Editing Contrition (section)

==== Supernatural ====
In accordance with Catholic teaching contrition ought to be prompted by God's grace and aroused by motives which spring from faith, as opposed to merely natural motives, such as loss of [[honour]], fortune, and the like (Chemnitz, Exam. Concil. Trid., Pt. II, De Poenit.). In the Old Testament it is God who gives a "new heart" and who puts a "new spirit" into the children of Israel (Ezech. 36:25–29); and for a clean heart the Psalmist prays in the Miserere (Ps. 51, 11 sqq.). Peter told those to whom he preached in the first days after [[Pentecost]] that God the Father had raised up Christ "to give repentance to Israel" (Acts, v, 30 sq.). [[Paul of Tarsus|Paul]], in advising [[Saint Timothy|Timothy]], insists on dealing gently and kindly with those who resist the truth, "if peradventure God may give them full repentance" ([[Second Epistle to Timothy|2 Timothy]], 2:24–25). In the days of the [[Pelagian]] heresy [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] insisted on the supernaturalness of contrition, when he writes, "That we turn away from God is our doing, and this is the bad will; but to turn back to God we are unable unless He arouse and help us, and this is the good will." Some of the [[Scholasticism|Scholastic]] doctors, notably [[John Duns Scotus|Scotus]], [[Cajetan]], and after them [[Francisco Suárez|Suarez]] (De Poenit., Disp. iii, sect. vi), asked speculatively whether man if left to himself could elicit a true act of contrition, but no theologian ever taught that what makes for forgiveness of sin in the present economy of God could be inspired by merely natural motives. On the contrary, all the doctors have insisted on the absolute necessity of grace for contrition that disposes to forgiveness (Bonaventure, In Lib. Sent. IV, dist. xiv, Part I, art. II, Q. iii; also dist. xvii, Part I, art. I, Q. iii; cf.  Thomas, In Lib. Sent. IV). In keeping with this teaching of the Scriptures and the doctors, the Council of Trent defined; "If anyone say that without the inspiration of the [[Holy Spirit]] and without His aid a man can repent in the way that is necessary for obtaining the grace of justification, let him be [[anathema]]."