PENANCE AND ANOINTING OF THE SICK 09/03/2021

REV. FR. FRANCIS ASOMKASE SSJ

TOPIC: PENANCE IN THE FIRST-THREE CENTURIES
Outline
 The Idea of Sin amongst the early Christians
 The Church with the Authority over sin
 Second Century Christians
o Reaction from the Church in the West
 Tertullian’s Exomologesis
 The Tariffs Method
o Reaction from the Church in the East
 Tertullian (Continuation)
THE IDEA OF SIN AMONG THE EARLY CHRISTIANS
The Early Christians; that is, Christians of the New Testament, recognize that sin is bad,
however, they could not theologize in the deeper sense that we can do now. They believe that Sin
is that which separate us from the Love of God. When we sin, we break away from God, and by
that we don’t enjoy that goodness of God that we are supposed to enjoy; the union and
friendship that we are supposed to enjoy. Sin, therefore, pushes us away from God.
They realize that sin was something bad for both the sinner and the community.
1. For the Sinner: It sets the sinner far away from God, and the sinner cannot enjoy what
he or she should enjoy from God.
2. For the Community: Sin delays the coming of God’s Kingdom. This implies that, for
them, if you have 2 or 3 sinners who are sinning in the community, it affects the entire
community. Thus, this brings out two dimensions to sin.
a. Personal Dimension: The sin affects the sinner directly
b. Communal Dimension: The sin also affects the entire community
For instance, if a Priest from the Oblates of St. Joseph commits a public scandal, his sin or
scandal would affect him, affect the Oblates’ community and also the Christian Community:
“your catholic Priest did this!”
Thus, the focus in this era was:
1. To Save Sinners
2. To Purify the Community
In doing this, individuals would be saved and the Community would be purified. Thus, with the
primary aim to save sinners, guidelines were put in place to curtail sins. The aim of having the
laid down principles that guide people not to sin was because they want everyone to be saved
and to purify the community.

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THE CHURCH WITH THE AUTHORITY OVER SIN
The Early Church, believed that they had authority over sin. This is flowing from the divine
mandate giving by Christ: “receive the Holy Spirit, if you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them, if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:22). Thus, they could
decide how to deal with sinners and how to do so in different ways.
In the Gospel of Matthew 18:15-18, Christ gives guidelines on how to deal with sinners. This
passage brings out the humanity that we all experience. Thus, Jesus, in this model realizes our
humanity. No matter how Holy we think we are; no matter how spiritual we think we are, there is
no way we think we cannot sin. Jesus understands our humanity and our weakness, that is why
he gives this model. He doesn’t expect Christians to live without sins, thus, he gives room for
welcoming sinners who wish to reconcile back to the church.
The fact that we became Christians does not take away their humanity, but to show that they still
struggle with their human weakness
In 2nd Cor 2:5-11, Paul’s advices us on how to welcome back sinners. All this is gearing to the
fact that Jesus and Paul knew that becoming a Christian doesn’t make us immune from
sufferings and sins. While, on the one hand, we try to avoid sin, there are certain things we do,
not to be malicious but because we struggle. Thus, if someone repents, he needs to be welcomed
back, lest he be swallowed by the world.
SECOND CENTURY CHRISTIANS
In the Early 2nd century, a lot of newer members starting coming into the church. The new
converts did not have the same understanding of sin as the Early Converts. The understanding of
sin became polluted. Thus, the community was divided and a lot of members, mainly those of the
early school, now embraced rigorism to make sure that so much strict attention is paid to sin,
and that when you sin there must be heavy punishment giving to you. The aim is that when
that is done, it will serve as a deterrent so that others will learn from this.
REACTION FROM CHURCH IN THE WEST
Although, as this was going on, there was no defined or organized method to take care of sinners.
It was until Tertullian came up with what became the canonical standard of addressing sinners.
TERTULLIAN
In his work, Exomologesis, Tertullian focused on two basic things that will become the standard
for reconciliation
1. The Severity of the Punishment: each of the sins was to be looked at, and then the
punishment that would be done by the penitent.
2. How public should the nature of the punishment be
Here, sinners will meet the bishop and the bishops would determine the nature of the sin, and
whether or not the punishment should be public punishment. The aim of public punishment was
not to disgrace the person, but to serve as a deterrent for others.

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This model was adopted by the church and it became the ecclesiastical model for penance, but
there was a problem. It wasn’t addressing the exact needs, of the people.
The Problems
1. The penance was too serious, and too severe. Due to the fact that the punishment was
severe, it led to the second problem.
2. People stopped going for confession
3. A lot of people who went for confession, didn’t complete the penance
Thus, these problems, and many others, paved way for tariffs method of confession
THE TARIFFS METHOD
This Method was introduced by Irish and Celtic Monks. This method addressed the problems
developed by the method proposed by Tertullian. Here, the punishments were not severe and you
don’t need to go to the bishop. Unlike the method of Tertullian that involves physical
punishment, Tariffs Method was not a bodily kind of punishment; it was more of spiritual and
physical exercise. Like reading long scriptural passages, psalms, Rosary decades, going for
Pilgrimage, etc.
One Major issue with the Tariff is that since it was more of spiritual exercises, the people here
started selling penance.
REACTIONS FROM THE CHURCH IN THE EAST
In the East, Clement of Alexandria and Origen developed a System of Spiritual direction
combined with Pastoral counseling, called Didaskalia. Sinners were not shamed like in the
West. Penance was not a legalistic kind of method as seen in the West. The Western church
handles sin from the perspective of a legal point; you break the you, your face this consequence.
But in the East, it was more of a spiritual counselling, where the environmental factors will also
be considered.
To emphasize this, they knew the priests and bishops were not enough for it. So, Lay people
were also trained for this exercise. They were also trained to keep secrets and not share the
information to others
Continuation on Tertullian
The 2 Tertullians (same human being, but he acted in two different way)
As a Catholic Man, in his first work on Penance, De Paenitenlia, he says, repentance and
forgiveness are possible to all sinners, regardless of the sin. You go through the ecclesiastical
method and reconcile yourself to the church, and the church has power to forgive sins!
As a rigorist, he became a Montanists, then he was part of the people who uphold purity. In his,
De pudicitia (On purity), he contradicted his earlier argument. He argues that all sins cannot be
forgiven. The church does not even have power to forgive sins; even if the Church has the power
to forgive sins, not all sins.

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