First, Aquinas addresses the need for sacramental forgiveness in every Christian’s life. He writes that only the grace of Christ and the sacrament of baptism are absolutely necessary for salvation; however, the sacrament of penance is necessary for those who are subject to sin. Confession serves as the first part of penance and can be viewed from two perspectives: confession in action and confession in relationship. First, the act of auricular confession is characterized as internal and external. The internal confession causes the external, and the importance of the act of confession lies in the submission to God of the confessor. This leads to confession in relationship.
Through the confession and submittal to God, man’s friendship with God is restored through the subsequent penance. Aquinas stresses that it is important to understand that since it is man who sins and breaks the relationship with God, it must be man who confesses his sin in order that God may restore the relationship through the sacrament of penance. Though God does not need the sacrament to forgive, man must submit himself before God through the sacrament in order to realize the relationship with God.
The second point Aquinas makes about penance is the signification of the sacrament. First, he redefines the three components of penance as contrition, confession, and satisfaction. He further writes that the sacrament of penance, “consists in a certain celebration, where a ritual is executed in such a way that we receive significatively what we should receive in holiness.” The signification of the sacrament of penance thus lies in what God gives to the penitent man when he humbles himself through the sacrament.
Aquinas illustrates the justification of the power of the sacrament of penance by discussing the sacrament in terms of the Old and New Covenant between man and God. Whereas the Old Covenant was made between Abraham and God in Genesis, the New Covenant was made through the resurrection of Jesus Christ and began the period of the Catholic Church. Thus Christ’s institutions of the sacraments of the New Covenant provide the link of efficient causality between His death and the effectiveness of the sacraments. In other words the form of the sacrament and the power of justification it holds, Aquinas writes, are completely derived from Christ’s institution and done in accordance to His teachings. It is in this point that the necessity of priests in the sacrament was realized. In adhering to the concept that all Heavenly power was vested in Jesus Christ, the medievalist concluded that as Jesus had handed the power of the keys to Heaven to Peter and subsequently to the Pope and the papacy, that the papacy thus possessed the power of the keys and specifically the power of absolution after penance.
According to Aquinas faith was also justified through the sacrament of penance. Justification with God was based on a union with Christ’s passion through faith. Further, he wrote that man was united to God through faith and through the sacraments. The medieval Church understood the sacraments as sacraments of faith and that the “sacraments contain[ed] power, which they derive[ed] from Christ’s passion. And that [man] is somehow united with this power when [he] receives the sacraments.” Thus God freely offers salvation to man, but because of his sin, he can only realize it and be justified regularly through the power of the sacrament of penance.
The medieval Church defined the sacrament of penance in accordance to St. Thomas’s writings. It was understood as an act necessary for man to understand and enjoy God’s forgiveness and salvation. Without it, man could still be saved and avoid damnation, but would not be able to enter Heaven and enjoy God’s glories. Whereas the sacrament stood on this solid foundation, the practice of the sacrament did not remain so intact. The practice and availability of indulgences heavily watered down the routine and acts of penance in the medieval Catholic Church. The upper class nobility saw themselves as too busy for acts of penance and therefore commissioned acts to be done for them, such as the building of churches and monasteries, as well as gave monetary gifts to the church. Soon indulgences became the norm in place of acts of penance.
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