J.W.B.:
What exactly is “perfect contrition?” Is it pouring your heart out to Christ with sincerety that you are sorry for your sins and want to live from now on His way? If it is sincerity of heart, then that same matter applies when we confess before a priest because if we are only doing it just to “do it” because it’s how we were raised or something, then I don’t believe God will forgive us because our “hearts” are not “sincere” in the confession even though the priest may say we are forgiven. God knows and judges the heart.
Imperfect contrition is when one’s primary motivation for receiving the Sacrament is out of a sense obligation, or a fear of being cut off from “heaven.”
Perfect contrition is when one’s primary motivation for receiving the Sacrament is out of a sincere desire to grow in the grace of God, and out of sorrow for the sins committed which one acknowledges are offenses agaist the love of God.
One who is perfectly contrite intends to do ALL that God wants done for the forgiveness of sin. God extends to the one who is perfectly contrite the remission of all temporal punishment due to all of the sins they have committed.
It is important to keep in mind that modern Catholic scholarship DOES NOT consider physical suffering or disasters such as tsunamis, epedemics, terrorist attacks, wars, as God’s punishment for our sin. These are the realities of the present material world. They are not the consequences of “Adam’s sin,” but were the conditions that existed before the first tribes of men and women evolved out of the lower by degree and now extinct primates. God’s “punishment,” if you will, is found in the degree of intimate fellowship that is extended with God in Christ. The perfectly contrite person is extended an intimate fellowship with God in Christ and with the Church God established in Christ. The imperfectly contrite has forgiveness of sin, but does not share in such a degree of intimate fellowship with God in Christ and with the Church God established in Christ.
Both forms of contrition arise from supernatural motive. Both forms of contrition are sufficient for the forgiveness of serious sin when joined together with absolution in confession. Both forms of contrition are sufficient for forgiveness of venial sin outside of confession.
When we speak of God, and the Risen Christ, we are NOT speaking of physical realities. God is Spirit. We speak in physical terms because in the here and now that is where we find ourselves. We are created spirits expressed in material bodies that are constantly in transition.
From conception to physical death, we remain in those material bodies. That is why embryonic stem cell research, abortion, euthanasia (such as the murder of Terri Schiavo) is so offensive. Through these, men and women play God with the lives of others. They assume a role that has not been formally extended to them…that is to determine who is to live and who is to die. They arrogantly assert that they know better than God under the guise of making the world a better place to live for humanity.
Friends, the material universe is subject to futility and humanity is ultimately headed for termination.No scientific progress can stop the inevitable. If we really want to make the world a better place for humanity, we should seek the face of God and point others to Him, not destroy the lives that He has created. For where our treasure is stored, there our hearts will be.
