Article IV: On the Acts of Penance

405. There is a threefold elicited act of penance:

the proper and principal act is contrition, or sorrow concerning sin committed insofar as it is an offense of God, from the intention of amending and destroying it, or with the purpose of working toward the deletion of past sin (a. 2, ad 1) and of not sinning in the future1 (Luke XV, 18); - the secondary acts are:

confession, i.e., a sorrowful internal or external acknowledgment, or accusation of culpability (II Reg. XII, 13), and

satisfaction, or expiation through punishments.

Of these three the first is chiefly in the heart, the second in the mouth, the third in work. But detestation of sin (Ps. CXVIII, 104), which is contained in contrition, properly is not an act of penance; otherwise the blessed would be penitents; but it is necessarily prerequired for it, because if sin were not held as an evil to be detested, we could not grieve concerning it.

The genesis of all these acts is this: the sinner

1° apprehends the sin committed as evil, and the will abominates and detests it because it is evil, and this is prerequired for penance: if detestation is perfect, it proceeds from charity;

2° notices that the evil is present to him in itself or in its effects, and grieves concerning it, and since he cannot sincerely grieve concerning sin unless he firmly wills to repair and destroy it and to avoid it thereafter, he also proposes this; this is done in contrition;

3° expresses this sorrow and accuses it by confession;

4° since the past evil is also to be repaired by punishments, there spontaneously arises the will of satisfying by penal works.

"Its proper act is toward its proper object, which is sin committed. And therefore its principal act, namely contrition, according to its species regards only past sin, but consequently regards the future." St. Thomas, in IV, d. 17, q. 2, a. 2, qc. 4.

406.

406. The commanded acts of penance can be many. - Namely, all those acts by which sin is repaired, such as prayer, almsgiving, fasting, self-denial; all acts of virtues insofar as they can be ordered to satisfying for sin, and are commanded by the virtue of penance from the will of satisfying.

407. The opinion of the Protestants must be rejected. - Therefore penance is not merely repentance, or the purpose of a new life, as many Protestants teach after Luther, without any sorrow and detestation of sin previously committed.

For contrition, they say, which is necessary for justification, far from being a detestation of sin, is a certain sense of terror struck into the sinner and passively received by him, by which he is aroused to faith in Christ.

"For it is clear," thus the Augsburg Confession (1530), a. 12, "that penance properly consists of these two parts: the one (passive) is contrition, or terrors struck into the conscience, sin having been recognized; the other (active) is faith, which is conceived from the Gospel or absolution, and believes that sins are remitted on account of Christ, and consoles the conscience, and liberates from terrors."

Now according to the Council of Trent, contrition is sorrow of soul and detestation concerning sin committed, with the purpose of not sinning henceforth. Therefore the holy Synod declares that this contrition contains not only cessation from sin and the purpose and beginning of a new life, but also hatred of the old life... (sess. 14, c. 4); indeed it defined that the Protestant notion of penance is false, or that there are only two parts of penance, namely the terrors struck into the conscience and faith by which one believes that sins have been remitted to himself through Christ (sess. 14, can. 4); moreover, that contrition which is prepared through detestation of sins with the purpose of a better life is a true and useful sorrow, not forced but voluntary and free, and prepares us for grace (can. 5). Whence it is certain that such an act is good and honorable.

And deservedly. For:

A. Although in the etymological sense metanoia sounds the same as a change of mind, it is certain that in biblical usage the word signifies not a mere change of counsel, but also detestation, sorrow, and expiation of the past life; thus, for example, Job said (XLII, 3-6): "Therefore I have spoken foolishly... for this reason I reprehend myself, and I do penance in dust and ashes." Again David says (Ps. L, 19): "A sacrifice to God is an afflicted spirit; a contrite and humbled heart, O God, thou wilt not despise"; nor otherwise do the Prophets: "Be converted, and do penance for all your iniquities... Cast away from you all your iniquities in which you have transgressed and make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit" (Ezech. XVIII, 30; Is. XXXVI, 31-32; Bar. II, 11-18; Jer. XXXI, 18-20). Besides, St. Paul, addressing the penitent Corinthians, explicitly commemorates sadness as an element of true penance (II Cor. VII, 9-10): "Now I rejoice, not because you were made sorrowful, but because you were made sorrowful unto penance... For the sorrow which is according to God works penance unto steadfast salvation."

B. Reason itself is consonant:

On the part of the offender, that which is always first required is reparation of the offense.

On the part of conversion: he who repents and changes his life for the better therefore changes his counsel because he understands the prior life to be evil; otherwise there would be no reason for the change. But just as we are bound to love the good, so also to hate evil, especially if it has been committed by us; otherwise the purpose of leading a new life for God would not be sincere; therefore penance essentially imports detestation of sin.

On the part of the one offended, reconciliation with the offended person requires more than cessation of the injury: for in order that someone obtain pardon from a man, first he must manifest detestation and sorrow for the injury inflicted, so that, moved by this sorrow, the other may will to forgive the injury. Therefore the sinner must hold himself in the same way toward God.

But if the Fathers say that the best penance is a new life, they are not to be understood as if penance were essentially a new life, but that this is the sign, the best indication, of a soul truly penitent.