Dom Prosper Gueranger:
We now come to the fourth Sacrament, which may be justly called the Sacrament of Mercy. Jesus knew the weakness of man. He knew that the great majority of Christians would not persevere in the grace they received at Baptism, and that sin would, in most cases, spoil the beautiful plant which had been watered by the dew of heaven, and which, after growing and flowering, was to be transplanted into the garden of eternal life. Like grass that lies withered on the field, so would be this once fair plant. How could it ever revive, unless He that made it gave it life again? Thanks to His infinite mercy! — this is what He has the will to do. Consulting the sinner’s salvation rather than His own glory, He prepared, as the holy Fathers express it, a second plank after shipwreck. The first was Baptism, but mortal sin came, and the soul was again plunged into the wild abyss. She had fallen once more into the hands of her enemy. She was fettered by chains, which it was out of her power to break.
During His mortal life on Earth Jesus, who came not to judge the world, but to save it, (John xii. 47) declared that these fetters, forged by the sinner’s malice, should be broken by a power which He would one day establish in His Church. Speaking to His Apostles, He told them that whatever they should loosen on Earth should be loosed also in Heaven (Matthew xviii. 18). Since making that solemn promise, our Redeemer has offered His sacrifice on the Cross. His infinitely Precious Blood has been shed for the superabundant expiation of the sins of the world. He that loved us to such a degree as this, could never forget the promise He had made. On the contrary, He was most anxious to keep it, for He knew the fearful dangers to which our salvation is exposed.
On the very day of His Resurrection, He appears to His Apostles, and His first words evince His eagerness to fulfil the promise He had previously made. It seems as though His mercy were impatient to break asunder the humiliating and terrible bonds of sin, which held us captives. No sooner has He breathed the Holy Ghost on His Apostles, than He adds these words: “Whose sins you will forgive, they are forgiven them” (John xx. 23). Observe here, as the holy Fathers have done, the strength of the words spoken by our Lord: They are forgiven. He says not, “they will be forgiven.” It is no longer the promise of a gift, but the gift itself. Before the Apostles have exercised the divine power conferred on them by Jesus, every absolution which they and their successors in this sacred ministry will pronounce, even to the end of time, is already confirmed.
Glory, then, be to our Risen Jesus, who has removed the barriers of His Justice, that His Mercy might inundate the world! Let mankind unite and sing to Him the sublime canticle of David, in which foreseeing the wondrous events that were to take place under the New Law, this Royal Psalmist prophesied the forgiveness of sins, which the Apostles were afterwards to teach us as an Article of our Creed.
“Bless the Lord, my soul! and let all that is within you bless His holy Name. Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction. Your youth will be renewed like the eagle’s. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and plenteous in mercy. He will not always be angry. He has not dealt with us according to our sins. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our iniquities from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so ha the Lord compassion on them that fear Him, for He knows our frame. He remembers that we are dust, man’s days are as grass. As the flower of the field, so will he flourish, for the spirit will pass in him, and he will not be, and he will know his place no more. But the mercy of the Lord is from eternity and to eternity upon them that fear Him. My soul! Bless the Lord.” (Psalm cii.)
And yet we, the children of the promise, know even better than David did, the greatness of God’s mercy. Jesus was not content with giving us His assurance, that if, after having sinned, we have recourse with humble repentance to the Divine Majesty, we will obtain pardon: as the sentence of God’s mercy would thus be without any outward sign, a cruel anxiety would have ever been upon us, leaving us in doubt of our forgiveness. Therefore did this loving Saviour ordain that men should give us pardon in His Name. That we might know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins (Luke v. 24), He gave power to His delegates to pronounce over us a sentence of absolution which our very ears might hear, and which would convey to our souls the sweet confidence of pardon.
O ineffable Sacrament, by whose means Heaven is peopled by countless numbers who else had been lost, and who will for ever sing the mercies of the Lord! (Psalms lxxxviii. 2) O irresistible power of the words of absolution, which, deriving their efficacy from the Blood of our Redeemer, take away all our iniquities, and plunge them into the abyss of Divine Mercy! The eternity of torments due to these iniquities would never have expiated them, and yet these few words of the Priest: “I absolve you,” have utterly annihilated them. Such is the Sacrament of Penance. In return for the humble confession of our sins and the sincere sorrow for having committed them, we receive pardon, and this not for once or twice only, but as often as we approach the sacred tribunal: not for this or that kind of sin only, but for every sin whatsoever. It is not to be wondered at that Satan should envy man this gift, and strive to throw such doubts and difficulties in the way as to prevent his profiting by it. What has not heresy said against this Sacrament? It began by teaching that it takes from the glory of holy Baptism, whereas, on the contrary, it honours that first Sacrament by repairing the injuries done to it by sin. Later on it exacted, as absolutely necessary for the Sacraments, such perfect dispositions that Absolution would find the soul already reconciled with God. It was by this dangerous snare of Jansenism that so many were ruined, either by pride or by discouragement. And lastly, it has set up that Protestant dictum: “I confess my sins to God,” just as though God had not the right to lay down the conditions for pardon.
The Sacraments, being, as they are, such divine institutions, demand our faith. Without faith, they are simply impossibilities. Though this be true of all the Seven, yet the Sacrament of Penance is especially welcome to a man of faith because it so thoroughly humbles human pride. It sends man to ask of his fellow-man what God could have given directly Himself. Jesus said to the lepers, whom He wished to cure: “Go, show yourselves to the priests!” (Luke xvii. 14). Surely He has a right to act in the same manner when there is question of spiritual leprosy.
