would commit the ultimate blas-
phemy if we believed that Christ hung on

Calvary for the sake of a platitude.

He spoke of life; He meant life. His

teachings gave an eternal importance to

every action we perform, every word we

speak. He called us to live the life of God

through knowledge and love.

Christ Instituted Penance

It is within this framework that we

should see the sacrament of Penance. This

was one of the chief fountains of life that

Christ gave us before He ascended to the

Father. During the 40 days after He

rose from the dead, Our Lord taught His

Apostles many things. One of the instruc-

tions He gave them was: “Whose sins you

shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins

you shall retain, they are retained.”

With these words Christ gave his

Apostles and their successors a frightening

power. With the same words, He asked

us to do what He Himself had done when

He took the sin of Adam and turned it into

an occasion for worshiping the Father.

Because of Adam’s sin, the Son of God

became man and offered to the Father the

most glorious prayer that could rise from

human nature.

And when Christ instituted the sacra-

ment of Penance, He asked us to take our

petty, trivial faults of weakness and malice

4



and turn them into occasions of worship.

If we follow His example, we can say of

our own failings what the Easter Vigil lit-

urgy says of Adam’s sin: “O felix culpa
”

“O happy fault!”

Keep in mind that Penance, like all the

other sacraments, is a source of that spe-

cial, supernatural life which has been given

to us. When we receive the sacrament

worthily, God floods our souls with an

increase or a restoration of sanctifying

grace (which is our supernatural life).

It happens this way. In looking at our

sins, we must also look at God. The more

we understand our sins, the more we rec-

ognize our fallen nature, so much more do

we realize the majesty of God. Moreover,

this self-examination nourishes our love.

We simply cannot look on His continuing
forgiveness and on our own repeated in-

gratitude without being stimulated to love

Him more deeply.

Embarrassment in the Confessional

Knowledge and love are the blood

stream of the divine life. This is the ac-

tivity of the Trinity— each of the Divine
Persons knowing and loving the Others

perfectly.

Christ takes this knowledge and love of

God which comes from our honest recog-

nition of our sins; He blesses it and raises

it to the supernatural level by the action

5



of His grace; He makes it possible for us

to know and love God as He knows and

loves Himself. This is the divine life, the

life of mystery and wonder to which the

bank clerk and the elevator operator are

called.

The sacrament of Penance is directed

toward our weakness— we can consider it
a kind of spiritual life preserver. But it is

also directed toward God as an act of

worship, a special form of prayer.

Such a view of the sacrament has little

in common with our vague feeling of em-

barrassment and futility as we stand in

line outside the confessional on Saturday

evening.

We find it hard to believe that what
happens in this dark, stuffy enclosure is

directly connected with Adam and the

prophets, with Calvary and Bethlehem.

Only by faith can we realize that the

angels and saints anxiously await our

words of sorrow. No authority other than

that of Christ could convince us that our

routine reception of the sacrament stirs

the waters of eternity and sends out rip-

ples of prayer that will endure forever.

Why Dredge up Old Faults?

And when there is no serious sin, an-

other fact bothers us. We examine our con-
science and find that our confession sounds

very much like all the others we have

6



made during the past year. What good do

we accomplish by dredging up these faults

again? Can we honestly say that we feel

a sincere sorrow for them? Are we being

truthful when we say that we are firmly

determined to avoid them in the future?

All of us have a hard core of common

sense. We look for reasons and meanings
— especially for those duties we don’t like
to fulfill. We tend to rebel, at least inward-
ly, when we can’t find these meanings.

You’ve probably had this reaction when

you saw a baseball player give that ner-

vous right-hand twitch that’s supposed to

be a sign of the cross just before he steps

into the batter’s box— or when you saw
a prizefighter use the same gesture just

before he started to pound his opponent

into a staggering, bloody stupor. You won-

dered what this ritual had to do with the

worship of God. It smells of superstition

and voodoo. The fighter or baseball player

may mean it as a sincere prayer, but it

strikes us as a meaningless habit. Our

common sense rebels against giving the

ritual any importance.

I believe that many Catholics have

somewhat the same feelings about their

regular routine confessions. The fact that

they continue to go to confession frequent-

ly says something about their spirit of

faith and obedience in carrying out the

instructions of their priests; it doesn’t

7



necessarily say anything about their real

understanding of the importance of the

sacrament.

If confession is merely a spiritual scrub-

down to get rid of mortal sin, then the

fact is that most Catholics do not have

to make frequent use of it.

Many priests feel that it’s not easy to

commit a mortal sin— especially for the
person who is making the ordinary, sin-

cere effort to live a good life.

Was It REALLY a Mortal Sin?

Some actions which, at first sight, seem

to be serious faults lose much of their guilt

when checked out against the three re-

quirements for mortal sin: (1) the action

itself must be a serious violation of God's

law; (2) we must fully understand what

we are doing and see it as a serious offense

against Almighty God; (3) we must really

decide to perform the action and not mere-

ly be swept into it by emotion or by cir-

cumstances.

A potential convert recently presented
me with a cold, logical objection which

many life-long Catholics feel, but which

few of them put into words.

“You say I have to go to confession

only when I have a mortal sin to confess;

you also say that I should go to confession

often— even once a week. I don't think
that I'm seriously offending God — cut-
8



ting myself off from His friendship—
every week. In fact, I don’t know that I’ve

ever done this. So where’s the consistency

of your position?”

The consistency of my position was lost

in the fact that I had done a poor job of

explaining the real meaning of the sacra-

ment of Penance to this person. It fre-

quently happens that we priests, who tend

to see this sacrament from the other side

of the grating, are so concerned with form-

ing true consciences on what constitutes

mortal and venial sin that we play down

the sacrament’s real importance as an act

of worship.

Christ told us to pray always. No one

has any trouble in seeing why we should

not limit our prayers to those times when

we are on the brink of disaster and need

His help to get us out of trouble. All of

us understand that this kind of prayer is

like making a visit to a Church— to get
out of the rain. We owe our Creator more
than this.

Prayer Is a Normal Human Reflex

It’s a perfectly normal thing for me to

thank God for a particular joy or success

that has come up in my life; it’s a normal
response for me to tell Him “I’m sorry”
after I’ve lost my temper or cut someone
with a sharp word; it’s almost a reflex

9



action for me to ask Him to protect and

direct those I love.

Well, the sacrament of Penance is an-

other form of prayer— which has a spe-
cial character and special effect. Christ

raised this particular form of worship to

the dignity of a sacrament and gave it

these special effects because He wanted us

to use it regularly in honoring the Father.

That is how we should look on it.

To understand the real meaning of the

sacrament of Penance we should clear up

a confusion in terminology. Theology and

the formal documents of the Church gen-

erally use this expression: “sacrament of

Penance.” Maybe the confusion is caused

by an accident of the English language.

The one word “penance” has two mean-

ings. It refers both to the sacrament itself

and to the works of satisfaction imposed

by the priest after he has heard our sins.

At any rate, most of us refer to the sac-

rament as “confession.”

Confessing— telling our sins— is cer-
tainly part of this act of worship, but it's

not the central part.

You can see this when you recognize

that there are times when we can receive

the sacrament without mentioning our

sins in detail.

For example, a short time ago I visited

a friend who was recovering from a serious

illness in a hospital ward. He wanted to

10



go to confession, but the beds on either

side were so close that he couldn’t speak

without being overheard by the other

patients.

In these circumstances, I told him to

simply state his sorrow for all the sins of

his past life, especially for those he had

committed since his last confession. I was

able to give him absolution and confer the

sacrament without unnecessary embarrass-

ment.

During a war or at the time of a serious

accident, a priest can give “general abso-

lution” to a group of people without hear-

ing their confessions individually. Of

course, at their next regular confession

they must mention any mortal sins that

have not been previously confessed in de-

tail. But the general absolution is valid;

the sins are forgiven; the sacrament is con-

ferred, and the person is restored to the

state of grace even though he hasn’t given

the details of the particular sins.

What Is Absolutely Necessary?

What, then, is absolutely necessary?

What must be present whenever I receive

the sacrament of Penance validly?

Contrition . Contrition which involves

two things— sorrow for our sins based on
supernatural motives and the determina-

tion to avoid serious sin in the future.

Confession forces us to look at our faults

11



and failings with honesty. When we ex-

amine our conscience in preparation for

this sacrament, we must recognize what

we are and what we have done.

This can be a painful procedure which

shatters the dreams of self-glorification

which make us feel so warm and righteous.

It’s like looking at a sharp, close-up por-

trait of ourselves before the photographer

has touched it up to eliminate our skin

blemishes, wrinkles and double chin.

Once we look at ourselves as we are and

at God as He is, we are disposed to say:

“My God, I’m sorry! I’m sorry that I

have abused the gifts of intelligence, will

and body which You have given me. I’m

sorry that I have failed to respond to the

graces You have offered. I’m sorry that I

have not given You the honor and adora-

tion which is Your due. Instead, I have

lived my days as though the world re-
volved around my interests and pleasures,
as though You existed only at those times

when I stumbled into serious trouble and

had to call upon You for help.

“I’m sorry that I have repeatedly re-

fused to recognize that my only reason
for being on earth is to know and love and

honor Your perfections. I’m sorry that I

have dishonored You by warping the way

of life You set down for me in your com-

mandments and in the teachings of Your

12



Son. My God, I’m sorry . . . sorry . . .
sorry

!”

These are the dispositions which are at

the very essence of the sacrament of Pen-

ance; this is the way in which “confession”

is a prayer, an act of worship; this is the

truth which Christ meant for us to recog-

nize when He instituted this sacrament.

There’s one trap that’s hard to avoid

when the sincere Catholic looks at his

confession— the danger of confusing his
feelings with his intentions. Feelings or

emotions frequently follow our convic-

tions, but sometimes they don’t.

Is the Will Dependent upon Emotions?

If you feel sorrow in the sacrament of

Penance, fine. If you don’t, it doesn’t make

much difference— as long as your will,
your intention, is firmly rooted in contri-

tion.

And you can be fairly sure, from the

very fact that you are going to confession,

that your basic intention is good.

The most important thought you can

keep in mind about the sacrament of Pen-

ance is this awareness that sorrow, con-

trition, is the most important element. Re-

member this as we go on to look at the

element that gives us the most trouble,

the confessing of our sins.

When we have serious doubts about
whether a sin was mortal or venial, we are

13



not obliged to confess it. It's easy to de-

ceive ourselves in this matter by talking

our consciences into doubts which didn’t

exist at the time of the action. (That’s

why many priests say it’s a good practice

to mention these actions when we go to

confession.)

Still, the Church’s teaching is quite

clear. When there is a serious doubt about

the gravity of the sin, we don’t have to

confess it. If we should happen to be

wrong, God gives us the benefit of the

doubt, and this action is forgiven along

with all the unmentioned venial sins which

come under our general act of contrition.

A Practical Guide

With regard to venial sins, the rule is

simple: tell those that you want to men-

tion; you aren’t obliged to confess any

particular venial sin. We may choose to
mention particular ones when asking for

forgiveness, but this is entirely a matter

of our own choice.

Why isn’t it necessary to list all of them?
Because venial sin alone will never destroy

our bond of friendship with God. As long

as we protect that friendship and have a

general contrition for any offenses we may

have committed against Almighty God,

there’s no need to catalogue every fault

and failing. The unmentioned venial sins

are forgiven along with the rest when we

14



receive absolution— as long as we are
sorry for them.

A special word should be said about

occasions of sin. Putting yourself in an

occasion of sin is like fooling around with

a live wire while standing on a wet base-

ment floor— and then pretending to be
surprised when you are bounced into next

winter’s supply of preserved peaches.

Dubious— and Dangerous— Situations
Put a young teen-age couple in a flashy

convertible, parked on a bluff overlooking

a moonlit lake, with soft dance music com-

ing from the car radio—and they might
be talking about the trigonometry test they

have to take the next day. But regardless

of what they are talking about, the situa-

tion had a red danger sign flashing on and

off.

That’s an easy one to see— especially
if you’re the girl’s father.

But do you recognize that this particu-

lar bridge club is an occasion of sin for

you if the small talk almost always comes

around to the clever, clinical, and vicious

surgery on the characters of any women

who aren’t present?

Do you see that the third double-
scotch on the rocks can be an occasion of

sin for you if you’re the type of fellow

who gets “playfully amorous” after the

second one?

15



Do you understand that the new living

room set can be an occasion of sin if it

leads you to badger your husband into

an unwise use of the family savings—
or, more likely, the family credit?

There's nothing mysterious about occa-

sions of sin for the person who is able to

take an honest look at himself. He can

see, on the basis of past performance, that

he is likely to commit this sin if he puts

himself in these circumstances.

Of course, there's always the chance

that this time he might not slip; but, in

effect, he's saying: I know that I might

seriously offend Almighty God if I go to

this place, see this person, read this book.

But I'm willing to take that chance for the

sake of the personal satisfaction I get from

the action.

Some Moral Risks Are Necessary

If it's necessary for us to take some

moral risks for a serious reason, we can

do so. As long as we use all the precau-

tions available. An ambulance driver might

have to exceed the speed limit to save a

patient’s life; but even in taking these

chances, he’s obliged to keep the siren

wailing, the red light flashing, and his

driving as safe as possible for the fulfill-

ment of his duty.

Placing yourself in circumstances in

which there is a good possibility that you

16



will commit serious sin without a suffi-

ciently important reason is a mortal sin in

itself.

The third element of the sacrament of

Penance— the purpose of amendment—
is a cause of worry for many sincere Cath-

olics who are trying to lead good lives.

They torment themselves with doubts be-

cause when they promise to avoid the sin

in the future they are reasonably sure that

they will be confessing it next time they

kneel before a priest and ask for absolu-

tion.

If you’re genuinely sorry for the sins

you have committed, don’t worry about

the purpose of amendment. You can’t have

sincere sorrow without intending to avoid

the sin in the future.

“.
. . But the Flesh Is Weak”

We all know that there’s a big difference
between our good intentions and our

knowledge of our own weaknesses. The

husband who is an alcoholic can look at

the bruises on his wife’s face and say with

the deepest, most heartfelt emotion: ‘T’m

sorry! I feel like cutting off my hand
when I see what I have done to the person

I love.”

At the same time, he may know himself

well enough to suspect that when the pres-

sures mount up again, he may take the
first drink. This doesn’t make his sorrow

17



less sincere. Anyone who believes that it

does simply doesn’t know the hell of re-

morse endured by the alcoholic or drug

addict who is trying to recover.

No matter what we may think about

the likelihood of our committing this sin

again, our sorrow must be such that at this

moment of confession, we are firmly de-

termined to do everything in our power—
aided by the grace of God— to avoid of-
fending God in the future.

Without this determination, our protest

of regret is nothing but shallow hypocrisy.

When we studied the sacrament of Pen-

ance in the catechism, we found that one

of the questions asked was: What are the

effects of this sacrament? The answer, at

least as I learned it, centered around the

results of the sacrament in our own souls.

It overlooked the fact that this prayer,

like every other one, has the primary effect

of giving worship to God.

In other words, even if Christ had given

no other special effects to our act of pen-

ance, the good man— simply as a creature
of God— would be obliged to offer up the
homage of his sorrow for the offenses he

had committed.

Marvelous Effects of Penance

But Christ did attach other, marvelous,

effects to this sacrament.

Like all the other sacraments, Penance

18



is a great source of sanctifying grace. This

term “sanctifying grace” is a mysterious

label which all Catholics use when they

talk about their religion. Whether they

clearly understand the real meaning and

significance of the term is open to ques-

tion.

Sanctifying grace is not just the condi-

tion of being free from mortal sin, though

many Catholics think of it this way. In-

stead, it’s a supernatural reality, freely

given to the individual Christian by Al-

mighty God. Its purpose is to make the

Christian soul pleasing to God and capable

of receiving the supernatural destiny which

God has offered to man.

You can’t really imagine what sanctify-

ing grace is— and that’s part of our prob-
lem. We understand the things we can see
and feel and touch; and grace isn’t some-

thing tangible.

But we do know other realities (real

things) which we can’t grasp with our

senses. Can you taste or smell a thought?

Yet, you recognize that you have thoughts.

They are spiritual (nonmaterial) reali-

ties we accept and use in our everyday

life.

During a war a soldier might come upon

two men lying next to each other— one
dead, the other sleeping. They might look

practically the same, but he knows that

the one body is simply a material object

19



which should be buried reverently out of

respect for what it once was. The other is

completely different. It is a man possess-

ing dignity, rights, human relationships,

a future. It is alive .

The difference is not simply that one

body is breathing and the other is not.

Breath is a sign of life, not life itself. We
recognize and deal with life as a reality,

even though we can’t see it or feel it or

touch it.

Sanctifying Grace Desperately Needed

The same is true of sanctifying grace.

We know that it exists and that it can be
possessed by man because Christ, Who is
God, told us so. We know that it is a
thing that can be increased or diminished,

gained or lost. Christ also told us that its

possession or absence makes all the differ-

ence in the world in the life of man. The

degree of sanctifying grace we possess at

the moment of death, when our period of

trial has run out, will determine the de-

gree of our happiness in heaven.

In a sense, the soul which possesses sanc-

tifying grace already exists in heaven be-

cause it exists in the knowledge and love

of God. This is the essence of heaven—
knowing and loving God as He actually

is. This is the meaning of the expression,

“the Beatific Vision.”

What separates us from heaven itself is

20



the fact that our knowledge and love is

incomplete— blurred by our mortality.
Because it is incomplete, we can lose it

through our sins. Nevertheless, in a real

way, the Christian begins his heaven, his

life as a saint, at the moment he is bap-

tized.

Therefore, simply because Christ gave

us this sacrament of Penance as one of

the great sources of sanctifying grace, we

should make frequent use of it— aside
from the other effects it has on our souls.

But each of the sacraments, in addition

to increasing the sanctifying grace in our

souls, has a specific supernatural effect—
an effect which sets it off from all the

others. This is what we mean by the sacra-

mental grace.

This particular help which comes

through the sacrament of penance points

to the future. Whenever we mention a spe-

cific sin in confession— one committed
since our last good confession or one that

has already been forgiven in a previous

confession— God offers us an extraordin-
ary support in our struggle to avoid this

sin in the future.

Everyone Has His “Special Sins”

If you know yourself at all, you will

admit that there are particular sins which

are your specialty. They gather on you

the way lint collects on a black suit.

21



Don’t be afraid to acknowledge these

weaknesses. Everyone has them. The weak-

nesses themselves aren’t shameful. They

are part of our fallen humanity. But where

there is a particular weakness, we need a

particular help.

Christ offered us this support in the

sacramental grace of Penance. Whenever

I mention in confession that I have been

guilty of entertaining sensual thoughts, I

receive a very special supernatural help

which will strengthen me in my efforts to
overcome this temptation in the future.

It’s no gold-seal guarantee that I won’t

fall into the sin again, but it channels the

grace into my particular needs.

Of course, the sacrament of Penance does

remove the guilt of sin— mortal sin and
venial. Now guilt and punishment are not
the same thing. Punishment is the effect

of guilt. In other words, when we make a

good confession, God says to us, through

the words of His priest: “I accept your

sorrow; I forgive your offense; I welcome

you back into My friendship and love.
So that order and justice might be main-

tained there are still punishments to be

satisfied.”

Penance Removes Some Punishment

Some of the punishment is taken away

by our confession itself. The eternal pun-

ishment— hell— no longer hangs over our
22



head. And even some of the temporal

punishment (which we usually think of in

terms of the sufferings of purgatory) will

ordinarily be canceled out. The amount

of temporal punishment forgiven depends

on the dispositions (the attitudes of mind

and will) that we bring to the sacrament

— the sincerity of our sorrow, the depth
of our contrition, the firmness of our in-

tention to avoid the sin in the future, the

intensity of our love of God which moti-

vates all these other dispositions.

Such are the chief effects of the sacra-

ment.

All that has gone before is an attempt

to help you see Penance not simply as a

governor’s pardon for a condemned pris-

oner, but as a regular and natural part of

our prayer life, an ordinary instrument of

progress in the tremendously exciting su-

pernatural life which God has given to

each of us.

If we hold on to this view of the sacra-

ment, it will influence the way we make

our confession.

First, we should make our examination

of conscience a meaningful part of our

prayer. A great many Catholics, when they
are kneeling in a quiet church before con-

fession, run through a mental process of

this kind: It’s been about a month since

the last time I was here. I haven’t com-

23



mitted any sins that I’m sure are mortal

during this time, but there were some

thoughts and actions that I might have

given some consent to, so I’ll mention them

— just to make sure. After all, they’re part
of the routine.

Then, on venial sins, I haven’t any idea

of how may times I’ve lost my temper or
been guilty of uncharitableness or crowd-

ed the truth so far that I might have been

lying. So I’ll take a guess at an average

number and use that. It’s about the same

number I always mention for this particu-

lar sin because I can’t see that I’m no-

ticeably better or worse than I have been

in the past.

Or the person might take one of the lists

of common sins printed in many prayer

books and run through it, saying: Yes, this

action might have offended against the

obligation to avoid servile work on Sun-

day. I’ll add this to my tally sheet; this
language might have given bad example

to my children— I’ll mention it. . . .

The dominant theme of both these ap-

proaches is routineness. It resembles the

plodding route of those old horses that

used to pull milk wagons over the same

ground day after day. We cover the same
territory; we stop at all the familiar places,

but there’s no spirit, life, or understand-

ing.

24



A Much Better Way

Try another approach. When you kneel

down to make your examination of con-

science, start as you start any other prayer.

Make yourself aware that you are in the

presence of God. Think of God as your

Creator and Saviour. Recognize that you

owe Him your life, your talents, any suc-

cess or happiness you have achieved. He

freely gave you the gift of faith and the

opportunity for an eternity of happiness

with Him.

If you have seriously offended Him in

any way since your last confession, the

mortal sin will stand out like a blotch of

ink on a clean sheet of paper. You won’t

miss it, and you won’t wonder about the

number of times you have been guilty.

After this, think of the life you should

be leading. What kind of a husband or

wife should you be if you are taking

Christ’s teaching seriously? What kind of

a father or mother? How should you treat
the neighbors, the person who works next

to you in the office, your parents, your

employer? It’s not so much what you owe

them as what you owe God. Make your-

self realize that God is really present in

each of these people you meet in your

daily life— even though His presence is
sometimes obscured by ugly or irritating

character traits.

25



Don’t give too much of your time to

those offenses which occur without any

thought or deliberation— the momentary
burst of anger or the thoughtless use of

God’s name which is no more than a habit

of speech. Concentrate on the deliberate

ways in which you pull back from Christ’s

invitation to love and worship the Father

completely . . . with your whole heart,

with your whole mind, with your whole

soul.

Look at those things you should have

done. The kind word, the sympathetic ges-

ture that would have recognized Christ in

your neighbor; the extra bit of generosity

that could have been given to your hus-

band or wife when, in fact, you insisted

on “your rights”; the added effort you

could have given to your job, even when

you knew your employer wasn’t watch-

ing; the opportunities for prayer that

you’ve missed ; the good example you

haven’t given; the injustices you’ve wit-

nessed without protest.

When Does Imperfection Become Sinful?

Certainly not all these omissions are

sins. But it’s precisely this mentality that

we want to avoid: '‘How far can I go

without committing sin?”

Remember that the essential of the sac-

rament of Penance is sincere sorrow at

having offended God. An awareness of the

26



opportunities we have lost can take the

dullness and routine out of our examina-

tion of conscience.

Two additional points should be made

here.

Remember that you don’t have to come

up with something original in each of your

confessions. You can make a perfectly

good confession by saying sincerely:

“Father, I don’t think I’ve committed any

serious sins since my last confession. I
can’t recall any deliberate venial sins dur-

ing this time. But I am deeply sorry for

all the sins of my past life— especially
those committed against (charity or purity

or obedience or any other virtue).”

Secondly, to get the full benefit from

confession, there’s another practice you

should keep in mind. There’s a difference

between cataloging sins committed and

trying to reveal the state of your soul to

your confessor. (The sacrament of Pen-

ance is a prayer which has medicinal

effects.)

Searching Our Spiritual Depth

For example, after mentioning your

sins, you might add something like this:

“Father, the life seems to have gone out

of my religious practices. I still go to the
sacraments and try to recite my prayers,
but I seem to be just going through the

27



paces. It doesn't seem to mean anything

to me.”

Or: “Father, I find that I’m becoming

more critical about everyone around me
— my wife, my children, my secretary.
It's not that I’m doing it on purpose, but

I seem to be making life hard for all of

them.”

The point is that there is a difference

between mentioning an individual sin and

mentioning a habit or pattern of life that

affects your spiritual growth. The sacra-

mental grace can apply to these patterns

as well as to the particular sins. And the

confessor's advice might be of greater value

to you on these broader aspects of your

life than on the special sins you confess.

This is, of course, one of the reasons

why it is good to have a regular confessor.

Though he will probably never know your

name or be able to recognize your face,

he can come to know your soul— its
strengths and weaknesses— as your doc-
tor knows your body.

It's perfectly all right to “shop” for the

right confessor; in fact, it’s a good idea

to do so. Although every priest speaks

with the voice of Christ when he says,

“Ego te absolvo . . .” still, it's true that

Christ uses human beings— each with his
own mannerisms, insights, personality —
in His priesthood. You will be able to talk

to one confessor better than to another;

28



one will “understand” you better than an-

other. But once you’ve finished with the

shopping and discover a good confessor

for yourself, go to him regularly and fre-

quently.

Keep Confession Simple and Brief

Make your confession simple; make it

brief. Don’t bother with all the details of

place, time, and how it happened— un-
less one of these circumstances changes

the character of the sin. (If the man you

punched in the nose happens to be your

pastor, it makes a difference— sacrilege
is involved.) Aside from that, just give the

details that your confessor requests. He

may want to know more about the cir-

cumstances to advise you on ways of

avoiding the sin in the future. If so, he

will ask the questions.

But always keep in mind the essential

point. The sacrament of Penance is direct-

ed toward God, not toward yourself. It is

an act of worship, not a self-help tool for

character-building.

As an act of worship, it takes its mean-

ing from the supreme prayer offered by

Christ on the Cross. And this thought re-

turns us to the point at which we started.

Penance is one of the great life-giving

sources in the supernatural world which

surrounds and absorbs us.

After Adam sinned, leading all men into

29



the state of sin, all creation cried out for

a restoration of God’s honor. A tree, a
waterfall, a rock cannot rebel against its

creator. It honors God’s majesty simply

by being what it is— a tree, a waterfall,
a rock. Only man, of the whole material

universe, could rebel.

Refusal to Accept Our Human Role

This is how we offend God— by re-
fusing to be what we are destined to be.

It’s as though a tree could say: I refuse

to be a tree. I shall not bear fruit or give

shade from the burning sun, or grow in a

lovely symmetry of branches. Instead, I

shall develop as a great, shapeless, barren,

ugly mass of green. Such a tree would be

a monstrosity in God’s creation; it would

rebel against the order and design which

exists in all things; it would cut itself off

from its Creator’s purpose and stand as

a tragic, wasted, lonely orphan in the

world of God’s making.

Such is man after his sin.

Christ came to restore meaning and pur-

pose to the lives of men, to absorb man-

kind into his own life of knowledge and

love. He took upon Himself the guilt of

man’s madness and mounted the Cross, as

God-Man, to offer sorrow, repentance,

purpose of amendment, worship to the

Father.

Now we come close to the mystery of the

30



sacramental life. In this darkened, stuffy

confessional, with the muffled sound of

traffic breaking in upon our whispered

words, our sorrow, contrition and love are

swept up into the explosion of love and

worship which the Son of God offered to

His heavenly Father.

Our cheap, ugly acts of selfishness, sen-

suality and absurd pride become the oc-

casion for an act of adoration which is

made up of the voices of all men and

spoken by the lips of Christ. Our sorrow,

which seemed such a routine formula, is

joined to that of Peter and Paul, the Mag-

dalen and Augustine. We no longer live
our lives alone, or express remorse merely

for our own sins. We live the life of Christ’s
penitent Mystical Body and speak the

contrition of sinful mankind.

The Saviour offered love and satisfac-

tion, not for His own guilt, but because

God’s Majesty called for sorrow and re-

pentance. In the same way, my use of the
sacrament of Penance should not be mo-

tivated so much by the fact that I have

sinned and I shall be held responsible, as

by the fact that sin has been committed

and expiation is due.

This is why Christ raised man’s sorrow

to the dignity of a sacrament. This is the

meaning of the sacrament of Penance.

31



A True Examination of Conscience

For those who are so used to reviewing

a list of sins in preparation for confession

that they would feel uncomfortable with-

out it, I would offer another kind of list.

Here are a few considerations to re-

flect upon during your examination of

conscience.

1. God wants to love us; He wants to be

loved in return — that’s all that matters.

2. Anything that gets in the way of this

love gets in the way of our religion.

This is the meaning of sin.

3. God doesn’t want us to be tortured

over details and insecurity. These con-

cerns distract us from love and wor-

ship.

4. Sorrow for sin is a particular form of

love of God.

5. God wants to bless this prayer of love.

He does so in the sacrament of Pen-

ance.

6. Sharing the Christ-Life is the Super-

natural life; and the Christ-Life is one

of reparation. Christ offered the

supreme satisfaction on Calvary. Our

part is to unite ourselves to His sacri-

fice through our sorrow.

32



There are eight pamphlets in this

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THE SACRAMENTS
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HOLY EUCHARIST
as a sacrament by Rev. Thomas Barrosse, C.S.C.

as a sacrifice by Rev. John Maguire, C.S.C.

The Sacrament of

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by Rev. John L. Reedy, C.S.C.

The Sacrament of

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By Rev. Ralph Fisher, C.S.C.

The Sacrament of

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by Rev. Charles W. Harris, C.S.C.

The Sacrament of

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The Sacrament of

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