Washed Clean

The spiritual restoring is primarily the remarkable cleansing of the human soul from the contamination of acts of evil called sins. The cause of this spiritual (and secondarily physical) restoration is the tender, loving mercy of God, through the resurrected Savior, Jesus Christ, who is "the first fruits of those who have died" (1 Corinthians 15:20) and the prototype of all end-time life-restored humans. The "trigger" that releases this ever-repeatable spiritual restoration in this present life is any and every act of sincere repentance on the part of the "restoree," the sinner. Amazingly, the very God he has offended reinstates the sinner to full spiritual integrity. 

Unlike the inbuilt "reintegrative restoration" found in vegetative and animal life, from sponges to lizards, human restoration is grace-laden, and it involves primarily the exercise of one of the Creator's attributes: his goodness made relational by his infinite love. Furthermore, it engages us human creatures in a form of extremely personal interactivity with our Creator, which is far beyond the restorative dynamic that works to restabilize the biosphere's ecological balance and even beyond the "cosmic convalescence" of exploded galaxies.

Some pundit has attempted to poeticize the meaning of spiritual restoration with the platitude "Christianity begins where religion leaves off, at the Resurrection." That can be better understood in the context of John's words about the Resurrection: "new life," derived from Jesus, "the faithful witness the firstborn of the dead,...who loves us and freed us from our sins" (Revelation 1:5).

The scintillating mind of the great Saint Augustine explored this wondrous restoration of the human soul as a spiritual interactivity between the person and our loving, merciful Lord. He wrote in his Commentary on the Gospel of Saint John:

Whoever confesses his sins...is already working with God. God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear "man" - this is what God has made; when you hear "sinner" - this is what man himself has made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made...When you begin to abhor what your have made, it is then that your good works are beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works (bold emphasis mine).¹

To say that "the beginning of good works is the repentance for evil works" is another way of saying that conversion starts with justification - that is, with spiritual restoration from a state of sinfulness. But justification, a relative term, needs completion itself in the endless striving for sanctification - that is, growth in holiness, grace and virtue - toward becoming "perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect" (Matthew 5:48).

To transform a scraggly plot into a garden initially requires weeding and seeding, then mending and tending. To continue to cultivate and enjoy that garden, one must commit to an endless process of attaining and maintaining its beauty. Between the seed stage and the flower stage of the soul, it is "God who gives the growth" (1 Corinthians 3:7). Thus God's mercy nudges us to move beyond justification through repentance ito the full bloom of sanctity.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church (1989) elucidates this process by showing that a conversion of the soul is initiated by repentance, which in turn effects justification. The soul responds to Jesus' earliest proclamation in his mission, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near" (Matthew 4:!7) thus accepting forgiveness and righteousness from on high.  The Council of Trent stated that "justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man."²

Thus the process initiated by accepting God's mercy for forgiveness (triggered by repentance), "justifies" the soul, detaching it from sin and sinful habits, and embellishes (sanctifies) it with grace-watered virtues, resulting is a renewal (restoration) of one's spiritual life. The unkempt plot, now weeded and fertilized, blossoms in holiness - a holiness by reason of the vibrant life of grace, the participation in the very life of God absorved from the divine Gardener himself. Second Peter 1:4 refers to us as "participants of the divine nature." And the life of God is full, "abundant," as John 10:10 says. The flowers don't droop or wilt; they burst forth in a riot of color and beauty. And the Gardener smiles on the God-mirrored soul, for "the Holy God shows himself holy by [our] righteousness" (Isaiah 5:6).

Peter described the process well:

His divine power has given us everything needed for life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Thus he has given us, through these things, his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of lust, and ay become participants of the divine nature. For this very reason, you must make every effort to support your faith with goodness, and goodness with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with endurance, and endurance with godliness, and godliness with mutual affection, and mutual affection with love. For if these things are yours and are increasing among you, they keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful in the knowledge of Lord Jesus Christ. For anyone who lacks these things is short-sighted and blind, and is forgetul of the cleansing of past sins. (2 Peter 1:3-9).

The option of spiritual restoration is ours. Just as we choose to sin, we can choose to repent and thus elicit God's restorative mercy. "Cast away from you all the transgressions that you have committed against me, and get yourselves a new heart and a new spirit!" (Ezekiel 18:31).

But it is God who initiates the restoration. The plea comes from his very heart: 'Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relents from punishing." (Joel 2:13).

1. Saint Augustine, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Tractate 12,13 in J.P. Migne, Patrologia Latina (Paris, 1841-1855)l, quoted in Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Washington: United States Catholic Conference; Liberia Editrice Vaticana, 1997), #1458

2. Council of Trent (1547), Denzinger-Schonmetzer, Enchiridon Sumlolorum, definitionu et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum (1965), 1528, quoted in CCC #1989.

This excerpt is from the book The Awesome Mercy of God, by John H. Hampsch,C.M.F., originally published by Servant Books. It and other of Fr. Hampsch's books and audio/visual materials can be purchased from Claretian Teaching Ministry, 20610 Manhattan Pl, #120, Torrance, CA 90501-1863. Phone 1-310-782-6408.