Untitled - Saints' Books

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272 Material for Instructions. IPART n.
in the first
place, consider that the office of a confessor
is
very difficult and dangerous, and that on account of
its difficulty and danger the Council of Trent has called
it an office to be dreaded even by angels. And 1
what,
says St. Laurence Justinian, can be more perilous than
to assume the responsibility of rendering to God an
account of the life of others? 2 St. Gregory says that
no error is more dangerous than that which is com
mitted in the direction of souls. 3 It is certain that if
a soul be lost through the fault of her confessor, God
will demand of him an account of that soul: / will
require My flock at their hand? And the Apostle writes:
for they watch, as being to render
Obey your prelates, . . .
an account ofyour souls* Hence, according to St. Greg
ory, a confessor has to render to God an account of as
many souls as he has penitents. 6 And St. John Chrysostom
says: If we already tremble having to render
an account of our own sins, what awaits him who has to
render an account of so many souls 7
?"
This is not applicable to those good priests who, pene
trated with a holy fear, labor to qualify themselves for
this great office, and afterwards devote themselves to
the exercise of it, through the sole desire of bringing
souls to God. It is intended only for those who under
take to hear confessions through worldly motives, or
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2 "
Onus angelicis humeris formidandum." Sess. 6, de Rcf. c. i.
Periculosa res est, pro peccatoribus se fidejussorem constituere."
DC Inst. FreeI. c. 6.
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6 "
Nullibi periculosius
erratur."
Requiram gregem meum de manu eorum.
Obedite praepositis vestris, et subjacete eis;
Ezech. xxxiv. 10.
ipsi enim pervigilant,
quasi rationem pro animabus vestris reddituri." Heb. xiii. 17.
6 "
Quot regendis subditis praeest, reddendae apud eum rationis ternpore,
ut ita dicam, tot solus animas habet." Moral. \. 24, c. 30.
7
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Si horremus, dum peccatorum propriorum rationem reddituri
sumus, quid illi expectandum est, qui tarn multorum nomine causam sit
dicturus ?." Sacerd. 1. 3.