Penance as Sacrament of the Sacrifice of the Cross

Abstract

Penance as Sacrament of the Sacrifice of the Cross Frederick L. Miller Each of the seven sacraments was instituted by Christ as a channel of his grace for the needs of his people. Saint Thomas Aquinas begins his treatise on the sacraments with an affirmation that God acts through the sacred humanity of Christ in each of the sacraments. The saving power must necessarily be derived by the sacraments from Christ's Godhead through his humanity.1 The Catholic doctrine of the sacraments flows from and, in a sense, is an extension of the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God. Each sacrament has a material and verbal component, the former a sign of the humanity assumed by the Son of God in the Incarnation, the latter, a reminder that it is the Divine Word who became flesh for our salvation who acts in the sacraments. For five of the sacraments, a material sacramental sign (matter) and a sacramental word (form)—that is, a prayer formula that accompanies and specifies the meaning of the sign—are easily identifiable. For instance, in Baptism, the minister of the sacrament either pours water over the head of the catechumen or immerses the catechumen in a pool of water, with the words, "I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." The sacramental sign (matter) of Baptism is the pouring of [End Page 685] water or immersion in water; the sacramental word (form), the words that Christ himself taught us. In the sacrament of confirmation, the candidate is anointed on the forehead with Holy Chrism as the minister of the sacrament prays, "Be sealed with the gift of the Holy Spirit." The matter of confirmation is the anointing with Chrism, the form, the words determined by the Church. In the Holy Eucharist, the matter is unleavened bread and wine mixed with water, the form, the words Christ used to institute the sacrament of his Body and Blood at the Last Supper. Together matter and form constitute the sacrament through which Christ communicates grace to the recipient. In the Sacrament of Penance, there is no immediately perceivable material sign such as water in Baptism, chrism in Confirmation, the oil of the sick in the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, bread and wine in the Eucharist, and the laying on of hands in Holy Orders. In attempting to identify the matter of the Sacrament of Penance, some have inaccurately identified it as the reality and effects of sin that inhere somehow in the sinner. Although the matter of the sacrament is intimately related to the sins of the penitent, Saint Thomas Aquinas explained that the sacramental sign is not sin per se but rather, a sincere sorrow for sin that is inspired by God: "The proximate matter of this sacrament consists in the acts of the penitent, the matter of which acts are the sins over which he grieves, which he confesses, and for which he satisfies. Hence it follows that sins are the remote matter of Penance, as a matter, not for approval, but for detestation, and destruction."2 If this contrition is authentically supernatural, it will include, at least implicitly, the willingness to do all that God requires for forgiveness, namely, confession to a priest and the readiness to make amends through acts of penance. Since the Christian who commits mortal sin is incapable of meriting reconciliation with God through any good work, he must seek the grace of repentance from the Holy Spirit. This plea for grace is itself the gift of the Spirit of God who draws the sinner to the heart of Christ, inspiring sorrow, the desire to confess the sin to a priest, and the need to make amends. The penitent responds to the Holy Spirit by accepting the grace of repentance and sincerely repenting. The Angelic Doctor stressed that the sacramental sign of Penance is made up of human acts inspired by the Holy Spirit and the absolution of the priest: "In those sacraments which have a corporeal matter, this matter needs to be applied by a minister of the Church, who stands in the place of...