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In the practice of the Sacrament of Penance, four acts of the penitent are required:
An examination of conscience should precede the reception of the Sacrament. It should be done in light of the Word of God. As an aid in the examination of conscience, the Catechism of the Catholic Church recommends the Sermon on the Mount and the Apostolic teachings, e.g. those found in the 12th to 15th chapters of the Epistle to the Romans (CCC 1454).
W. H. Auden’s description of his conversion in Christ, should be the experience of every penitent emerging from the Sacrament of Penance, “And during that time the living room had changed places with the room behind the mirror over the fireplace.” By conversion from sin everything is the same except the perspective of the person who has been forgiven, “It is like the extraordinary event of stepping into the room behind the mirror: it entirely is, and entirely is not, the same room”
The reformed rite has the power of becoming a source of joy; it makes possible the rich fruit of conversion from sin to sanctification in the practice of the theological and cardinal virtues. The forgiven man or woman has a new awareness; their inner consciousness is marked by “unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Pet: 1: 8).
In the Divine Commedia Dante specifies what this meant for Christians of the high Middle Ages. It contrasts sharply with the theologies of the German reform two centuries later. For the reformers, divine forgiveness was experienced as forensic justification, utterly unsolicited, a forgiveness which leaves the Christian in a sinful state. The human will was and remains in bondage. By contrast, Dante summarized the pre-Tridentine Catholic experience through an allegory. Dante, the penitent, is a new creation and has been divinized by freely participating in the act of conversion. The sinful events of his past life are transformed by God’s love and mercy. Dante illustrated the sinner’s justification and sanctification by employing a double image of forgiveness: the two waters in the Terrestrial Paradise.
In the Purgatorio the poet employs the word, Eunoe, meaning ‘good remembrance’, for the name of one of the two rivers of the Terrestrial Paradise; the other river is Lethe The word, lethe, is related to the Greek word, aletheia, a negative construction meaning unconcealment, truth. Lethe, without the negative ‘a’ prefix, is the name of the river of forgetfulness. Both streams arise from one source which is of divine, not natural, origin and is always replenished by the divine will. Dante’s image of flowing waters is traceable to John 7: 37-38; Jesus says, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Let him come to me, and let him who believes in me, drink as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’”.
On the threshold of Paradiso, the waters of one branch, the one named Lethe, have the power of taking away from the sinful Dante the memory of his sins, while those of the other branch, Eunoe, have the power of restoring to the repentant Dante the remembrance of his whole past but without shame or bitterness. To bring this about, the waters, whose savour is sovereign, must in each case be tasted in their proper order, first those of the river Lethe, then those of the river Eunoe. . After being drawn by Matelda through the waters of Lethe to the opposite bank, and after having swallowed some in the process, Dante is led to drink of the waters of Eunoe, after the “sweet draught” of which he is finally fit to enter into the timelessness of heaven. Like all penitents he travels through a long, obscure pathway of repentance to arrive at the clearance where now he is “pure and prepared to leap up to the stars” ( XXXIII, 145).
In this notion of double positivity we find that Christ’s atoning death is without measure or price. The penitent is simply asked to show some recompense through a sign of repentance, i.e., to drink of the waters of the twofold waters. One must be specific. The only response the penitent is asked to give in return for divine forgiveness is the non-price of acceptance manifested through fulfilling the penance. and satisfaction in faith, two of the essential elements of the Sacrament. This suggestive allegory explaining our Catholic ancestors’ understanding of the Sacrament is useful for catechesis today. I have adopted this analysis of Dante’s two rivers of forgiveness from John Milbank, an Anglican theologian of the Radical Orthodoxy school.
Because “the doctrine and practice of indulgences...... are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance”(CCC 1471), a brief description of this beautiful and significant doctrine is in order. According to the magnificent 1967 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI, Indulgentiarum Doctrina, “an indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions” (Norm I). Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.
- Sorrow for sins committed
- A resolution or firm purpose of amendment,
- The sincere confession of sins.
- Satisfaction or sacramental penance
An examination of conscience should precede the reception of the Sacrament. It should be done in light of the Word of God. As an aid in the examination of conscience, the Catechism of the Catholic Church recommends the Sermon on the Mount and the Apostolic teachings, e.g. those found in the 12th to 15th chapters of the Epistle to the Romans (CCC 1454).
W. H. Auden’s description of his conversion in Christ, should be the experience of every penitent emerging from the Sacrament of Penance, “And during that time the living room had changed places with the room behind the mirror over the fireplace.” By conversion from sin everything is the same except the perspective of the person who has been forgiven, “It is like the extraordinary event of stepping into the room behind the mirror: it entirely is, and entirely is not, the same room”
The reformed rite has the power of becoming a source of joy; it makes possible the rich fruit of conversion from sin to sanctification in the practice of the theological and cardinal virtues. The forgiven man or woman has a new awareness; their inner consciousness is marked by “unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Pet: 1: 8).
In the Divine Commedia Dante specifies what this meant for Christians of the high Middle Ages. It contrasts sharply with the theologies of the German reform two centuries later. For the reformers, divine forgiveness was experienced as forensic justification, utterly unsolicited, a forgiveness which leaves the Christian in a sinful state. The human will was and remains in bondage. By contrast, Dante summarized the pre-Tridentine Catholic experience through an allegory. Dante, the penitent, is a new creation and has been divinized by freely participating in the act of conversion. The sinful events of his past life are transformed by God’s love and mercy. Dante illustrated the sinner’s justification and sanctification by employing a double image of forgiveness: the two waters in the Terrestrial Paradise.
In the Purgatorio the poet employs the word, Eunoe, meaning ‘good remembrance’, for the name of one of the two rivers of the Terrestrial Paradise; the other river is Lethe The word, lethe, is related to the Greek word, aletheia, a negative construction meaning unconcealment, truth. Lethe, without the negative ‘a’ prefix, is the name of the river of forgetfulness. Both streams arise from one source which is of divine, not natural, origin and is always replenished by the divine will. Dante’s image of flowing waters is traceable to John 7: 37-38; Jesus says, “If anyone thirst, let him come to me and drink. Let him come to me, and let him who believes in me, drink as the scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water’”.
On the threshold of Paradiso, the waters of one branch, the one named Lethe, have the power of taking away from the sinful Dante the memory of his sins, while those of the other branch, Eunoe, have the power of restoring to the repentant Dante the remembrance of his whole past but without shame or bitterness. To bring this about, the waters, whose savour is sovereign, must in each case be tasted in their proper order, first those of the river Lethe, then those of the river Eunoe. . After being drawn by Matelda through the waters of Lethe to the opposite bank, and after having swallowed some in the process, Dante is led to drink of the waters of Eunoe, after the “sweet draught” of which he is finally fit to enter into the timelessness of heaven. Like all penitents he travels through a long, obscure pathway of repentance to arrive at the clearance where now he is “pure and prepared to leap up to the stars” ( XXXIII, 145).
In this notion of double positivity we find that Christ’s atoning death is without measure or price. The penitent is simply asked to show some recompense through a sign of repentance, i.e., to drink of the waters of the twofold waters. One must be specific. The only response the penitent is asked to give in return for divine forgiveness is the non-price of acceptance manifested through fulfilling the penance. and satisfaction in faith, two of the essential elements of the Sacrament. This suggestive allegory explaining our Catholic ancestors’ understanding of the Sacrament is useful for catechesis today. I have adopted this analysis of Dante’s two rivers of forgiveness from John Milbank, an Anglican theologian of the Radical Orthodoxy school.
Because “the doctrine and practice of indulgences...... are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance”(CCC 1471), a brief description of this beautiful and significant doctrine is in order. According to the magnificent 1967 Apostolic Constitution of Pope Paul VI, Indulgentiarum Doctrina, “an indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions” (Norm I). Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.