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Objection 1: It would seem that the forgiveness of sin is not the
effect of contrition. For God alone forgives sins. But we are
somewhat the cause of contrition, since it is an act of our own.
Therefore contrition is not the cause of forgiveness.
Objection 2: Further, contrition is an act of virtue. Now virtue
follows the forgiveness of sin: because virtue and sin are not together
in the soul. Therefore contrition is not the cause of the forgiveness
of sin.
Objection 3: Further, nothing but sin is an obstacle to receiving
the Eucharist. But the contrite should not go to Communion before
going to confession. Therefore they have not yet received the
forgiveness of their sins.
On the contrary, a gloss on Ps. 50:19, "A sacrifice to God
is an afflicted spirit," says: "A hearty contrition is the
sacrifice by which sins are loosed."
Further, virtue and vice are engendered and corrupted by the same
causes, as stated in Ethic. ii, 1,2. Now sin is committed
through the heart's inordinate love. Therefore it is destroyed by
sorrow caused by the heart's ordinate love; and consequently
contrition blots out sin.
I answer that, Contrition can be considered in two ways, either as
part of a sacrament, or as an act of virtue, and in either case it is
the cause of the forgiveness of sin, but not in the same way.
Because, as part of a sacrament, it operates primarily as an
instrument for the forgiveness of sin, as is evident with regard to the
other sacraments (cf. Sent. iv, D, 1, Question 1, Article
4: TP, Question 62, Article 1); while, as an act of
virtue, it is the quasi-material cause of sin's forgiveness. For a
disposition is, as it were, a necessary condition for justification,
and a disposition is reduced to a material cause, if it be taken to
denote that which disposes matter to receive something. It is
otherwise in the case of an agent's disposition to act, because this
is reduced to the genus of efficient cause.
Reply to Objection 1: God alone is the principal efficient cause of
the forgiveness of sin: but the dispositive cause can be from us also,
and likewise the sacramental cause, since the sacramental forms are
words uttered by us, having an instrumental power of conferring grace
whereby sins are forgiven.
Reply to Objection 2: The forgiveness of sin precedes virtue and
the infusion of grace, in one way, and, in another, follows: and in
so far as it follows, the act elicited by the virtue can be a cause of
the forgiveness of sin.
Reply to Objection 3: The dispensation of the Eucharist belongs to
the ministers of the Church: wherefore a man should not go to
Communion until his sin has been forgiven through the ministers of the
Church, although his sin may be forgiven him before God.
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