True and False Contrition

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From St. Nicholas Cabasilas, The Life in Christ:

There are two kinds of grief for transgressions, one which restores those who are afflicted by it, and one which brings ruin on them. Of both there are clear witnesses, the blessed Peter in the former case, the wretched Judas in the latter. The grief of the one preserved his purpose and commended him, after he wept bitterly to Christ no less than before he had sinned, whereas Judas’s grief led him to the noose. When the blood was being shed which cleansed the whole world and all were being set free, he went off in bonds in despair of his own cleansing!

Since we know them beforehand let us welcome the former grief but flee from the latter. So we must look at the characteristics of both, how the former benefits us and the latter does us harm.

…When we have formed high opinions of ourselves we see them refuted by the acts whereby we have offended against our duty; we are pained and mourn, and sore remorse oppresses the heart as though life were not worth living for those who have fallen into such great evils. From this grief it is necessary to desist. It is clearly the mother of death, as is also excessive self-esteem.

The former kind of grief [the kind St. Peter had] derives from affection towards our Master. It makes us clearly to know our Benefactor and the things for which we are indebted to Him. Of the things for which we are His debtors we have not repaid even one; on the contrary, we have requited Him with evil.

Therefore, just as pride is an evil, so the pain which comes to our souls from the latter grief is an evil. On the other hand, the love of Christ is altogether worthy of praise. Nothing is more blessed to those who are will-disposed than to suffer pain by reason of the darts which come from that love…



An aside:

That next-to-last paragraph makes an interesting point, doesn’t it, if one is a believer in penal substitutionary atonement? Namely, why is it thought that our debt to the Father must of absolute necessity be paid off, but not our debt to the Son?