Whether Penance Can Be Continuous?
Objection 1: It would seem that penance cannot be continuous. For it
is written (Jer. 31:16): "Let thy voice cease from weeping, and thy
eyes from tears." But this would be impossible if penance were
continuous, for it consists in weeping and tears. Therefore penance
cannot be continuous.
Obj. 2: Further, man ought to rejoice at every good work, according
to Ps. 99:1: "Serve ye the Lord with gladness." Now to do penance is
a good work. Therefore man should rejoice at it. But man cannot
rejoice and grieve at the same time, as the Philosopher declares
(Ethic. ix, 4). Therefore a penitent cannot grieve continually for
his past sins, which is essential to penance. Therefore penance
cannot be continuous.
Obj. 3: Further, the Apostle says (2 Cor. 2:7): "Comfort him," viz.
the penitent, "lest perhaps such an one be swallowed up with overmuch
sorrow." But comfort dispels grief, which is essential to penance.
Therefore penance need not be continuous.
_On the contrary,_ Augustine says in his book on Penance [*De vera et
falsa Poenitentia, the authorship of which is unknown]: "In doing
penance grief should be continual."
_I answer that,_ One is said to repent in two ways, actually and
habitually. It is impossible for a man continually to repent
actually, for the acts, whether internal or external, of a penitent
must needs be interrupted by sleep and other things which the body
needs. Secondly, a man is said to repent habitually. And thus he
should repent continually, both by never doing anything contrary to
penance, so as to destroy the habitual disposition of the penitent,
and by being resolved that his past sins should always be displeasing
to him.
Reply Obj. 1: Weeping and tears belong to the act of external
penance, and this act needs neither to be continuous, nor to last
until the end of life, as stated above (A. 8): wherefore it is
significantly added: "For there is a reward for thy work." Now the
reward of the penitent's work is the full remission of sin both as to
guilt and as to punishment; and after receiving this reward there is
no need for man to proceed to acts of external penance. This,
however, does not prevent penance being continual, as explained above.
Reply Obj. 2: Of sorrow and joy we may speak in two ways: first, as
being passions of the sensitive appetite; and thus they can nowise
be together, since they are altogether contrary to one another,
either on the part of the object (as when they have the same object),
or at least on the part of the movement, for joy is with expansion
[*Cf. I-II, Q. 33, A. 1] of the heart, whereas sorrow is with
contraction; and it is in this sense that the Philosopher speaks in
_Ethic._ ix. Secondly, we may speak of joy and sorrow as being simple
acts of the will, to which something is pleasing or displeasing.
Accordingly, they cannot be contrary to one another, except on the
part of the object, as when they concern the same object in the same
respect, in which way joy and sorrow cannot be simultaneous, because
the same thing in the same respect cannot be pleasing and
displeasing. If, on the other hand, joy and sorrow, understood thus,
be not of the same object in the same respect, but either of
different objects, or of the same object in different respects, in
that case joy and sorrow are not contrary to one another, so that
nothing hinders a man from being joyful and sorrowful at the same
time--for instance, if we see a good man suffer, we both rejoice at
his goodness and at the same time grieve for his suffering. In this
way a man may be displeased at having sinned, and be pleased at his
displeasure together with his hope for pardon, so that his very
sorrow is a matter of joy. Hence Augustine says [*De vera et falsa
Poenitentia, the authorship of which is unknown]: "The penitent
should ever grieve and rejoice at his grief."
If, however, sorrow were altogether incompatible with joy, this would
prevent the continuance, not of habitual penance, but only of actual
penance.
Reply Obj. 3: According to the Philosopher (Ethic. ii, 3, 6, 7, 9) it
belongs to virtue to establish the mean in the passions. Now the
sorrow which, in the sensitive appetite of the penitent, arises from
the displeasure of his will, is a passion; wherefore it should be
moderated according to virtue, and if it be excessive it is sinful,
because it leads to despair, as the Apostle teaches (2 Cor. 2:7),
saying: "Lest such an one be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow."
Accordingly comfort, of which the Apostle speaks, moderates sorrow
but does not destroy it altogether.
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