rwoehmke,
My understanding is that perfect contrition would consist of having as
its primary motive the love of God whom has been offended. This does not mean that there cannot be secondary or lesser motives, such as fear of punishment, in an act of perfect contrition.
I think the problem (that of considering “perfect contrition” to be contrition exclusive of any other motive that love of God) often arises when we confuse “AN ACT of perfect contrition” with the notion of “A PERFECT ACT of contrition.” IAs you pointed out it would be extremely difficult for someone to perform a
perfect act of contrition. . . but perhaps it is not so rare that we perform an
act of perfection contion, where we understand perfect contrition as having as its primary motive love of God.
Fr. John Hardon defines perfect contrition in his Catholic Dictionary
thus:
Sorrow for sin arising from perfect love. In perfect contrition the sinner detests sin more than any other evil, because it offends God, who is supremely good and deserving of all human love. Its motive is founded on God’s own personal goodness and not merely his goodness to the sinner or to humanity. . . . Moreover, in the act of perfect contrition other motives can coexist with the perfect love required. There can be fear or gratitude, or even lesser motives such as self-respect and self-interest, along with the dominant reason for sorrow, which is love for God.
The same is echoed in Catholic Answers *This Rock *magazine(Quick Questions) February 2003 (Vol 14, #2) response
here:
Both kinds of contrition, which are not mutually exclusive, assume the resolve to sin no more.
The Catholic Encyclopedia entry on
Contrition gives us even more light:
All are agreed that pure, or disinterested, love (amor benevolentiæ, amor amicitiæ) suffices; when there is question of interested, or selfish, love (amor concupiscentia) theologians hold that purely selfish love is not sufficient.
The Encylopedia points out that disinterested love suffices, while
purely selfish love is not sufficient. This means that disinterested love alone would obviously by Perfect Contrition, however *there can be an admixture of selfish love. *However selfish love
alone (purely) is not sufficient.
This possiblity of an admixture, always keeping in mind however that the *
primary motive *must be love of God, is admirably summed up in the standard Act of Contrition, as pointed out by
drforjc:
O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven, and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend Thee, my God. . .
Thus this standard act of contrition expresses as
its primary motive love of God who was offended, and
as a secondary motive dread of loss. I would submit that this standard Act of Contrition, would suffice for for perfect contrition **IF **the internal motives corresponded to the expressed words.
*So perhaps an Act of Perfect Contrition is not as rare as you may have thought! *
If, on the other hand, perfect contrition meant an
exclusive motivation out of love of God, then you would be right to be concerned about the implications, ESPECIALLY for christians who do not have access to a sacramental confession. Since imperfect contrition, or attrition, suffices for sacramental absolution, but only perfect contrition suffices outside of the sacrament (and for a Catholic this must be accompanied with the intention to avail oneself of sacramental absolution as soon as possible), then it would seem that extra-sacramental forgiveness of sins (for both catholics and non-catholics) would be rare.
That would be a very serious thing indeed. But, thankfully, the definition of perfect contrition does contemplate the mixture of other secondary motives.
What do you think?
VC
