Our Lady and the Sacrament of Penance

When Our Lord suffered in Gethsemane He made a perfect act of contrition for the whole human race. This may seem strange to our understanding; for how could One who was sinless be sorry and do penance? When we do grasp the meaning of His act, however, we grasp also the infinitely merciful Divine identification with human evil. God became a man and was numbered with sinners.

This was no play-acting, any more than He was play-acting in becoming a man. He was a man who ate and drank and slept. He was a ‘sinner’ because His sinless Heart was united in love with the hearts of sinners and shared their alienation and even paid the penalty of their crimes.

Our Lord, too (I believe) made no act of perfect contrition at the foot of the Cross. She had no sins of her own to be sorry about. Yet she is known to us under the title of the Mother of Sorrows; and where did her sorrow come from if not from a lifelong holy identification with human evil, regarding the sins of others ‘as if’ they were her own? In this regard, as in all others, I believe she followed in the footsteps of her Son.

And we know that her sinlessness was given her by God not just as a personal prerogative and sign of His glory and power, but most especially for our redemption. We call her rightly our Co-Redemptrix because her unique sinlessness allowed her to identify herself in a unique way with the mystery of human evil, offering herself along with her Son as a sacrifice of propitiation.

This sinless ‘sinner’ was of course unable never to participate in the Sacrament of Penance, since she had no sins of her own to remember and confess, and the Sacrament would therefore lack essential matter. But we may be sure that she prayed for others who received this Sacrament, and identified herself with them, and sustained them by her prayer.

For a long time now I have had the practice of approaching the Mother of God before I go to Confession, and asking her for the gift of a true and deep contrition. It is her contrition for our sins which she conveys to us, making it our own.

That perhaps above all is why she is known to us as the Refuge of Sinners; page 659 because she will infallibly give her children the contrition they need, if they ask her for it with humility and confidence. Because of this practice I have never yet been troubled by the fear that I might not have been sufficiently contrite when I made my Confession, for I had beforehand put the matter in the hands of my Holy Mother to whom my will and my life belong. To doubt whether she had given me help in so essential a matter would be an act of ugly distrust and disloyalty.

She is present with us in the dark confession box, which is like the womb of the Church where we are waiting to be born again. Since all graces come to us through her, it is through her hands that the Holy Spirit gives the priest the power of supernatural wisdom to counsel us; it is through her hands that sanctifying grace is conveyed to us at the moment of absolution. And when we try to mend our evil habits and avoid evil in the future, she is alongside us to lift us up whenever we begin to stumble.

If some of us return to Confession year after year with the same faults to confess, may the obstacle not be that we have not fully realised the enormous availability of the help of the Mother of God in developing a true and constant purpose of amendment?

True, the validity of the Sacrament does not depend on what we do afterwards, but only on our honest disposition at the time; and the fact that we go to Confession at all is strong evidence at least of genuine attrition. Still, we are often sad and bewildered because our intentions fade so soon, and we return with the same kind of faults to be confessed and forgiven.

Many practical theologians hold that the part of the Sacrament on which Catholics tend to lay most stress, unnecessarily, is the attempt to remember her perfectly and confess exactly a string of venial sins, while laying far too little stress on a constructive effort to root out and eliminate some particular fault. It is at this point that we may forget the inestimable offered help of the Mother of God.

Though a late and stupid learner, I very recently developed the habit of making a daily novena to Our Lady for the grace to overcome a particular fault which had so far defied my attempt to eradicate it. The effect of this form of attack was close to miraculous. I recommend it to others.

It is, after all, a corollary to the Sacrament of Penance; we are continuing the activity of that Sacrament when we endeavour to amend our lives.

Perhaps the chief reason why Confession is an ordeal to many good people, instead of what it was meant to be, a source of tranquillity and courage, is because they have neglected to call upon Our Lady.

Our Lady makes harsh things sweet and removes the moral obstacles which we ourselves cannot shift. We only have to ask her and keep on asking: for she is the Gate of Heaven and the Hope of the Hopeless.

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