ONE OF OUR EASTER DUTIES

 A REFLECTION FOR PASSION SUNDAY

As we know, it is one of the six precepts of the Church that we must, under pain of mortal sin, receive Holy Communion once a year around Easter time.  As that time is now, it would be a good idea to review certain aspects of the Sacrament of Penance so that we can prepare to make our Easter Duty in the right frame of mind.  There are five requirements that we must fulfill in order to receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily: we must examine our conscience, have sorrow for our sins, make a firm resolution to sin no more, confess our sins to the priest, and accept the penance the priest gives us.  I’d like to focus in on the second of these requirements, that of sorrow for our sin, otherwise known as contrition.

There are various kinds of contrition, and it’s important we know which kinds of contrition we must have when we go to confession.  Contrition must be a) interior, (b) supernatural, (c) universal, and (d) sovereign.

a)       Interior contrition.   Our sorrow does not depend on the words we say as we rattle off the Act of Contrition, nor even on the tears we manufacture for the purpose of impressing the priest.  Interior contrition means that it’s from the heart, that it’s truly meant.  We should not confuse this act of the will with the emotional “feelings” of guilt and shame.  Contrition is not a feeling but the intention to express to God our sorrow for having offended him.

b)       Supernatural contrition.  If we were to go to jail for having robbed a bank, the sorrow and regret we feel for having been caught and convicted is based on purely natural motives.  It is natural contrition, and it’s not enough to confess robbing the bank only because we got caught.  We must be sorry because we have done things forbidden by God and worthy of his punishment.

c)        Universal contrition.  We must be sorry for all our sins.  We might confess and be sorry for 999 sins out of a thousand, but if we aren’t sorry for that one thousandth sin, then none of our sins would be forgiven.  Why none of them?  Because we can’t expect to be restored to sanctifying grace through absolution and yet still be in the state of mortal sin, even if it’s only one.

d)       Sovereign contrition.  We should grieve more for having offended God than for any other evil that can befall us.  Just as we should fear future sins more than any other evil we might encounter, so should we have sorrow for our sins more than for any other misfortune we may have suffered, no matter how bad it was.

It is important before we go to confession, that we ask God to give us the graces to have these four elements of contrition, to instill in us a true grief of the soul for having offended him, and inspire us with a firm purpose of sinning no more.  “Ask and ye shall receive.”  He will give us the actual graces we need and then it’s up to us to work with those graces to avoid the occasions of sin and fight the temptations when they come.  Life is not easy, and staying out of sin is one of the hardest things we have to do.  Nevertheless, it’s a struggle that is worth making, as well we know when we contemplate our final choice between heaven and hell.