Editing Contrition (section)

=== Qualities ===
In accord with Catholic tradition, contrition, whether perfect or imperfect, must be interior, supernatural, universal, and sovereign.<ref name="Hanna 1907"/>

==== Interior ====
Contrition must be real and sincere sorrow of heart.<ref name="Hanna 1908"/>

==== 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]]."

==== Universal ====
True contrition must extend to, at the very least, all mortal sins committed, and not just a select convenient few.<ref name="Luche 1898"/> This doctrine is intimately bound up with the Catholic teaching concerning grace and repentance. There is no forgiveness without sorrow of soul, and forgiveness is always accompanied by God's grace; grace cannot coexist with sin; and, as a consequence, one sin cannot be forgiven while another remains for which there is no repentance.

The prophet Joel urged men to turn to God with their whole heart (Joel 2:12–19). and Christ tells the doctor of the law that we must love God with our whole mind, our whole strength (Luke 10:27). Ezekiel insists that a man must "turn from his evil ways" if he wish to live (Ezekiel 33:11).

The Scholastics inquired into this question when they asked whether or not there must be a special act of contrition for every serious sin, and whether, in order to be forgiven, one must remember at the moment all grievous transgressions. To both questions they answered in the negative, judging that an act of [[sorrow (emotion)|sorrow]] which implicitly included all one's sins would be sufficient.

==== Sovereign ====
According to Mark 8:35–37, Jesus admonished his disciples: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?" Contrition for sin must take precedence over temporal concerns. When the envoys of the Empress [[Aelia Eudoxia|Eudoxia]] threatened [[John Chrysostom]], he responded, "Go tell the princess that Chrysostom fears only one thing, and that is sin."<ref name="Luche 1898"/>