PENANCE 



149 



lapse is not always a sign that one's purpose of 

 amendment lacked firmness ; for even the strong- 

 est resolution may weaken and finally succumb. 7 

 But when the relapsed penitent has made no 

 effort, or only the weakest kind of an effort, to 

 amend his life, it may reasonably be presumed 

 that he had no firm purpose of amendment. 



c) Since the purpose of amendment is es- 

 sentially an act of the will directed to future 

 performance, it must be efficacious (propositum 

 efficax), that is to say, the penitent must be ready 

 and willing to employ the means necessary and 

 useful for the avoidance of sin, particularly to 

 shun all voluntary proximate occasions 8 and to 



abstinere potest. Ergo, si credat, 

 certo se lapsurum, hoc arguit infir- 

 mitatem propositi, aderit enim sem- 

 per divina gratia, quacum sperare de- 

 bet, se non relapsurum esse. Non ta- 

 tnen mdispositus censendus est, qui 

 ex praeterita fragilitate lapsum per- 

 timescit. Hinc verum habet propo- 

 situm poenitens ille, qui interroganti 

 confessario de voluntate non pec- 

 candi respondet: 'Fragilis sum valde, 

 formido lapsum, non tamen volo 

 nunc casum.' In praxi vero indolent 

 geniumque poenitentis inspicias. 

 Reperies enim non raro peccatores 

 asseverantes se relapsuros esse, qui 

 timent, ne propositum satis firmum 

 habeant, quin tamen aliud ostendant 

 praeter labendi timorem suique dif- 

 fidentiam. Huiusmodi poenitentibus 

 dicendutn est, non agi de his, quae 

 forte probabiliter evenient, sed de ac- 

 tuali voluntate futurum respiciente 

 et de fiducia summa in auxilio di- 

 vino reponenda." 



7Cfr. Matth. XXVI, 3 3~3S; 69- 

 75. — St. Thomas, Summa Theol., 3a, 

 qu. 84, art. 10, ad 4: "Quod aliquis 

 postea peccat. vel actu vel proposito, 

 non excludit, quin prima poeniten- 

 tia vera fuerit, nunquam enim Veri- 

 tas prioris actus excluditur per ac- 

 tum contrarium subsequentem. Sic- 

 ut enim vere cucurrit, qui postea 

 sedet, ita vere poenituit, qui postea 

 peccat." 



8 Cfr. Gury, Comp. Theol. Mor., 

 II, n. 344: "Efficax [propositum], 

 seu poenitens non tantum firmiter 

 statuere debet non amplius peccare 

 velle, sed etiam adhibere operant et 

 omnia media necessaria pro vitan- 

 dis peccatis fugiendisque proximis 

 occasionibus," etc. "Sufficit autem, 

 ut propositum sit efficax affective, id 

 est, sufficit, ut peccator sit animo 

 paratus ad media necessaria adhi- 

 benda, quia futura vitatio peccati 

 non est de essentia propositi." 



