Quick Q&A – Sorrow for Your Sins and Sacramental Absolution

Last updated on: October 1, 2015 at 7:40 pm by Jennifer Fitz

Quick Q&A – Sorrow for Your Sins and Sacramental Absolution 2015-10-01T19:40:37-05:00 Jennifer Fitz

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

This excellent post by Max Lindenman prompted a question from a reader about repentance and forgiveness of sins. The question was, approximately: Just how sorry for your sins do you have to be in order to be forgiven via the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

To begin, some vocabulary terms:

“Perfect Contrition” is sorrow for your sins because you are sorry for offending God, whom you love. Perfect contrition alone is sufficient to reconcile yourself with God.

(You are obliged, all the same, to seek out the Sacrament of Reconciliation at first opportunity. But if you die in the meantime, you will have died reconciled to God.)

“Imperfect Contrition,” also called “Attrition,” is sorrow for your sins because you fear the just punishment due to you. That is, you fear purgatory or hell, and thus you wish you hadn’t gotten yourself into such a hot mess. Imperfect contrition is sufficient for receiving absolution (forgiveness of your sins) in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

It is possible, of course, to hate your sins for both reasons — because they offend God and also because they’ve gotten you into a pile of trouble.

Finally, coming to Max’s essay, is the question of a “firm purpose of amendment.”

What this means is that you’ve identified your sins and resolved not to commit them again. You are turning away from sin. Repenting, as we say.

Naturally it is necessary that you be turning away from sin in order to seek any of the sacraments of forgiveness, since that’s the whole point. Like the prodigal son whose father watched for him to return day and night, the Heavenly Father’s been sitting there waiting for you all along; it’s just a matter of getting you to turn away from evil and back towards God.

This is what it’s all about.

So just how firm does your purpose of amendment have to be?

You have to want to not commit the sin again.

In other words, confession isn’t your sin-for-free box. It’s not like when you send in one of those cards for the free trial of the magazine, knowing you can cancel after the first issue. (Actually, you shouldn’t send away for the magazine unless you’re really interested in subscribing if it turns out to be any good.)

But we know humans, and we know that the confessional isn’t gathering dust for lack of sin. I think I read somewhere that Pope Francis goes to confession every two to three weeks, which if I had his job I’d need to be going way more than that, but you get the idea. We know that try as we might, the odds we’ll behave perfectly from now on out are pretty low.

So the firm purpose of amendment isn’t God asking us for a money-back guarantee — I’ll forgive your sins once, but that’s it!!! He’s in on the same seventy-times-seven forgiveness plan He enjoined on us. (And that’s not a mathematical number — 70 x 7 is like saying “a gazillion” — it means perfect, unending forgiveness.)

Sometimes you really hate your sin, and you don’t want to commit it again, but you walk into the confessional with a plan for repentance that consists of, “Lord, I haven’t the faintest idea how I’m going to avoid this sin in the future. So my plan is that I’m counting on You to help make this happen. Give me the brilliant idea, because I haven’t figured it out yet. Or just do something to keep me out of trouble. Whatever it takes. Thanks.”

That’s a firm (if desperate) purpose of amendment. It’s enough.

Photo by Juha Flinkman, SubZone OY. Wreck of cargo ship “E. Russ”. Steering wheel. Located north from island Hiiumaa in Estonia. [CC 4.0] via Wikimedia Commons.

Catholic Q&A

Forgiveness

Stick that Corner

Sacrament of Confession; Reconciliation; Go to Mass!

Previous Post

October 1, 2015

My Life, Soup Edition

Next Post

October 2, 2015 ACLU Sues Catholic College for Not Allowing School Shootings #satire

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Books Catechesis Catholic Q&A Chastity Church Craziness Come See Me Talk Disability & Chronic Illness Economics Evangelization Facepalm Forgiveness Good Things History Homeschooling Human Rights It's All Catholic Listen to Me Survey Series Liturgical Living Marriage Modesty Not Satire. But almost. Rant-o-Rama Sacred Art & Music Satire South Carolina Spark Clutter Stick that Corner Suffering Thinking Topics Writing Stuff

Select a Month September 2026 July 2026 June 2026 January 2026 December 2025 September 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 November 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 May 2019 April 2019 February 2019 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

There is a season for everything under heaven—a time to be born and a time to do what?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Live Rest Sing Die