Article V: On the Subject of Penance

S. Th. III, q. 85, a. 4; suppl., q. 1, a. 2; q. 3, a. 1; q. 16.

408. The proximate subject of the virtue of penance is the will. - Thus because rational sorrow is an act of the will; and because penance is a part of justice, but justice is in the will. Hence the sorrow of penance is essentially distinguished from sensible sorrow, which is a passion of the sensitive appetite, and which, although it often arises from spiritual sorrow and is its sign, nevertheless does not always follow nor is necessarily required for penance.

409. The remote subject is every man capable of sin. - For the proper act of penance properly so called supposes sin; whence the habit, or promptitude for doing penance, is given, not indeed to those who cannot sin, but to those who are capable of sin, even if they are not guilty of it, so that they may be prompt for grieving concerning sin if they have committed anything before or perhaps commit anything afterward. For a habit is a perfection and promptitude of a power toward act, and therefore not the absence of the act, but only the absence of the power, renders it impossible. Whence in the present case only the impossibility of sinning or of amending oneself, not the mere absence of sin, impedes the virtue of penance, "nor nevertheless is it vain without exercise, because it is the perfection of a natural power" (Suppl. q. 16, a. 1, ad 1).

410. Corollaries. - From this the following conclusions are easily deduced. The virtue of penance:

1. was not in Christ, who is absolutely impeccable from within;

2. nor in the Angels, who can sin but whose sin is not naturally remissible (otherwise by absolute power), because they have an immobile will and therefore cannot naturally change a prior will;

3. nevertheless probably was in the Blessed Virgin, because she was not absolutely impeccable but only morally and from without;

4. likewise in Adam even before sin;

5. but certainly is in baptized children, to whom it is infused together with grace, and in just wayfarers;

6. also remains in the blessed, although in them it has another act, namely, to give thanks to God for the mercy bestowed in relaxing sins, and to rejoice concerning satisfaction performed at other times (Suppl. q. 16).