A Little Help Explaining Some Apologetics

[Ignatius33]

1. Paulinus of Milan: “[Ambrose] rejoiced also with those who rejoiced, and wept with those who wept. For whenever anyone confessed his sins to him to receive a penance, he so wept that he forced the penitent too to weep. For he considered that he was himself in a state similar to that of the penitent. But when cases of crimes were confessed to him, he spoke of it to none but the Lord alone, with whom he interceded; and thus he left a good example to later priests, to be intercessors with God rather than accusers among men. For even according to the Apostle, love is to be confirmed in dealing with a person of this kind [2 Cor. 2:8]; for he has become his own accuser who does not wait for but anticipates the accuser; and thus, by confessing, he lightens his own sin, lest he have something of which the adversary might accuse him” (Life of St. Ambrose [ca. 420 AD]).
2. St. Augustine: “The remission of sins is their unbinding . . . Let this be in the heart of the penitent: when you hear a man confessing his sins, he has already come to life again; when you hear a man lay bare his conscience in confessing, he has already come forth from the sepulcher; but he is not yet unbound. When is he unbound? By whom is he unbound? ‘Whatever you loose on earth,’ He says, ‘shall be loosed also in heaven’ [Matt. 16:19]. Rightly is the loosing of sins able to be given by the Church” (Explanation of the Psalms [inter 392-418 AD]).

Augustine also warns the faithful: “Let us not listen to those who deny that the Church of God is able to forgive all sins. They are wretched indeed, because they do not recognize in Peter the rock and they refuse to believe that the keys of the kingdom of heaven, lost from their own hands, have been given to the Church” (Christian Combat [396/397 AD]).

Augustine writes: “Let no one say: ‘I did that; perhaps I will not be forgiven.’ Because you did it? How great is the sin you committed? Tell me what you have done, something serious, something horrible, something terrifying even to think about. Whatever you might have done, did you kill Christ? There is nothing worse than having done that, because there is nothing better than Christ. How great a wrong is it to kill Christ? But the Jews killed Him; and afterwards many of them believed in Him and drank His Blood: and the sin which they had committed was forgiven them. When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the commandments of God, so that you may preserve your Baptism to the very end. I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they are venial sins which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins; for light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. What does the prayer say? ‘Forgive us our debts as we too forgive our debtors’ [Matt. 6:12]. We are cleansed only once by Baptism; by prayer we are cleansed daily. But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the Body of Christ *; perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities: that is why they are doing penance. If their sin were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in Baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance; yet, God does not forgive sins except to the baptized” (Sermon to Catechumens, On the Creed [ca. 395 AD]).

Augustine sweeps aside the notion that confession could be done between the sinner and God alone, without the aid of an intermediary: “Let no one say I do penance secretly; I perform it in the sight of God, and He who is to pardon me knows that in my heart I repent.” Whereupon, Augustine asks: “Was it then said to no purpose, ‘What you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven?’ Was it for nothing that the keys were given to the Church?” (Sermon 392 [391-430 AD]).

Augustine also wrote: “I realize what the incontinent can say . . . that if a man, accusing his wife of adultery, kills her, this sin, since it is finished and does not perdure in him, if it is committed by a catechumen, is absolved in Baptism; and, if it is done by one who is baptized, it is healed by Penance and reconciliation” (Adulterous Marriages [419-420 AD]).

Again, Augustine states: “Yet those who do penance in accord with the kind of sin they have committed are not to despair of receiving God’s mercy in the Holy Church, for the remission of their crimes, however serious. In the penitential action, however, where the crime committed was such that he who committed it is separated from the body of Christ, it is not so much the length of time as the depth of sorrow that is to be considered” (The Enchiridion of Faith, Hope and Love [421 AD]).

1. Pope St. Innocent: “Regarding these *, the earlier practice was more severe, the later more tempered with mercy. The former custom was that penance should be granted, but Communion denied; for in those times persecutions were frequent, hence, lest the easy admission to Communion should fail to bring back from their evil ways men who were sure of reconciliation, very rightly Communion was refused, while penance was granted in order that the refusal might not be total . . . But after Our Lord had restored peace to his Churches, and terror had ceased, it was judged well that Communion be given the dying lest we should seem to follow the harshness and sternness of the heretic Novatian in denying pardon. Communion, therefore, shall be given at the last along with penance, that these men, if only in the supreme moment of death, may, with the permission of Our Savior, be rescued from eternal destruction” (Letter to Exsuperius, Bishop of Toulouse [405 AD]).
2. Pope St. Celestine expressed horror at learning that “penance was refused the dying and that the desire of those was not granted who in the hour of death sought this remedy for their soul” – this, he says, is “adding death to death and killing with cruelty the soul that is not absolved” (Letter to the bishops of Vienne and Narbonne [428 AD]).

continued…**

 

[Ignatius33]

1. St Cyril of Alexandria: “[On John 20:23]: In what way, then, and by what reason does the Savior bestow upon His own disciples the dignity which belongs to the divine nature alone? Certainly, the Word, who is in the Father, would not err in what is seemly, and what He does is right and proper. He considered that those who already had in themselves the Divine and Lordly Spirit ought to be lords also of forgiving the sins of some, and of retaining those of others if they wished, the Holy Spirit indwelling in them forgiving or retaining according to their own will, even though the matter is executed directly through men. Men filled with the Spirit of God * forgive sins or retain them, it seems to me, in two ways, for either they call to Baptism those who are worthy, men already tested for the faith by the sobriety and constancy of their lives, or they prohibit and exclude the divine grace those who are not yet worthy; or in still another way they forgive and retain sins when sons of the Church conquer their sins and, confessing them, reform their lives” (Commentary on John [before 429 AD]).
2. Salaman the Church historian: “Because to be entirely without sin belongs more to divine than to human nature, God has decreed that pardon is to be extended to those who repent even after many transgressions. Since in asking pardon it is necessary to confess the sin, it seems likely that from the very beginning priests saw that it was burdensome for the people to confess their sins in public and with the whole church as witness. So they appointed a presbyter who could conduct himself with the utmost self-control and prudence to be in charge of this. It was to him that the penitents went to confess their transgressions. His was the task of assessing the penalty that had to be exacted for each sin and, when satisfaction had been made, of absolving them” (History of the Church [ca. 439 AD]).
3. Pope St. Leo the Great forbids as an abuse “contrary to the Apostolic rule” the reading out in public of a written statement of their sins drawn up by the faithful because, he declares, “it suffices that the guilt of conscience be manifested to priests alone in secret confession” (Letter to the bishops of Campania [ca. 459 AD]).

In another epistle, after declaring that by Divine ordinance the mercy of God can be obtained only through the supplication of the priests, Leo adds: “the mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus, gave the rulers of the Church this power that they should impose penance on those who confess and admit them when purified by salutary satisfaction to the communion of the sacraments through the gateway of reconciliation” (Epistle to Theodore, Bishop of Rejus, no. 108 [442 AD]).

Again, Leo says: “Neither satisfaction is to be forbidden nor reconciliation denied to those who in time of need and imminent danger implore the aid of penance and then of reconciliation.” After pointing out that penance should not be deferred from day to day until the moment “when there is hardly space either for the confession of the penitent or his reconciliation by the priest,” he adds that even in these circumstances “the action of penance and the grace of communion should not be denied if asked for by the penitent” (id.).

1. St. Fulgence of Ruspe: “From this Church even those who are involved in various errors outside the Church can receive the forgiveness of their sins, if, while they are still in this world, they will be converted to this same Church in a correct belief and in contrite and heartfelt humility. Let them hasten, then, while there is yet time, to their legitimate Mother, who diligently sustains and nourishes the sons born of her womb . . . Let them abandon heresy and return quickly to the Catholic Church. Let them neither doubt the possession of their inheritance nor despair of the forgiveness of their sins. For anyone who does not believe that within the Catholic Church all sins can be loosed deprives himself of the forgiveness of sins if, persevering in the same hardness of an impenitent heart, he departs from this world alienated from the Church’s society” (The Forgiveness of Sins [512-523 AD]).
2. Pope St. Gregory the Great: “The disciples receive as their lot the preeminence of celestial judgment, so that, in God’s stead, they retain sins for some and for some they forgive them. It was fitting that they be so raised up by God, when they had consented to be so grossly humiliated for God’s sake. See, they who feared the strict judgment of God have become judges of souls, and they who feared that they would themselves be condemned now either condemn others or release them. Certainly it is now the bishops who hold their place in the Church. They receive the authority of binding and of loosing, who have as their lot a degree of governing. It is a magnificent honor, but that honor carries with it a heavy burden . . . Reasons, therefore, must be reflected upon; and then the power of binding and of loosing is to be exercised. It must be seen what fault preceded, or what repentance followed after that fault, so that the sentence of the pastor may absolve those on whom Almighty God bestows the grace of compunction” (Homilies on the Gospels [590-591 AD]).

Finally, Pope Gregory teaches “the affliction of penance is efficacious in blotting out sins when it is enjoined by the sentence of the priest when the burden of it is decided by him in proportion to the offense after weighing the deeds of those who confess” (In I Reg., III, v, n.13 [before 604 AD]).*

 

[Ignatius33]

1. St. Thomas Aquinas, although he lived long after the patristic era, is still worth quoting: “As our Lord said to His disciples [Matt. 28:18]: ‘Going . . . teach ye all nations, baptizing them,’ etc., so did He say to Peter [Matt. 16:19]: ‘Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth,’ etc. Now the priest, relying on the authority of those words of Christ says: ‘I baptize thee.’ Therefore on the same authority he should say in this sacrament [of Penance]: ‘I absolve thee’” (Summa Theologica III, Q. 84, Art. 3 [1265-1274 AD]).

“Therefore it is evident that after [mortal] sin the sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation, even as bodily medicine after man has contracted a dangerous disease” (id. III, Q. 84, Art. 5).

“The grace which is given in the sacraments descends from the Head to the members. Wherefore he alone who exercises ministry over Christ’s true body is a minister of the sacraments, wherein grace is given; and this belongs to the priest alone, who can consecrate the Eucharist. Therefore, since grace is given in the sacrament of Penance, none but the priest is the minister of the sacrament: and consequently sacramental confession which should be made to a minister of the Church should be made to none but a priest” (id. Suppl., Q.8, Art. 1).