CIX.—THE VOLUNTARY CONFESSION OF SIN.LACORDAIRE.
LACORDAIRE.
1. The most important of the divine penalties with which the Church is armed is confession, voluntary[663]confession. And in that penalty there is justice; for if you have had the courage to commit the fault, why not do so before the world? If you have not been afraid of doing evil before your own heart, why not do so before the whole human family?
2. And yet this justice is merciful; for it is not to the world, to a severe and corrupt world, that you are directed to avow your faults, but to a single man, in the most profound secret; to a man humble and meek, subject to temptation like his brethren, but purified by victory; and that avowal humbles without dishonoring you, touches rather than strikes you, reconciles you to yourself and to God: to yourself by the good which you feel living in your heart, to God by the pardon which he grants to you.
3. When Protestants abolished[664]confession, when they sent men to confess to God, what did they do? They only left the soul alone with sin, and drove away mercy by the fear of justice. And when, gentlemen, by a better instinct, you occupy yourselves about penitentiary[665]systems, are you not upon the traces of Jesus Christ and His Church? Do you not seek to transform public vengeance into expiation,[666]so that the guilty might leave your hands punished but saved, wounded by shame and grief but brought back by them to the sense and honor of virtue? It is your object, and one of your most cherished desires, one also most worthy of respect; why, then, do you despise the mystery of expiationin the Church? Why do you not perceive that the work accomplished by her is the very one which it is your ambition to realize? For you are as yet only making experiments, and what experiments they are!
4. You may build very ingenious prisons, you may stifle a man well between four walls, you may impose upon him many privations which you do not consider to be tortures because they do not shed blood; but, whatever you may do, you will always dishonor man, and you will find the road to his heart only to pour into it more deeply the poison of despair. Yes, penitence is more needed than penalties; expiation rather than repression; rehabilitation[667]rather than death. Yes, but you cannot effect this.
5. Think that this is accomplished; let men come to the feet of the priest, and you will do more than with your chains, your executioners and your dreams. Besides, what crimes do you extinguish with all this penal preparation? Murder, theft, violence. But there exists an evil which pierces men’s hearts, which gnaws the peace of families, which corrupts nations, and delivers them over, bound hand and foot, to the first conqueror who comes. Does not this evil escape from you? We, with our voluntary confession, reach all public as well as secret crimes; we reach them in the thought that prepares them, on the throne as well as in the shop of the artizan. See these princes, who are men like ourselves, more men than we, and on that account more to be pitied. They have their vices surrounded with guards and honors; truth does not reach them even when men are able to insult them, for insult teaches nothing.
6. Stand by a moment; behold a poor priest, a Capuchin,whose name is unknown; he ascends the superb stairs, he enters, he penetrates even where confidential friends are not admitted; he sits, and the prince, kneeling, says to him, “Confiteor tibi Pater.” And to whom does he say that? It is not to a man, but to the whole of humanity. It is the whole human kind which seizes and compresses him, which says to him, “Sire, you have sinned, you are not worthy to draw near to God.”
7. If some one had said to Augustus, whilst he was walking in his gardens with Horace or Mecænas, “There is a man below with a staff and wallet, who says he is sent from God to hear the confession of your faults;” would he not have looked upon him as a madman? And yet, gentlemen, that folly has prevailed! And observe, I pray you, that, on all occasions, in Christianity we find nothing but follies; and we justify these follies before you—you, theéliteof this age—and you listen to them and exclaim, “Nevertheless it is grand!”
[663]Volˊ-un-ta-ry, free; proceeding from choice or free will.[664]A-bolˊ-ish-ed, annulled; abrogated; put an end to.[665]Pen-i-tenˊ-tia-ry, a house of correction.[666]Ex-pi-aˊ-tion, the act of atoning for a crime or sin; atonement; satisfaction.[667]Re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion, restoration to former condition or position.
[663]Volˊ-un-ta-ry, free; proceeding from choice or free will.
[663]Volˊ-un-ta-ry, free; proceeding from choice or free will.
[664]A-bolˊ-ish-ed, annulled; abrogated; put an end to.
[664]A-bolˊ-ish-ed, annulled; abrogated; put an end to.
[665]Pen-i-tenˊ-tia-ry, a house of correction.
[665]Pen-i-tenˊ-tia-ry, a house of correction.
[666]Ex-pi-aˊ-tion, the act of atoning for a crime or sin; atonement; satisfaction.
[666]Ex-pi-aˊ-tion, the act of atoning for a crime or sin; atonement; satisfaction.
[667]Re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion, restoration to former condition or position.
[667]Re-ha-bil-i-ta-tion, restoration to former condition or position.