If you wish to be perfect

I got into a  little back and forth with another blogger and promised in my comments there that I would expand a bit further on my comments here.

But first some background. The site is called The Theology of Andrew.  And the particular post that got me commenting is here.

As I wrote over there, young Andrew brings a peculiarly protestant sensibility to Catholic questions. He is very keen to find epistemologically solid arguments for things and is troubled by the fact that nothing seems to provide solid proof of salvation. It isn't hard to imagine him doing as Luther did and looking at the ten commandments and concluding that no one could do this.

I have cut and paste my answer from over there here below the fold just to have it somewhere on my own blog but better to go read it there where you can read his own words which do him better justice than I am likely to do. He is obviously a very intelligent guy.

What concerns me here is the relationship between following rules and virtue and I think his arguments bring us to the point where we need to think about the difference. And I will do just that in my next post.


[This is just a copy of what I wrote in the comment thread at Theology of Andrew that is here so I can remind myself of what I said]

I will be writing about this at greater length on my own blog but I think the short answer is that you are reading a Protestant sensibility into what is some very Catholic text. Let me begin by rewriting the text above with some added emphasis.

"when it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is CALLED "perfect"."

This text is defining what contrition can be called "perfect" (and note the scare quotes the Church chooses to use here). It is not setting forth a requirement that we be perfect!

"Perfect" is one of those words that is open-ended. It is always possible to imagine a way in which our contrition could have been bigger, better, more penitent. The Church is being very clear to give us a definition of what will be called perfect here precisely so we don't torture ourselves going down this route.

What we are supposed to do is realize our complete dependence on God. We show our love of God by recognizing that first and foremost we have sinned against Him and therefore we must seek forgiveness from Him.

God's message to us is that he loves us, that he is slow to anger et cetera. His church is not in the business of telling us that we have to meet impossible requirements in order to obtain salvation.

Put the shoe on the other foot. It is not inconceivable that one day you will find yourself with someone who is dying and who will turn to you as a Catholic and ask you to hear their last confession because the priest will not get there in time. Would you honestly tell them that their only chance for salvation was to perfectly love God? Or would you say, God wants to forgive you but in order to do that you need to recognize that by doing these things that have troubled you, you have sinned against Him and you need to turn to Him now and ask for the forgiveness only he can give?