Things fittingly considered for stirring up and strengthening faith.
Things fittingly considered for stirring up and strengthening faith.
§ 144. Faith must be conjoined to this true and serious contrition, that is, confidence in the divine mercy promised to us for the sake of Christ the Mediator. To stir up, increase, and strengthen this faith, the contrite heart should consider: (1) God’s infinite mercy. “God’s mercy is as great as His majesty” (Ecclus. 2:[18]). “God is love” (1 John 4:16). Bernard (on Song of Songs, sermon 11, col. 518): “God’s piety is greater than any iniquity.” “He is called ‘the Father of mercies’ because those on whom He takes pity belong to Him. For He takes the material from Himself and is like a seedbed of pitying” (Sermon 5 in die natalis, col. 60). Therefore the emphatic statements of Scripture which speak about God’s immense mercy and love must be gathered up, set before our heart, and fixed there well.
(2) Christ’s infinite merit. Indeed, since in the unity of person He is the God-man, He was able and actually did perform the equivalent ransom for our sins. Here again, the chief statements of Scripture which speak of the fruit of Christ’s Passion and death should be gathered up. Christ’s bloody sweat, the scourging, the spit, the club, the cross, the spear, etc., should be considered in turn so that the faithful soul can say (from Song 1:13): “My beloved is a bag of myrrh that shall remain between my breasts.” Bernard (on Song of Songs, sermon 22, col. 555): “Redemption before God is plenteous, completely plenteous, because it is not a drop but a flood of blood which flowed generously through the five parts of the body.”
(3) The universality of the Gospel promises. “God wants all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as the price of the redemption for all” (1 Tim. 2:4–6). “God does not want any to perish but that all should return to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). Since these promises are universal, let us, in serious torments of conscience, determine that they pertain also to us.
(4) The signs and the marks of the promise—that is, the Sacraments—instituted to stir up and strengthen faith. Through repentance the way is open for us to return to the original covenant that was made with us in Baptism. In fact, in the Supper we feed on the precious pledge of salvation, namely, Christ’s body and blood. The rite of private Absolution, too, belongs to this; in it those who truly repent have the remission of sins announced to them specifically, which is valid before God in heaven (Matt. 18:18).
(5) The examples of those who have truly turned back to God and who, regardless of the wickedness and seriousness of their sins, received forgiveness, such as the examples of our first parents, of Aaron, of David, of Manasseh, of Peter, of the publican, etc. “The saying is faithful and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But I received mercy for this reason: that in me, first, Christ might display all patience, for an example [πρὸς ὑποτύπωσιν] to those who were to believe in Him for eternal life” (1 Tim. 1:15–16). Augustine (Sermon 10 de verb. apost.): “Christ received Paul, His bitter enemy. Since He has cleansed him, let no one despair in other matters.” Thus all these items should be distinctly, clearly, and exactly considered so that “in the sight of God we may be able to lift up our heart” and have peace (1 John 3:19) and conceive a firm faith in the forgiveness of sins.
** Ambrose (Prec. 2. praeparante ad missam, vol. 5, p. 168): “Oh, how I have offended and how I do offend in many things, but desperation does not creep in when I see the publican justified in the temple, the thief confessing on the cross and passing from the cross to paradise, Mary washed clean in the font of piety after many faults of sins, Peter recovering the grace of apostleship after his denial. But I ask You, O infinite Piety, that You grant the groans of the publican, the confession of the thief, the tears of the prostitute, and the weeping of the denying apostle to him who has received confidence from You by such examples.” **