Article VI: On the Necessity of Penance

S. Th. III, q. 84, a. 5 and 7; q. 86, a. 2; q. 87, a. 1; suppl., q. 2, a. 3; q. 6, a. 5.

411. State of the question. - It is asked whether penance is necessary for justification and salvation. Something is said to be necessary for an end in two ways: insofar as it is commanded by a legitimate superior, or insofar as it is a means without which, if it is not employed, the end is not obtained; - whence this latter is so necessary that without it, even if it is omitted involuntarily and inculpably, the end absolutely cannot be obtained; on the contrary, the former is so prescribed that he who has omitted it voluntarily and culpably sins and therefore does not attain the end, but he who has omitted it involuntarily and inculpably can nevertheless attain the end. Now:

1. It is Catholic doctrine that penance in general, i.e., some detestation and retraction of sin, is necessary by necessity of means for justification and salvation, once mortal sin has been posited; but it was disputed whether a formal act of penance is required, or whether a virtual one suffices.

For a) the Scotists and Nominalists held that a virtual act of penance suffices, such as is contained in the act of perfect charity: for it is contradictory to love God above all things by a perfect act and to will sin above God; hence in the act of charity there is power for being contrite concerning sin, so that the act has the power of producing penance or perfect contrition. Whence it includes penance in desire. b) On the contrary, Thomists generally require a formal act of penance; some of these, such as Melchior Cano, think that it is always required without exception. c) Nevertheless, the more distinguished Thomists, conformably to the principles of St. Thomas, whom Suarez and many others also follow, say that a formal act is required per se when someone thinks about his sins, but that per accidens remission of sin can be obtained through virtual penance when someone, from forgetfulness or lack of consideration, does not think about his sins.1

2. The common opinion of theologians is that penance is also necessary by necessity of precept.

They say that only Fr. de Victoria contradicts this,2 who says that the texts of Scripture are to be understood of the necessity of means alone, which can exist without necessity of precept, since grace, although necessary for salvation, does not fall under a precept. Yet illogically: for when the necessary means is not something habitual or extrinsic to us, but our act, by that very fact it is also prescribed.

412. Thesis I. Once mortal sin has been posited, it is certain that an act of penance, at least virtual, is necessary in the present order of things by necessity of means for justification and salvation. - It is said:

a) It is certain; thus at least from the Council of Trent, sess. 14, c. 1 and 4, sess. 6, c. 6 and 14, which speaks of formal penance, so that this is required at least per se and regularly.

b) In the present order, because several theologians think that God by absolute power can forgive sin and infuse grace without any act of penance or retraction of the sinner, but that He does not do this because it is not fitting to wisdom, justice, and holiness: we do not expressly exclude this opinion, although we judge it not true.

c) Once mortal sin has been posited, by which namely men are turned away from God the last end: for if the sin is only venial, penance, although desirable, is not necessary for justification and salvation.

It is proved:

1. From the Scriptures, which absolutely require penance, and so join salvation with penance that without it salvation cannot be had.

a) Thus frequently the Prophets, for example Jeremiah (XVIII, 8-10): "If that nation shall do penance from its evil, against which I have spoken, I also will repent of the evil which I thought to do to it...; if it shall do evil in my eyes, so that it does not hear my voice, I will repent of the good which I spoke to do to it" (cf. XXXI, 18-20; Joel II, 12-14). Likewise Ezekiel (XVIII, 21-32): "But if the wicked man shall do penance for all his sins... he shall live with life and shall not die... but if the just man turns himself away from his justice, and does iniquity according to all the abominations which the wicked man is accustomed to work, shall he live? All his justices, which he had done, shall not be remembered; in the prevarication by which he has prevaricated, and in his sin which he has sinned, in them he shall die"; which penance is so necessary that, if the prophet has not warned him that it is to be done, nevertheless there will not be pardon for the wicked man without it (XXXIII, 8): namely, it is equally necessary as perseverance is for the just man for obtaining the reward (XXXIII, 12-16). Whence Eccli. II, 22 (in the Vulgate): "If we shall not do penance, we shall fall into the hands of the Lord."

b) Likewise Christ in the New Testament: "Unless you shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish" (Luke XIII, 5; Matt. IV, 17; III, 2-8; Luke III, 8).

c) Whence also the Apostles promulgated penance as necessary, both for Baptism (Acts II, 38): "Do penance and let every one of you be baptized... unto the remission of your sins," and for the remission of sin (Acts III, 19): "Therefore repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (cf. VIII, 22; XI, 18 and Apoc. II, 5).

By all these things penance appears as a necessary condition that sins be blotted out. Therefore penance, in the present order, is joined with the remission of sin and salvation as means with end.

2. From Tradition, which is established from the history of the primitive Church concerning penitential discipline.

Not only Tertullian, in the treatise On Penance, and Chrysostom, in the book On Compunction, and in homily 9 On Penance (cf. hom. 4 and 11), are wholly engaged in inculcating the necessity of penance; but the same doctrine is already found in the Shepherd of Hermas, mand. IV, 2-3; simil. VII, 4 and 6; Justin, in the dialogue with Trypho n. 141; Irenaeus, Against Heresies I, 13, and Cyprian, On the Lapsed, and ep. 31. Later it is found in Ambrose, ep. 28 (otherwise 51); On Penance II, 10; On the Fall of a Virgin 33-34; Augustine, on Ps. XXX, 5 and in ep. 50 to Boniface; Gregory, hom. 20 on the Gospel, etc. The Council of Trent ratified this doctrine, as we have said.

3. From theological reason: On the one hand, sin is imputed to man until he has retracted it; - on the other hand, God cannot forgive sin to which man adheres habitually, and cannot love except him whom He renders intrinsically worthy of His love. Therefore He cannot justify a sinner without an immutation of this man's will, i.e., unless he wills, unless, having been voluntarily turned away from God, he is also voluntarily converted to God with detestation of the aforesaid aversion and with the purpose of amending. But this is penance (q. 84, a. 5, ad 2; q. 86, a. 2).

There is added the reason of fittingness. A sinner cannot be saved unless he has first obtained from God the remission of his sin. But without penance God cannot, at least fittingly, remit sins: for wisdom forbids that He reconcile to Himself or receive into friendship one whom He knows to be voluntarily turned away from Himself and obstinate in the love of sin; namely, it forbids that by His manner of acting He foster sin; - justice demands that what was injured be repaired, and prohibits that offense be remitted without some reparation; - holiness likewise forbids that God unite to Himself something impure still adhering to sin. Now he who has gravely sinned remains turned away from God, at least habitually, until he does penance; nor does he repair, as far as he can, the offense inflicted upon God, but he perseveres in it, and continues to adhere to sin. Therefore God cannot remit sin, His attributes being considered, unless the sinner converts himself to God through an act of penance, and therefore without penance the sinner cannot be saved.¹

¹ Tanquerey, On Penance, n. 9, 2.

413. Thesis II. An act of penance, once mortal sin has been posited, is also necessary by necessity of natural and divine precept. - This is the common opinion, from which it seems rash to recede.

It is proved:

1. From the Scriptures in which, as we said in the preceding number, God, by declaring the necessity of penance so emphatically, so insistently, so many repeated times, and by threatening the impenitent with very grave punishments, manifests clearly enough that He wills and commands that all are bound to do penance.

Moreover a) with Scripture as witness, he who refuses to repent is convicted of disobedience, and indeed grave disobedience, since he is punished with a grave punishment: "Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and there was none who regarded,... I also will laugh in your destruction" (Prov. I, 24-33; cf. Is. I, and Jer. XVIII).

Besides b) Christ and the Apostles preached penance under the form of a precept: "From that time Jesus began to preach and to say... Do penance; for the kingdom of heaven has drawn near" (Matt. IV, 17). "Do penance and let every one of you be baptized"; "Therefore repent, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out" (Acts II, 38; III, 19).

2. By reason: a) By force of justice toward God: each one is bound, by force of natural justice, to repair and compensate an injury inflicted upon another; but man, through mortal sin, has inflicted a grave injury upon God; therefore, from the natural precept of justice, he is bound to do penance in order to compensate this injury.

b) By force of charity toward God and toward oneself: By the very fact that we are obliged to love God above all things, by that very fact, if we have sinned, we are bound to retract the sin which is opposed to the love of God, and thus from natural right, because from natural right we are bound to love God above all things. Similarly, once the ordination of God granting pardon to penitents has been posited, reason dictates, on account of right love of ourselves, that the necessary and unique means to salvation not be neglected.

And thus we are obliged from the virtue itself and the special precept of penance. For the special justice which intervenes between offended God and us, and which is called penance, requires that the object directly opposed to it, namely, the injury inflicted upon God through sin, be repaired and removed insofar as it is an obstacle to the last end, God, who is the last end simply insofar as He is the highest Good in Himself, and our last end insofar as He is our highest good.²

² An infused virtue, since it is essentially a means to the last end, obliges per se, when it is per se a necessary means for justification and salvation. Therefore it obliges not per accidens, but per se, to remove that which is directly opposed to or obstructs the last end.

414. The precept of penance is not negative but affirmative, and therefore it does not oblige for always or for each single moment, but at some time and at a suitable time. - Therefore it does not oblige immediately after the sin has been committed, both because such an obligation is not of the nature of an affirmative precept, and because neither the faithful nor confessors are conscious of such an obligation. And although the sinner ought immediately to desist from sin and from the actual affection of sinning, nevertheless he need not immediately do penance. But:

A. The virtue itself and the precept of penance obliges per se, i.e., in circumstances common to the condition of all sinners:

1. at the article of death, and also in a very probable danger of death (from war, difficult childbirth, dangerous navigation, etc.) or of perpetual insanity; otherwise it would never oblige, since the whole reason of the obligation is reconciliation with God and eternal salvation, which in this case is exposed to proximate danger;

2. also sometimes in life, because he who gravely offends God and for a long time neglects reconciliation seems to neglect and contemn God Himself, whence an excessive delay of conversion is gravely reprehended in the Scriptures (Eccli. V, 8-9; Rom. II, 4-5);

3. indeed not only once (as is also prescribed by ecclesiastical precept), but probably even several times in a year, as we also said concerning charity (I, n. 972).

This is drawn from the doctrine concerning the necessity of habitual grace for observing the whole law and for avoiding mortal sin (I-II, q. 109, a. 4; De Ver. q. 24, a. 12). Ordinarily, namely, the sinner through the whole year will not abstain from a new sin; not indeed from a lack of sufficient strength, but because he who is turned away from the end easily acts against the end, and he who is turned toward a contrary end often works for the sake of that end, according as Gregory says (Mor. XXV, c. 9): "For sin which penance does not wash away, by its own weight soon draws one to another." For each one works according to that end which he loves and intends; nor is he accustomed to choose for himself difficult means toward another end which he loves less. Therefore, since through mortal sin someone puts the love of a created good before love of God and of the law, it cannot happen that, although he retains some affection toward God and toward his own salvation, from that weak affection he overcome the difficulties which are found in all the commandments occurring over a long time, unless with his whole soul he efficaciously prefer his own salvation and God Himself to all other things. But this is efficacious retraction or penance (cf. I-II, q. 109, a. 8; De Verit. q. 24, a. 12).

But the time at which the precept obliges cannot be determined more exactly, but varies according to various individuals, temptations, and internal or external circumstances.

B. The virtue itself and the precept of penance obliges per accidens, i.e., on the occasion of some special circumstance, for example:

1. when someone wills to manifest penance externally, for otherwise that manifestation would be simulation;

2. when he must or wills to receive the sacrament of penance itself.

C. Other virtues and precepts also sometimes oblige to an act of penance:

1. when temptations arise against other virtues which are hoped to be overcome only through an act of penance;

2. when some sinner must or intends to receive other Sacraments or to administer anything whatever;

3. when a sinner must or intends to exercise an act of another virtue which otherwise cannot be exercised: thus, for example, if he wills to elicit an act of charity toward God.

But in these cases the obligation does not arise from the precept itself or the virtue of penance, but from another precept of virtue. But let it be noted that the precept of sanctifying feasts or the Lord's day does not import an obligation of eliciting an act of penance, since the state of grace is not required for worshipping God and keeping the day of the Lord.

415. Observations. - 1. There is given not only a positive precept of penance, namely divine and ecclesiastical, but penance is also prescribed by natural right: "for by natural reason man is moved to repent of the evils which he has done; but that man do penance in this or that way is from divine institution... It is of natural right that someone repent of the evils which he has done, as to this, that he grieve that he has done them, and seek a remedy for sorrow in some way, and that he also show some signs of sorrow..., but just as other things which are of natural right received determination from the institution of divine law,... so also did penance" (III, q. 84, a. 7, and ad 1).

2. The obligation of doing penance several times a year, on account of the danger of relapsing into sin, although theoretically it seems founded, nevertheless practically labors under a certain uncertainty. For a) not all admit that habitual grace is necessary for avoiding sin (which is the opinion of St. Thomas), but some say that for this special actual grace suffices; - b) although grace is morally necessary for avoiding all sins, nevertheless individual sins can be avoided, and therefore perhaps there is not given a precept of acquiring the state of grace; - c) the faithful would have to advert to the danger of sinning from the absence of grace, and indeed to a danger proximate here and now, and that no other means remains for resisting. This will rarely happen. Whence in practice such an obligation is not to be imposed upon sinners, although they are to be greatly exhorted to do penance immediately.

3. From what has been said concerning the precept of repenting, it follows a) that the purpose of not repenting is a special sin of impenitence, which is directly opposed to the virtue of penance and to the precept of repenting; - b) that the simple omission of penance is not a sin of impenitence, except when the precept of repenting obliges per se; - c) that the omission of penance when we are obliged to it through another precept is not a sin against penance, but against the other precept by force of which it was required.