Sin, Contrition, Confession

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

My mind has been full of many things to post, but "stuff" keeps getting in the way, and my concentration has been negligible.  So, here goes. Another regular publication from which I've gleaned quotations from the saints before, had a page on advice from some of the saints on sin
and contrition.  With our world so covered in sin and so many people unaware of the danger to their souls, it seems a good time to see what some holy people had to say.

"Behold Jesus Christ crucified, Who is the only foundation of our hope; He is our Mediator and Advocate; the victim and sacrifice for our sins. he is goodness and patience itself. His mercy is moved by the tears of sinners, and He never refuses pardon and grace to those who ask it with a truly contrite and humbled heart."  St. Charles Borromeo

"Go to your confessor; open your heart to him; display to him all the recesses of your soul; take the advice that he will give you with the utmost humility and simplicity. For God, Who has an infinite love for obedience, frequently renders profitable the counsels we take from others, but especially from those who are the guides of our souls." St. Francis de Sales

"O Jesus! Remember the sadness that Thou didst experience when, contemplating in the light of Thy divinity the predestination of those who would be saved by the merits of Thy sacred passion, thou didst see at the same time the great multitude of reprobates who would be damned for their sins, and Thou didst complain bitterly of those hopeless, lost, and unfortunate sinners." St. Bridget of Sweden

"We should all realize that no matter where or how a man dies, if he is in the state of mortal sin and does not repent, when he could have done so and did not, the Devil tears his soul from his body with such anguish and distress that only a person who has experienced it can appreciate it." St. Francis of Assisi

"In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance." St. Thomas Aquinas

One of my favorite saints is Augustine, a great sinner and a greater saint.  A prayer he composed is one I recite after receiving the Holy Eucharist, to remind myself that we are all sinners, no one is perfect, and we will fall short of perfection time and time again.

"Before Thine eyes, O Lord, we bring our sins, and we compare them with the stripes we have received.
If we examine the evil we have wrought, what we suffer is little, what we deserve is great.
What we have committed is very grievous, what we have suffered is very slight.
We feel the punishment of sin, yet withdraw not from the obstinacy of sinning.
Under Thy lash our inconstancy is visited, but our sinfulness is not changed.
Our suffering soul is tormented, but our neck is not bent.
Our life groans under sorrow, yet amends not in deed.
 If thou spare us, we correct not our ways; if thou punish, we cannot endure it.
In time of correction we confess our wrongdoing; after Thy visitation we forget that we have wept.
If Thou stretchest forth Thy hand, we promise amendment; if Thou withholdest the sword, we keep not our promise.
If Thou strikest, we cry out for mercy; if Thou sparest, we again provoke Thee to strike.
Here we are before Thee, O Lord, confessedly guilty; we know that unless thou pardon we shall deservedly perish.
Grant then, O almighty Father, without our deserving it, the pardon we ask; Thou Who madest out of nothing those who ask Thee. Through Christ our Lord. Amen."

Confession is good for the soul. How often have we heard that? It's true, and the reason our Lord gave His apostles, His first priests, each an "alter christus" (one who stands in for Christ), the power to forgive sins. He asked after a miracle of healing if it were easier to say, "Arise, take up thy bed and walk," or to say, "Go thy way, thy sins are forgiven thee."

There was confession in the Old Law. See Num. v.5-7, Esd. ix 1,2, Job xxxi 33,40, Ecclus. iv.31.
Matt. iii. 5,6, in the New Testament - "then went out to him (John the Baptist) Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan: and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.

Acts xix. 18 - "and many of them that believed, came confessing and declaring their deeds. Read also, James v. 16, John 1; i,9.

When Our Lord gave Peter the keys of the kingdom He told him "And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, it shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven. Matt. xvi 19; and again Matt. xviii. 18.  In John also xx. 21-23 - "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."

If we do not confess our sins, how could the apostles and their successors throughout history forgive or retain sins? We are not confessing to the priest, but to Christ through His representative. The priest follows the dictates of the Savior. He admonishes, he preaches, he sees that the penitent performs some penance of prayers to show true contrition for the sins committed. If reparations are to be made, the priest must tell the person to make atonement for those sins. Moreover, if the person confessing is  not sorry, does not promise in all sincerity to "sin no more," (although we all fall again - it's the firm purpose not to do so that counts) the sins are not forgiven and the confessing person commits a graver sin. It is Christ who forgives us ; but if He gave us this way of seeking forgiveness, we should avail ourselves of it. Without prayer, without penance, it is more difficult to attain our eventual goal, eternal happiness in Heaven.