Friday of the first week of Lent Year B
Posté par diaconos le 26 février 2021
Would I then take pleasure in the death of the wicked man, and not rather that he should turn from his conduct and live ?
# The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is, in the Catholic Church, in the Orthodox Churches and in the Anglican Church, one of the seven sacraments. Its purpose is that God may forgive sins to the penitent. According to St. Augustine, to confess means « to do the truth », and above all it implies discipline and humility in the truth.
Around the 7th century, a new discipline spread from Celtic and Anglo-Saxon monasteries: the priest heard confession in private, and gave penances appropriate to the fault. Absolution was only granted at the end of these penances. Towards the end of the 12th century, the confession became more important: it tended to be sufficient to allow absolution, given immediately at the end of the confession. Canon 21 of the Lateran Council IV (1215) prescribes annual confession: « Every faithful of either sex who has reached the age of discretion must himself loyally confess all his sins at least once a year to his parish priest, carefully carry out the penance imposed on him and respectfully receive, at least at Easter, the sacrament of the Eucharist ».
# The Augsburg Confession, the primary confession of faith of the Lutheran Church, divides repentance into two parts: « One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ’s sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors. » Puritan preacher Thomas Hooker defined contrition as « nothing else, namely, when a sinner by the sight of sin and vileness of it, and the punishment due to the same, is made sensible of sin, and is made to hate it, and hath his heart separated from the same. »
Anglo-Catholic rector of St. Mark’s Church in Philadelphia, Alfred Garnett Mortimer, pointed out that « feelings » are not an adequate gauge of contrition. The signs of true contrition are a readiness to confess, a readiness to amend one’s life and avoid temptation, and a readiness to forgive others. In the very nature of things the sinner must repent before being reconciled with God. This obligation urges under pain of sin when there is danger of death
From the book of the prophet Ezekiel
Thus says the Lord God: If the wicked man turns away from all his sins that he has committed, if he keeps all my decrees, if he practices law and justice, he will surely live, he will not die. None of the crimes he committed will be remembered, he will live because of the justice he practised. Would I then take pleasure in the death of the wicked man, says the Lord God, and not rather that he should turn from his ways and live ?
But if the righteous man turns from his righteousness and does evil by imitating all the abominations of the wicked, will he do so and live ? All the righteousness which he had practised will not be remembered: because of his unfaithfulness and sin he will die ! And yet you say : « The Lord’s conduct is not right. » Hear now, O ye children of Israel : is it not my way that is right ? Is it not rather yours ? If the righteous man turns from his righteousness, commits evil, and dies in this state, he will die because of his evil.
If the wicked turns from his wickedness to practice law and justice, he will save his life. He has opened his eyes and turned away from his crimes. Surely he will live, he will not die. (Ez 18, 21-28)
Making thanks to the return of the sinner
There remained the cases where moral change took place not in the life of the race, from one generation to another, but in the same individual, at different moments of his existence. How will divine justice act towards that man? Here again Ezekiel gave some very striking examples, that of the punishment of Hezekiah for a fault committed at the end of his life, and the forgiveness granted to Manasseh when he returned to himself.
The reason why grace prevailed in this case: it was only reluctantly that God destroyed him. So when he found in the sinner’s return a motive to give him grace, he grasped it eagerly. The greatest sinner can return to him with the certainty of being received because of this very return: « I will arise and go to my father and say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son; treat me as one of your mercenaries. And he arose and went to his father. While he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him. « (Lk 15, 18-20)
The case of the righteous who became corrupt: his past justice was lost in his final corruption. For God judges a man not by what he has done, but by what he is. « But you say: The way of the Lord is not right. Listen, O house of Israel, is it not my way that is not right? Are not your ways crooked ? » (Ez 18, 25).
The objection is not developed. Here is probably what it consisted of : it is not completely fair to forget the past for the present in this way, by not taking into account, either to the one who returns to the good, his past faults, or to the one who becomes corrupt, his primary justices. It is not isolated works that weigh in the divine balance, it is the inner disposition that produces them.
This is why man is judged according to the moral state in which he is found. In what man is at the supreme moment, the moral result of his whole life is concentrated. Are these not your ways ? The unintelligence of this truth, so clear to the upright heart, proved that the hearers of the prophet Ezekiel were themselves led in the wrong direction.
Deacon Michel Houyoux
Links to other Christian websites
◊ Reflections on the sacred liturgy : click here to read the paper → Friday of the First Week of Lent
◊ Sint Mary : click here to read the paper → Friday of the First Week of Lent
♥ RETURN TO GOD
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