April 27, 2012 – Catechism 1485 – 1498

This is the review of everything we have read over the past weeks about Confession.  As I was going through it I was trying to find something that jumped out that I hadn’t caught before.  I didn’t catch the imperfect vs. perfect Contrition distinction as we were going through it  Perfect contrition is going to Confession because we love God so much and are sorry for hurting Him with our sin.  Imperfect is going because some other motivation.  The easiest one I can think of is fear of eternal punishment.  Although this can still get you into the confessional and absolve you, it is not the perfect contrition that God wants.  Fear of the Lord is not the Love of the Lord.