Christ with the Samaritan Woman at the Well by Sisto Badalocchio

Available from Refuge of Sinners Publishing. You can also listen to a recording of this book on LibriVox for free!

Length of book: 151 pages

In light of the many works which have been produced to defend the Sacrament of Penance from the lens of apologetics, this book by the great Victorian cardinal delves into the role of this Sacrament in our spiritual lives. From the opening sentence of the very first chapter, he makes it clear that he wishes to write of Confession “…not so much as it is divinely proposed to us through the Church as an object of our Faith, but as it is, an object of our love” (1). This more devotional aspect is as important for the faithful Catholic to understand as the doctrinal aspect; for indeed, the two are intertwined. This book contains a sort of roadmap for understanding the role of this Sacrament in our spiritual lives, and recommends an approach to the spiritual life based on this understanding. In its pages, Cardinal Manning beautifully describes the deeper truths which hide beneath the voice of the priest on the other side of the screen who hears us.

These truths are that of the rich compassion of the Sacred Heart towards sinners, and the profound and life-changing gratitude which we ought to have for this immeasurable gift. For as Cardinal Manning illustrates:

By the passion of His whole mortal life, and above all, by the last act of shedding for us His Most Precious Blood, Jesus purchased for us the absolution of Baptism and of Penance. It cost Him dear to institute those holy Sacraments. It cost us nothing, for He has freely given them to us. They are ours because they are His, and they are His because He purchased them by the last drop of His Divine Blood.

(20)

Thus, the Sacrament of Penance (as others have noted) is like a second Baptism, though as Cardinal Manning notes, it is the truth that “…there is one Baptism, but there are many absolutions…” which makes him state that “…the Sacrament of Penance is a fountain everflowing, perennial, and inexhaustible” (23). The fact that we can receive this Sacrament more than once should not tempt us to abuse it so as to try to take advantage of God’s Mercy (for few things excel this kind of cruelty), rather it should induce us to be ever more thankful. On this point, the author sagely comments that:

The love and compassion of God, which, like a great stream, is continually descending upon us every day, would awaken gratitude in a stone. He raised us from spiritual death in Baptism, and has raised again and again in Penance, sometimes, as St. Augustine says, like Jarius’s daughter, just dead; sometimes like the widow’s son already carried out to burial; sometimes like Lazarus, four days buried in the grave.

(96-97)

His patience which He shows towards us is further proof of His love for us. The boundless love of Christ present in this Sacrament makes it apparent that when He said “I came not to call the just, but sinners” (Mark 2:17), this calling was not restricted to the time of His earthly life but holds true even in our own time, wherein men are tempted to feel Him far away. The presence of the priest in the confessional is then perhaps the greatest proof, second only to the Holy Eucharist, that God is not a distant and uncaring Father, as many in our society believe He is.

Neglect of this superabundant gift, therefore, shows contempt for the spiritual life, and souls who do not devoutly frequent this Sacrament will miss out on the many graces poured out on those who do. As the author writes, “For, next after God, nothing is more inscrutable than the heart which is made in His own likeness” (43). This truth shows itself most clearly in this process, so touchingly worded:

But at the outset of our conversion or our life of penance, our sins, though they be so many, seem all as one. They are mingled in confusion, and they conceal each other and themselves by their multitude and their complication. A mountain of sand and a heap of stones seem to us at first to be but one object. It is only as we draw near to them, and begin to look into them, and to separate the grains and the stones, that we begin to find their number. Moreover, so long as the effects of a sinful or a worldly life are upon the heart, it is stunned and dim-sighted. It is only gradually that we begin to see the innumerable multitude of our sins, and then they seem to surpass all number.

(62-63)

Even with our best intentions, we will lack some kind of spiritual refinement on account of our pride. Our concupiscence finds a way to creep in, and introduce excuses and flatteries. It is difficult, then, for us to truly examine ourselves on account of our fallen nature, but of course, with the help of God’s grace, it is possible for us to do so. Thus pride revels in self-excusing, while in the confessional we must be self-accusing. And it is in this self-accusation, this surrender to the Sacred Heart of Jesus that we can even begin to see who we really are, for as Cardinal Manning illustrates:

We never see ourselves more clearly than when we kneel under the Crucifix in the Sacrament of Penance; and the oftener we kneel there, the clearer grows the light of the knowledge of self in the presence of God and at the feet of Jesus Christ.

(48)

It is there that we gain true knowledge of ourselves—not in the labyrinth-world of psychotherapy, the secular parody of this divine Sacrament.

For those who wish to grow nearer to the Sacred Heart, to look upon words which will pierce your heart on account of the glory and majesty of Our King, this book is most certainly for you. Here you will find the way to avoid making the confessional a “revolving door” and a very practical method of becoming a saint.