Section I: Contrition.
SECTION I: CONTRITION
§ 62. This concludes our discussion about the three parts of repentance in general, which Gerson includes in this couplet:
I have sinned gravely. I shall put it aside. Then I shall confess
And make satisfaction when the church commands it.
There is also this verse about these parts:
Be contrite, confess your sins, make satisfaction.
It remains for us to discuss the individual parts specifically: first, contrition. Here the word “contrition” is understood in the sense in which it is present in express words in the Scriptures. “A contrite and humbled heart You will not despise” (Ps. 51:[17]). “God heals the contrite of heart” (Ps. 147:3). “Like a lion He broke [contrivit] all my bones” (Isa. 38:13). “Thus says the high and lofty One, I dwell with a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isa. 57:15). “To bind up the contrite of heart” (Isa. 61:1). “I shall have respect for him who is poor and contrite of spirit and who trembles at My words,” etc. (Isa. 66:2).
The root ׁשָבַר properly means “he broke,” just as firewood is broken (Exod. 9:25) or bones (Exod. 12:46) or earthen vessels (Lev. 6:28) or statues (2 Kings 11:18), etc. The Septuagint translators very often rendered it with συντρίβειν [“rub together, grind, crush”]. The word ּדָכָא [means] “he was crushed by oppression or depression.” The phrase נִדְּכָאִיםבֵל [was rendered] συντετριμμένοι τὴν καρδίαν [“having been crushed in heart”] (Isa. 57:15). The word ׁשָפַל [means] “he was humble,” “he was humiliated”; ׁשְפַל־רּוחַ [Prov. 16:19] [means] ὀλιγόψυχος [Prov. 14:29], “humble in spirit,” etc.
From all this it is clear that the word “contrition” is used metaphorically to mean the breaking and rending of the heart, true and serious pain by which the might and power of the heart are broken similar to how diseases break the body’s strength. Some say that the metaphor is taken from the earthen vessel which is reduced to tiny shards (Ps. 31:[12]; Isa. 30:14; Jer. 19:11). Others say that it comes from the bones which burst into many pieces because of a sudden fall, as they are crushed by the teeth of beasts into tiny splinters (Ps. 38:[3]; Isa. 38:13; Hosea 6:5).