The temporal expiation for many sins is necessarily considerable and it requires considerable self-discipline on the part of the penitent. Faith in Christ's merits alone is not adequate for the remission of sins; as a matter of fact, faith without penance and reconciliation is always insufficient.
Christ's infinite merits and satisfactions are enough and yet not enough because God will not treat us as robots or automatons. There are those who often accuse us of attributing magical effects to the Sacraments. We retort that they are the culprits who attribute magic to Redemption, whereas we assert that there is magic neither in the Sacraments nor in Redemption. God respects our free-will and without the cooperation of our free-will, will do nothing. His operation is dependent on our cooperation, just as the electric current is dependent on the lamp for the production of light. Confession has the innate power to remove all traces of sin but before it can do so, there must be perfect cooperation, i.e. perfect rectification of the will. Free-will is the core of the difficulty.
An illustration may help to clarify the issue. Suppose two men had a quarrel and one of them got into an uncontrollable rage and struck his companion so hard that he damaged his own hand and wrist. Afterwards, the aggressor apologised and his apology was accepted. Would you call that the end of this incident? "No", you would say, "what about the hand?" Acceptance of the apology would not heal the hand.
So it is with us. By sin we damage our will; and the pardon is not necessarily repaired by God's decree of pardon. Sometimes when we sin we turn to the creature with great intensity. Completely to rectify our will, we must turn back to God with equal intensity; that we frequently fail to do, with the result that our will remains scarred and out-of-the-straight. The will must be rectified before we can be fit for heaven.
If we turn back to God with an intensity equal to or greater than our intensity in sin. Confession takes away both the guilt of sin and the temporal punishment due to sin.
If we turn to God with less, though with sufficient intensity, the will still remains damaged and other good works will be required to complete its rectification.
Here we have the explanation of the heavy penances imposed in the early Church. The early Christians did not doubt the efficacy of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation but the adequacy of their own repentance. This is the explanation, too, of Christ's own insistence on penance and reconciliation.
Page 1
If you wish to donate. Thank You. God bless.
By bank transfer/cheque deposit:
Name: Alex Chan Kok Wah
Bank: Public Bank Berhad account no: 4076577113
Country: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Sunday, May 24, 2009
I have through years of reading, pondering, reflecting and contemplating, the 3 things that last; FAITH . HOPE . LOVE and I would like to made available my sharing from the many thinkers, authors, scholars and theologians whose ideas and thoughts I have borrowed. God be with them always. Amen!
I STILL HAVE MANY THINGS TO SAY TO YOU BUT THEY WOULD BE TOO MUCH FOR YOU NOW. BUT WHEN THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH COMES, HE WILL LEAD YOU TO THE COMPLETE TRUTH, SINCE HE WILL NOT BE SPEAKING AS FROM HIMSELF, BUT WILL SAY ONLY WHAT HE HAS LEARNT; AND HE WILL TELL YOU OF THE THINGS TO COME.
HE WILL GLORIFY ME, SINCE ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. EVERYTHING THE FATHER HAS IS MINE; THAT IS WHY I SAID: ALL HE TELLS YOU WILL BE TAKEN FROM WHAT IS MINE. - JOHN 16:12-15 -
No comments:
Post a Comment