Untitled - Saints' Books

INSTR. iv.] The Sacrament of Penance. 281
4. HOW TO ACT IN REGARD TO THOSE LIVING IN THE OCCASION OF
SlN AND THOSE WHO ARE RELAPSING SlNNERS.
But let us come to particulars, and examine how a
confessor ought to treat persons who are in the proxi
mate occasion of sin, and habitual sinners who relapse
into any vice. With regard to those who are in the
occasion of sin, it is
necessary first to distinguish various
kinds of occasions.
I. The occasion may be remote or proximate. The re
mote occasion is that in which a person rarely sins or
in which men, commonly speaking, seldom fall. The
occasion that is itself 1 proximate is that in which men
always, or nearly always, fall. The occasion that is
proximate by accident, 2 or the respective occasion, is
that in which a particular person frequently sins. This
is the correct definition of the respective occasion, ac
cording to the true and common opinion of theologians,
in opposition to those who hold that the proximate
occasion is that in which a person always, or nearly
always, yields to sin. The occasion of sin is also divided
into voluntary and necessary. The occasion is
voluntary
when it can be removed; it is necessary when it cannot
be avoided without grievous loss or grievous scandal to
others.
Many theologians say that he who is in
the voluntary
proximate occasion may be absolved once or twice, pro
vided he has a firm purpose of removing
it as soon as
possible. But here it is necessary to distinguish, with
St. Charles Borromeo, in his Instructions to Confessors,
occasions that are in esse, such as when a person keeps
a concubine in his house, from those that are not in esse,
such as when in
gaming or conversation a person falls
into blasphemies, quarrels, and the like.
In the occasions that are not in esse, St. Charles says
1
"Per
se."
2 "
Per accidens."