Untitled - Saints' Books

282 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
that the penitent who sincerely promises to renounce
them may be absolved the second or third time, but
unless he afterwards gives proof of amendment he
should not be absolved until
he has actually removed
the occasion. In the occasions which are in esse the
saint says that a promise is not sufficient, and that the
penitent cannot be absolved until he has taken away
the occasion of sin. Ordinarily speaking, this opinion
should certainly be followed; as I have shown in my
Moral Theology 1 by the authority of many authors. A
penitent who wishes to receive absolution before the re
moval of such an occasion is not disposed for the sacra
ment; because he is in the proximate danger of violating
his purpose as well as the obligation by which he is
bound under pain of mortal sin to remove the occasion.
To take away proximate occasions is very painful and
difficult, and can be effected only by doing great vio
lence to one s self. But he who has already received
absolution will scarcely offer such violence to himself.
Freed from the fear of being deprived of absolution, he
will flatter himself with the hope of being able to resist
temptations without taking away the occasion; and
thus remaining in the occasion, he will certainly relapse.
This we know by the experience of so many miserable
sinners who, after receiving absolution from over-indul
gent confessors, neglect to remove the occasion of sin:
thus they fall back, and become worse than before.
Hence, on account of the danger of violating the pur
pose that he has made of removing the occasion of sin,
the penitent who wishes to be absolved before he takes
it
away is not disposed for absolution, and therefore the
confessor who absolves him is certainly guilty
of sin.
And here let it be observed, that, generally speaking,
the greater the rigor with which the confessor treats his
penitents, when there is
question of the danger
1
Theol. Mor. 1. 6, n. 454.
of for-