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Objection 1: It would seem that this sacrament is not necessary for
salvation. Because on Ps. 125:5, "They that sow in tears,"
etc., the gloss says: "Be not sorrowful, if thou hast a good
will, of which peace is the meed." But sorrow is essential to
Penance, according to 2 Cor. 7:10: "The sorrow that is
according to God worketh penance steadfast unto salvation."
Therefore a good will without Penance suffices for salvation.
Objection 2: Further, it is written (Prov. 10:12):
"Charity covereth all sins," and further on (Prov. 15:27):
"By mercy and faith sins are purged away." But this sacrament is
for nothing else but the purging of sins. Therefore if one has
charity, faith, and mercy, one can obtain salvation, without the
sacrament of Penance.
Objection 3: Further, the sacraments of the Church take their
origin from the institution of Christ. But according to Jn. 8
Christ absolved the adulterous woman without Penance. Therefore it
seems that Penance is not necessary for salvation.
On the contrary, our Lord said (Lk. 13:3): "Unless you
shall do penance, you shall all likewise perish."
I answer that, A thing is necessary for salvation in two ways:
first, absolutely; secondly, on a supposition. A thing is
absolutely necessary for salvation, if no one can obtain salvation
without it, as, for example, the grace of Christ, and the sacrament
of Baptism, whereby a man is born again in Christ. The sacrament of
Penance is necessary on a supposition, for it is necessary, not for
all, but for those who are in sin. For it is written (2 Paral 37
[The prayer of Manasses, among the Apocrypha]), "Thou,
Lord, God of the righteous, hast not appointed repentance to the
righteous, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, nor to those who sinned
not against Thee." But "sin, when it is completed, begetteth
death" (James 1:15). Consequently it is necessary for the
sinner's salvation that sin be taken away from him; which cannot be
done without the sacrament of Penance, wherein the power of Christ's
Passion operates through the priest's absolution and the acts of the
penitent, who co-operates with grace unto the destruction of his sin.
For as Augustine says (Tract. lxxii in Joan. [Serm. xv de verb
Apost.]), "He Who created thee without thee, will not justify
thee without thee." Therefore it is evident that after sin the
sacrament of Penance is necessary for salvation, even as bodily
medicine after man has contracted a dangerous disease.
Reply to Objection 1: This gloss should apparently be understood as
referring to the man who has a good will unimpaired by sin, for such a
man has no cause for sorrow: but as soon as the good will is forfeited
through sin, it cannot be restored without that sorrow whereby a man
sorrows for his past sin, and which belongs to Penance.
Reply to Objection 2: As soon as a man falls into sin, charity,
faith, and mercy do not deliver him from sin, without Penance.
Because charity demands that a man should grieve for the offense
committed against his friend, and that he should be anxious to make
satisfaction to his friend; faith requires that he should seek to be
justified from his sins through the power of Christ's Passion which
operates in the sacraments of the Church; and well-ordered pity
necessitates that man should succor himself by repenting of the pitiful
condition into which sin has brought him, according to Prov.
14:34: "Sin maketh nations miserable"; wherefore it is written
(Ecclus. 30:24): "Have pity on thy own soul, pleasing
God."
Reply to Objection 3: It was due to His power of "excellence,"
which He alone had, as stated above (Question 64, Article 3),
that Christ bestowed on the adulterous woman the effect of the
sacrament of Penance, viz. the forgiveness of sins, without the
sacrament of Penance, although not without internal repentance, which
He operated in her by grace.
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