It is very difficult for the world to understand such sorrow as hers, but that is only because it does not have such love. The more one loves, the more one shrinks from hurting the beloved, and the more one grieves at having done so. But this grief should not make us dour and self-centered like those who say, "I can never forgive myself for that." That is hell - when the soul refuses to accept forgiveness for having wounded Love Divine.

The difference in standards between the pagans, old or new, and the believer, which results in remorse in one instance and sorrow in the other, is evidenced by the Lord Jesus Christ six precepts statements beginning with, "For I tell you (But I say/tell this to you) These contradict six precepts of worldly wisdom, each beginning, "You have heard/learnt."

- Matt. 5:21-22 - The Christian Standard. - The Pagan Standard - Do not let him/her get away with it. Stir up class enmity in order to seize power.

- Matt. 5:28-29 - The Christian Standard. - The Pagan Standard - Be self-expressive. Repression of sex instincts causes frustration. Liberty means the right to do whatever you please in the realm of the flesh.

- Matt. 5:32 - The Christian Standard. - The Pagan Standard - Get a divorce! Marry again.

- Matt. 5:34-37 - The Christian Standard - The Pagan Standard - Take matters into own hands. Say: I will be damned if I will do it.

- Matt. 5:39-42 - The Christian Standard - The Pagan Standard - Hit him/her back. Get even with him/her. Forgiveness is weakness.

- Matt. 5:44-48 - The Christian Standard - The Pagan Standard - Hate him/her if he hates you. Sue him! Kill him!

Since the Christian is trying to do something very difficult in aspiring to follow the Lord Jesus Christ precepts, he/she sometimes fails. His /her sorrow does not come because one has violated a law, but only if one knows one has broken off the relationship with Divine Love. But there is yet another element required for regeneration, the element of repentance and reparation. Repentance is rather dry-eyed affair; tears flow in sorrow, but sweat pours out in repentance. It is enough to tell God we are sorry and then forget all about it. If we broke a neighbor's window, we would not only apologize but also would go to the trouble of putting in a new pane. Since all sin disturbs the equilibrium and balance of justice and love, there must be a restoration involving toil and effort.

To see why this must be, suppose that every time a person did wrong, he/she has told to drive a nail into the wall of his/her living room, and that every time he was forgiven, he/she was told to pull it out. The holes would still remain after the forgiveness. Thus every sin (whether actual or original) after being forgiven leaves "holes" or "wounds" in our human nature, and the filling up of these holes is done by penance; a thief who steals a watch can be forgiven for the theft, but only if he /she returns the watch.

The difference between forgiveness and reparation is indicated in Sacred Scripture. When Moses sinned by doubting, God forgave him - but God still imposed a penance on Moses. "You shall not pass this Jordan." - Deut. 3:27 - David repented for his adultery, and Nathan the prophet absolved him: "The Lord has taken away your sin: you shall not die" - 2 Kin. 12:13 - But God demanded satisfaction, "The child that is born to you, shall surely die"  - 2 Kin. 12:14 - It is the same today: God's pardon in the Sacrament restores us to His Friendship, but the debt to Divine Justice remains, either in time or in eternity.

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 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, that is, perfect rectification of the will. Free-will is the core of the difficulty.

An illustration may help to clarify the issue. Suppose two person had a quarrel, and one of them got into an uncontrollable rage and struck his/her companion so hard that he/she damaged his/her own hand and wrist. Afterwards, the aggressor apologized and his apology was accepted. Would you call that the end of the 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 damage is not necessarily repainted 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/Reconciliation, but the adequacy of their own repentance. This is the explanation, too, of Christ's own insistence on penance.

Or consider sin as a journey away from God. Imagine that A is a minor son, bound to respect his father's wishes. He is in Chicago. His father, B, tells him to go to the left on the map - to San Francisco. But instead A goes to the right, to New York. When A gets to New York, he telephones B and says, "Forgive me, will you, please? I am sorry for having offended you, who are deserving of my love." B forgives A; but look where A is! He is about nine hundred miles from his starting point, Chicago. In order to do B's will, A has to go back to Chicago before he can go to San Francisco; or you could say that the nine hundred miles A traveled in sin must be traveled back in penance. A cannot begin to be good until he has retracted his evil ways.

But, like all examples, this one limps. For the fact is that A need not walk back those 900 hundred miles; when A start, he can call upon the Church to assist him with an airplane full of the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Mother, and the Saints. The plane flies him back the rest of the way. Such a remission in whole or in part of the punishment due to A's sins is effected through indulgences. Through them, the Church gives her penitents a fresh start. And the Church has a tremendous spiritual capital, gained through centuries of penance, persecution, and martyrdom; many of her children prayed, suffered, and merited more than they needed for the own individual salvation.

The Church took these super abundance merits and put them into the spiritual treasury, out of which repentant sinners can draw in times of spiritual depression. Or this spiritual capital may be likened to a blood bank; whenever any of her members are suffering from spiritual anemia or the deep wounds of sin, the Church gives them a blood transfusion. She can never do it for us if we are spiritually dead in sin; a transfusion will not avail a corpse. So to obtain the indulgences or remission of the penalties of sin, the recipient must be in a state of grace, must have the intention of gaining the indulgences, and must perform the prescribed works.

The sinner will willingly do.........

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Faith . Hope . Love - Welcome donation. 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 -