Distinction VII

GRATIAN. PART I. The time for penance extends to the final moment of life. Hence Pope Leo, [letter XC, otherwise XCII, to Rusticus, c. 5]:

“No one is to be despaired of while established in this body, because sometimes what is deferred through the distrustfulness of age is completed by more mature counsel.”

PART II. GRATIAN. Although Augustine writes concerning those who defer penance, [in the Book of Fifty Homilies, homily 41]:

“If anyone, placed in the final extremity of one’s illness, wishes to receive penance, and receives it, and is immediately reconciled and departs from here, I confess to you: we do not deny that person what one seeks, but we do not presume that one departs well from here. Whether one departs safely from here, I do not know. We can give penance, but we cannot give assurance. Do I say, ‘That person will be condemned’? But neither do I say, ‘That person will be freed.’ Do you therefore wish to be freed from doubt? Do you wish to escape what is uncertain? Perform penance while you are healthy. If you act thus, I tell you that you are secure, because you performed penance at a time when you were able to sin. But if you wish to perform penance when you can no longer sin, your sins have abandoned you; you have not abandoned them.”

“One who has truly performed penance and has been loosed from the bond by which one was bound and separated from Christ’s body, and has lived well after penance as one ought to have lived before penance, whenever one dies after reconciliation, goes to God, goes to rest, will not be deprived of God’s kingdom, and will be separated from the people of the devil.”

“But if anyone, etc.” And below: “One baptized at the final hour departs from here safely; a member of the faithful who lives well departs from here safely; one who performs penance and is reconciled while healthy and afterward lives well departs from here safely. Whether one who performs penance at the end and is reconciled departs from here safely, I am not certain. Where I am certain, I speak and give assurance; where I am not certain, I can give penance but cannot give assurance.” And a little later:

§ 1. “‘But how do you know,’ one says, ‘whether perhaps God will forgive me?’ You speak truly: I know the former; I do not know the latter. For this reason I give you penance, because I do not know; for if I knew it profited you nothing, I would not give it to you. Likewise, if I knew it profited you, I would not admonish you or frighten you. There are two possibilities: either you are forgiven or you are not forgiven. Which of these will happen to you, I do not know. Therefore, hold to what is certain and abandon what is uncertain.”

GRATIAN. Cyprian shows why Augustine said this, [book IV, letter 2 to Antonianus], saying:

“For this reason, dearest brother, we have judged that those who do not perform penance and do not testify with their whole heart, in sorrow for their offenses, to a manifest profession of their lamentation must be altogether prohibited from hope of communion and peace if they begin to supplicate during illness and danger; because it is not repentance for the offense but the warning of pressing death that compels them to ask, and one who did not reflect that one would die is not worthy to receive consolation in death.”

“Let no one wait until one cannot sin. For penance seeks freedom of choice, so that one may be able to destroy the things committed, not necessity. Therefore, one who is abandoned by one’s sins before oneself abandoning them condemns them not freely but, as it were, by necessity. For although the thief merited pardon at the end for every crime, he nevertheless did not give baptized persons authority to sin and persevere. For the one who then first confessed Christ on the cross was then baptized. Indeed, if penance comes at the final gasp of life, it heals and frees in the washing of baptism in such a way that those baptized at the end do not experience even purgatory; rather, enriched with the goods of holy mother church, they are to receive manifold good in true beatitude.

“But those who, when they could, never wished to be converted, confessing when they can no longer sin, do not even thus easily obtain what they wish. For it is necessary that penance bear fruit, so that it may obtain life for the dead person. It is written that no one is saved without charity. Therefore, a human being does not live by fear alone. Accordingly, one who repents late must not only fear God as judge but love him as just; let one not only fear punishment but be distressed for glory. For one ought to grieve concerning the crime and all its aforesaid variety. Because this is scarcely possible, Augustine could doubt concerning that person’s salvation.

§ 1. “I indeed believe him who said, ‘In whatever hour the sinner groans and is converted, that person shall live by life.’ He said that one converted, not merely turned, shall live. I consider one turned who grieves concerning the crime; one converted who grieves concerning all its variety that we have explained. One is turned away from sin who now wishes to abandon sin; one is converted—that is, turned wholly and altogether—who now not only does not fear punishments but hastens to tend toward the good God. If this conversion happens to anyone even at the end, one must not despair of that person’s remission. But because so just a conversion scarcely or rarely occurs, there must be fear concerning one who repents late. For one whom sickness presses and punishment terrifies will scarcely arrive at true satisfaction, especially when the children whom one loved unlawfully are present, and wife and world call one to themselves. Late penance is accustomed to deceive many.

“But because God is always powerful, he is always able, even in death, to help those whom he pleases. Therefore, since fruitful penance is a work not of a human being but of God, he can by his mercy inspire it whenever he wills and reward from mercy those whom he can condemn from justice. But because there are many things that impede and draw back the sick person, it is most dangerous and close to destruction to defer the remedy of penance until death. But the one in whom God then inspires true penance is great: that person awaits God’s clemency, perceiving God’s goodness to be greater than one’s own wickedness.

§ 2. “But even if one has been converted in this way, we do not promise that one shall ‘live by life and not die’ in such a way as to escape every punishment. For one who deferred the fruit of conversion into another age must first be purged by the fire of purgation. Although this fire is not eternal, it is grievous in a wondrous manner. For it surpasses every punishment that anyone has ever suffered in this life. So great a punishment has never been found in the flesh, although the martyrs suffered wondrous torments and many persons have often wickedly endured very great punishments. Therefore, let each person strive so to correct one’s offenses that it will not be necessary to endure punishment after death.

§ 3. “For there are certain sins that, although mortal, are made vital in penance, but are nevertheless not immediately healed. For there is often one who would die unless treated. One is not immediately healed; the person who before was going to die languishes but will live. But one who dies impenitent dies altogether and is tormented eternally. For one who ends impenitent, if one lived forever, would sin forever. But it belongs to God in his mercy that he brings an end to the sinner’s activity. For this reason the sinner is also tormented without end, because one is never enriched with virtue; always full of iniquity, always without charity, one is tormented without end.”