Whether the Debt of Punishment Remains After the Guilt Has Been
Forgiven Through Penance?
Objection 1: It would seem that no debt of punishment remains after
the guilt has been forgiven through Penance. For when the cause is
removed, the effect is removed. But the guilt is the cause of the
debt of punishment: since a man deserves to be punished because he
has been guilty of a sin. Therefore when the sin has been forgiven,
no debt of punishment can remain.
Obj. 2: Further, according to the Apostle (Rom. 5) the gift of Christ
is more effective than the sin of Adam. Now, by sinning, man incurs
at the same time guilt and the debt of punishment. Much more
therefore, by the gift of grace, is the guilt forgiven and at the
same time the debt of punishment remitted.
Obj. 3: Further, the forgiveness of sins is effected in Penance
through the power of Christ's Passion, according to Rom. 3:25:
"Whom God hath proposed to be a propitiation, through faith in His
Blood . . . for the remission of former sins." Now Christ's Passion
made satisfaction sufficient for all sins, as stated above (QQ. 48,
49, 79, A. 5). Therefore after the guilt has been pardoned, no debt
of punishment remains.
_On the contrary,_ It is related (2 Kings 12:13) that when David
penitent had said to Nathan: "I have sinned against the Lord," Nathan
said to him: "The Lord also hath taken away thy sin, thou shalt not
die. Nevertheless . . . the child that is born to thee shall surely
die," which was to punish him for the sin he had committed, as stated
in the same place. Therefore a debt of some punishment remains after
the guilt has been forgiven.
_I answer that,_ As stated in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 87, A. 4), in
mortal sin there are two things, namely, a turning from the immutable
Good, and an inordinate turning to mutable good. Accordingly, in so
far as mortal sin turns away from the immutable Good, it induces a
debt of eternal punishment, so that whosoever sins against the
eternal Good should be punished eternally. Again, in so far as mortal
sin turns inordinately to a mutable good, it gives rise to a debt of
some punishment, because the disorder of guilt is not brought back to
the order of justice, except by punishment: since it is just that he
who has been too indulgent to his will, should suffer something
against his will, for thus will equality be restored. Hence it is
written (Apoc. 18:7): "As much as she hath glorified herself, and
lived in delicacies, so much torment and sorrow give ye to her."
Since, however, the turning to mutable good is finite, sin does not,
in this respect, induce a debt of eternal punishment. Wherefore, if
man turns inordinately to a mutable good, without turning from God,
as happens in venial sins, he incurs a debt, not of eternal but of
temporal punishment. Consequently when guilt is pardoned through
grace, the soul ceases to be turned away from God, through being
united to God by grace: so that at the same time, the debt of
punishment is taken away, albeit a debt of some temporal punishment
may yet remain.
Reply Obj. 1: Mortal sin both turns away from God and turns to a
created good. But, as stated in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 71, A. 6),
the turning away from God is as its form while the turning to created
good is as its matter. Now if the formal element of anything be
removed, the species is taken away: thus, if you take away rational,
you take away the human species. Consequently mortal sin is said to
be pardoned from the very fact that, by means of grace, the aversion
of the mind from God is taken away together with the debt of eternal
punishment: and yet the material element remains, viz. the inordinate
turning to a created good, for which a debt of temporal punishment is
due.
Reply Obj. 2: As stated in the Second Part (I-II, Q. 109, AA. 7, 8;
Q. 111, A. 2), it belongs to grace to operate in man by justifying
him from sin, and to co-operate with man that his work may be rightly
done. Consequently the forgiveness of guilt and of the debt of
eternal punishment belongs to operating grace, while the remission of
the debt of temporal punishment belongs to co-operating grace, in so
far as man, by bearing punishment patiently with the help of Divine
grace, is released also from the debt of temporal punishment.
Consequently just as the effect of operating grace precedes the
effect of co-operating grace, so too, the remission of guilt and of
eternal punishment precedes the complete release from temporal
punishment, since both are from grace, but the former, from grace
alone, the latter, from grace and free-will.
Reply Obj. 3: Christ's Passion is of itself sufficient to remove all
debt of punishment, not only eternal, but also temporal; and man is
released from the debt of punishment according to the measure of his
share in the power of Christ's Passion. Now in Baptism man shares the
Power of Christ's Passion fully, since by water and the Spirit of
Christ, he dies with Him to sin, and is born again in Him to a new
life, so that, in Baptism, man receives the remission of all debt of
punishment. In Penance, on the other hand, man shares in the power of
Christ's Passion according to the measure of his own acts, which are
the matter of Penance, as water is of Baptism, as stated above (Q.
84, AA. 1, 3). Wherefore the entire debt of punishment is not
remitted at once after the first act of Penance, by which act the
guilt is remitted, but only when all the acts of Penance have been
completed.
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