The divisions of repentance.
The divisions of repentance.
§ 34. Besides this distinction of repentance into interior and exterior, many others also occur. (1) Tertullian (at the very beginning of his book De poenit.) claims one repentance in good people but another of the evil. He writes: (The heathen) “also show forth repentance in their own good deeds. They repent of faith, love, simplicity, patience, mercy, just as something has fallen into ingratitude. They curse themselves for their well-doing, and in their heart they fix this kind of repentance which is imposed against the best works. They take care not to remember to do anything good again. They are brooding too lightly against the repentance of the evil.” This division has been taken from objects and looks at repentance not as it ought to be but as it is, for in the same place Tertullian shows that repentance ought to be used only in regard to what is evil (p. 252): “Repentance should be applied only to sins, and, furthermore, sin does not deserve to be called such unless it is an evil deed. One does not sin by doing well, but if one does not sin, why attack the repentance of those who sin?”
(2) The repentance of the heathen who are finally wearied of sinning and abandon their exterior vices or who cease sinning because of the judgment of their reason, and this, either because of fear of punishment or love of virtue, is one thing. But the repentance of Christians (by which name, taken generally, I include even the people of the Old Testament) is another thing, and this repentance is either true and salutary or false and destructive. True and salutary repentance consists in serious contrition and in true faith in Christ, which new obedience follows immediately. False and destructive repentance is again twofold: one is hypocritical and consists solely in an external appearance and pretense. Elsewhere it is called “pharisaical” because, in regard to the Pharisees, Christ declares that they fast (or mourn) “that they might be seen by people” (Matt. 6:16). The repentance of Ahab must be assigned to this type, about whom it is said (1 Kings 21:27) that, when he heard the threat of punishments, “he rent his clothes, put on sackcloth, fasted, slept in sackcloth, and went about miserably,” that is, with slow steps or bare feet or with head veiled, for the word אַט means all of these. But there is another false repentance which is halved and mutilated. Ambrose (on Luke 22, bk. 10, p. 158) calls it “hollow,” which indeed seriously deplores sins but without faith and the hope of grace. Such was the repentance of Saul and of Judas Iscariot, and for this reason some call it “Iscariotic repentance.” The apostle calls it “death producing” (2 Cor. 7:10). Most often it is called μεταμέλεια, just as, on the contrary, true and salutary repentance is called μετάνοια, but this [lexical] distinction, as was shown earlier [§ 7], does not always hold.
Some people make a distinction between true, salutary repentance and false, destructive repentance in such a way as to say that the former is “evangelical,” but the latter is “legal.” But here we must of necessity add: contrition is of the Law even in true and salutary repentance. Therefore salutary repentance is said to be evangelical not with respect to all its parts but with regard to its chief part, that is, faith, which is of the Gospel.
Nor is it beside the point to assign the distinction between filial and servile fear to this place. For when someone feels serious grief for having offended God, the highest Good, reveres Him as the perfectly kind Father, and then again raises himself to Christ by faith, this is the filial fear which belongs properly to salutary repentance. On the other hand, when someone grieves not so much out of hatred for and detestation of sin as from fear of punishment, fears God as a severe and inexorable judge, and his fear is not mixed with faith, this is the servile fear which pertains to the false and destructive part. This is why some people, by synecdoche, call true and salutary repentance “repentance for the fault” [poenitentia culpae], but the false and destructive, “repentance for the punishment” [poenitentia poenae]. They also call the former “repentance for something done” [poenitentia admissi], but the latter, “repentance for something lost” [poenitentia amissi]. Furthermore, the distinctions listed have been taken partly from causes, partly from subjects, and partly from the very parts of repentance.
(3) If “repentance” is taken to mean not only internal conversion but also the external signs and profession of the inner conversion to God, it can be divided into ordinary or common daily repentance and extraordinary or special repentance of a certain time. Ordinary repentance is that repentance to which each and every adult, even those who have been reborn through Word and Baptism, must pay attention throughout the course of life because of the remnants of original sin and their daily weaknesses. In this regard: “The righteous person falls and rises again seven times a day” (Prov. 24:16). Again, the entire life of a devout person is nothing else but constant repentance and consists not only of internal conversion—that is, serious contrition and faith—but also external signs which immediately follow inner conversion, provided it is true and serious, among which signs the humble confession of sins is prominent.
With regard to its objects, the confession occurs either before God or before one’s neighbor. Many statements of Scripture speak about confession in the presence of God, especially 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive our sins and cleanse us from all iniquity.” This confession of sins before God happens either privately, when anyone confesses his sins and asks for forgiveness of them when he is away from others—as, for example, the publican (Luke 18:13)—or it happens publicly and jointly, when the entire assembly of the church, led by the pastor, confesses its sins to God and asks for forgiveness, as, for example, the Israelites (Lev. 16:21). James 5:16 speaks about the confession of sins in the presence of one’s neighbor: “Confess your sins to one another.” For since it is easy to offend one’s neighbor by words and deeds, therefore it is fitting that out of true and sincere love we confess our errors and beg mercy for them.
Extraordinary repentance, or repentance of a specific and certain time, is that which is taken up at certain times before the minister of the church in more serious and atrocious sins, or in present or imminent disasters, or for the sake of giving greater strength to the conscience. This is either public or private. It is public when an entire assembly feels the present or imminent scourge of God as He avenges and at the summons of the magistrate and pastors of the church professes its solemn repentance, confesses its sins to God as it weeps, and fasts and humbly asks that those sins be forgiven and their punishment be turned away. The Israelites had this kind of repentance (1 Sam. 7:6; Neh. 9:1; Esther 4:3; Joel 2:[12–]14), as did also the Ninevites (Jon. 3:5). In the case of the Israelites, the following were connected to this kind of repentance: the rending of clothes, tears, prostration on the ground, the sprinkling of ashes, and the use of sackcloth (that is, of cheap clothing), the pouring of water, etc. It is private when any private citizen takes up an extraordinary and more solemn repentance, something which generally happens in three special cases. First, in quite serious and atrocious sins. Here pertains the part of ecclesiastical discipline used in the early church, by which special public indications of repentance were required of those who, after they had been received into the register of the church, had contaminated themselves with atrocious sins and had offended others with their behavior. This was done so that from these signs it might be evident to the church that those who had sinned were truly and seriously repentant. For this reason they were said to have “made satisfaction to the church” by this practice. Some trace of this repentance is still left in our churches when fornicators are compelled to make a public plea for pardon. But it should be wished that the muscles of church discipline were flexed more tightly in the worn-out old age of the world and that this salutary severity were applied also in other public and notorious sins. Second, if at some time God places, so to speak, our sins into our sight with very serious calamities, especially domestic ones, then the truly devout often practice that extraordinary repentance with tears, grief, and fasting. We have an example in the case of David (2 Sam. 12:13) and of Hezekiah (Isa. 38:1ff.). Finally, auricular confession is used in our churches. By this confession, at specific times, we confess our sins before the minister of the church, and, for the sake of further strengthening our conscience, we ask him for absolution; more about this in its own place [§§ 98–101].
Furthermore, this division of repentance into ordinary and extraordinary, into public and private, into that which happens before God and that which happens before people is taken partly from its adjuncts1 and partly from its objects.
(4) Gaudensis (Comm. hist. pass.), from Gorranus’s commentary on Matthew, draws the following division of repentance: One repentance is true, and of this it is said (Matt. 3[:2]): “Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The second is late repentance and belongs to the damned, and of this it is said (Wisdom 5[:3]): “They will groan in anguish of spirit and do penance.” The third is forced and belongs to criminals, about which it is said (Ecclus. 5[:14]): “Confusion and repentance come upon the thief.” The fourth is pretended and belongs to hypocrites such as Esau, about whom it is said that “he did not find a place of repentance” (Heb. 12[:17]). The fifth is hopeless, as that of Judas, about whom we read in the Passion account [Matt. 27:3–5]. What decision should be reached about this division is clear from our preceding statements.
(5) Jacobus de Voragine proposes the following division. “There is purging repentance, such as belonged to Mary Magdalene; there is equipping repentance, such as belonged to John the Baptist; and there is conserving repentance, which preserves the righteous from mishap.” But this division proceeds from the false hypothesis that the saints do not need to repent, though according to Ps. 32:[5–]6 everyone should pray to obtain the forgiveness of sins.
(6) Bellarmine (De poenit., bk. 1, ch. 21) divides repentance into private and public, and public again into solemn and non-solemn, descriptions of which can be seen in that chapter. But he does us an injustice when he writes that we acknowledge scarcely any repentance other than public.
Those are the more important divisions of repentance. Here it is our aim to discuss true and salutary repentance.
1 See above, p. 8 n. 6.