Dist. 16, Part 1, Art. 3, Q. 2
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/16/q/bon-sent-IV-d16-p1-a3-q2
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### Question II. *Whether a man ought always to be contrite.*

Secondly, an inquiry is made concerning the duration of contrition, whether a man ought always to be contrite. And that he ought, it seems.

1. Augustine in the tract *On Penance*: « Let him always grieve and rejoice over his grief »; and afterward: « Where grief ends, there penance fails; if penance ends, what remains of pardon? Let him rejoice and hope of grace so long as he is sustained by penance »: therefore a man ought always to repent.

2. Likewise, Gregory on Job, chapter fourteen: *His soul shall mourn over itself*: « It is fitting that a man should always find sorrows in himself, who sought joys in himself, having forsaken his Creator ».

3. Likewise, Ecclesiasticus five: *Concerning the forgiveness of sins be not without fear*; likewise neither ought he to be without hope: therefore he ought always to be between these two millstones; but this is to be contrite: therefore a man ought always to be contrite.

4. Likewise, just as true and persevering innocence stands toward sin yet to come, so penance stands against sin already past; but persevering innocence always shuns sin, lest it be done: therefore so also penance shuns the sin that has been done.

5. Likewise, just as it is a fault to will to sin, so it is a fault to will to have sinned; but a man is always bound to be unwilling to sin: therefore also to be unwilling to have sinned. But from this, that he does not will to have sinned, yet has sinned, grief is generated: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**
1. Augustine in the book *On Penance*: « Let him grieve and rejoice over his grief »: therefore one ought not always to grieve, but rather sometimes to rejoice.

2. Likewise, it seems so by reason: because grief is from the perception of something discordant; but it can happen that sin has been removed from the soul both in itself and as to its effect: therefore there is nothing there which would generate grief: therefore one ought not always to grieve.

3. Likewise, contrition is equally well one part of penance, as are confession and satisfaction; but one need not always confess: therefore neither be always contrite.

4. Likewise, contrition is a medicine; but it can happen that a man is perfectly healed, as for instance if he is baptized, or even if he has completed a worthy penance, « which reduces all defects to wholeness »: therefore if, after the recovery of health, the use of medicine ceases, then contrition ought to cease.

5. Likewise, contrition is a penalty by which the sinner punishes himself: therefore granted that he has been sufficiently punished for the sin; then, if he punishes himself further by contrition, he punishes himself beyond what is fitting; but this belongs to impiety and cruelty: therefore etc.

### Conclusion

> The sinner is always bound to be contrite in habit, but not in act for always, but according to place and time.

**I respond:** It must be said that, as Hugh says, when God absolves a man from fault, he binds him with the bond of perpetual detestation; for he is always bound to detest the evil he has done. But because such a binding is of an *affirmative* precept, which always obliges, but not for always; therefore I say that he is always bound to be contrite, but not for always, but according to place and time, namely when he calls to mind his evils, in which he offended God. — Therefore the arguments proving this are to be granted.

**To the arguments on the contrary:**

*To 1.* To that which is objected, that not always, because sometimes one ought to rejoice; it must be said that he ought not only to rejoice, but rather to think of other things; nor does Augustine mean that he is bound always, that is, at every instant, but that he is always bound according to place and time, so that the will to be contrite is always in habit, but in act according to place and time.

*To 2.* To that which is objected, that grief is from the presence of something discordant; it must be said that one grief is inflicted, as for instance in the cutting of the flesh; another is grief voluntarily taken up, as when one grieves over the death of a friend; and this grief is not caused by the friend's death, but is caused by the will shunning the friend's death; and because it shuns what must necessarily be, therefore it must of necessity grieve. Just as, if I vehemently willed that you not fall ill, and if you were to fall ill, I would grieve; so, because I would not will that I had sinned, and I see that I have sinned, I grieve. Hence concerning grief caused by the will it is not required that that for which one grieves be present in affection, nor in effect, nor in reputation, but only in regard, certainly.

*To 3.* To that which is objected by the likeness drawn from confession, it must be said that the grief of contrition can be spoken of, insofar as it is a certain part of penance divided against confession and satisfaction, and is purgative of fault; in another way, insofar as it is the interior motion of the will, to which the penitent soul subjects itself, and this grief is a satisfactory penalty, impetratory of an increase of grace and glory. The first grief is *sacramental properly and per se*, because it is effective of the remission of fault, to which the penitent is bound only once; the other is not *sacramental properly and per se*, but is elicited by a virtue, and to it he is bound always, but not for always.

*To 4.* To that which is objected concerning medicine, it must be said that one medicine is *healing only*, and this is when there is disease; another is *preservative and improving*, and such is contrition; and to have this always is good.

*To 5.* To that which is objected, that it is a penalty; it must be said that a sinner can never punish himself so much but that he is worthy of a greater penalty according to the rigor of justice. And because a man ought to be rigid toward himself and merciful toward others; he never afflicts himself by contrition so much that it is superfluous, provided that he can sustain this, because the whole is to him for the heaping up of glory. — Yet note that contrition, by reason of *displeasure at sin*, is always necessary, at least in habit; but by reason of groaning and lamentation or sensible grief it is not necessary, especially for perfect men, who have heard by an interior voice what Magdalene heard: *Thy sins are forgiven thee*, as Bernard says in the Canticle near the beginning; but further they can and ought to turn their meditation to the sweetness of the heavenly homeland. Before this state it is sound counsel to recall one's sins before one's eyes unto groaning and grief. Moreover, displeasure does not always denote a penalty, but rather frequently has great gladness joined to it, while it considers in itself a full deliverance.

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