The Binding and Loosing of Sin

The Lord Jesus committed the august power of binding and loosing sins to St. Peter and the Apostles.  At the time. The Lord's words must have been so overwhelming to those that heard them that they could make no sense of them, as so much else that he said.  After the Lord's Ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles, they began to use this power of absolving sins in their ministry, especially in the Sacrament of Penance, to which St. James makes reference in his letter.  Richard (d. 1173), prior of the abbey of St. Victor, in France, wrote an entire book on the doctrine of binding and loosing, from which the following is taken:

"The binding of sins is considered in two ways.  On the one hand, there is that binding by which is man is bound to his sin.  On the other, there is that by which he is bound to his punishment.  In the first case, he is bound by the chains of captivity.  In the second, by the bonds of condemnation.  For, if a man gravely falls into some sin, he is not then in his power to rise from it by himself.  He can withdraw from God by his own power, but he cannot return to him through his own power.  It is, indeed, a case in which 'a spirit goes out but does not return' (Psalm 77, 39).  In like manner, 'Blessed is the man who does not go out to the counsel of the wicked' (Psalm 1, 1).  Thus, the binding of sin is called the 'death of the soul': for, just as in exterior death, the body is restrained from the works that pertain to life, so through the binding of sin, the soul dies to the works that pertain to eternal life.  Would that a man chained and made prisoner be bound by this captivity alone, but because he is most wretched, he is bound also by his servitude to sin, 'for he who commits sin is a slave of sin' (John 8, 34).  It is the same as in the case of a man paying off an usurious loan: the payment due for his debt increases daily.  See, then, the binding of sin: on the one hand, the chains of captivity; on the other, the bonds of servitude.  Now, let us see about the binding of punishment.

"In addition to this wretchedness, the sinner is held bound by merit of his sinning not only by the binding of sin, but also being bound to punishment.  By the very fact that a man commits a sin that he cannot ever rectify so that the wound, great in itself, lasts forever, the man incurs the debt of eternal punishment.  In the Sacred Scriptures, eternal damnation is called 'the second death' (cf. Revelation 20, 14), for just as the soul is drawn back from the divine goodness by the binding of sin, so the soul is made a stranger to all her own goodness by the infliction of eternal damnation.  He alone who is truly omnipotent and can do all things, is able to loosen the binding of a man from his chains: 'Those things that are impossible for men are possible for God' ( Luke 18, 27).  There is no heart so rock-like, so hard, or obstinate, that God, if he wished, could not soften it immediately for true repentance.  Blessed John the Baptist spoke of this when he said: 'God is powerful enough to raise up sons of Abraham from these stones' (Matthew 3, 9).  When, therefore, he who can do all things stings the conscience of a sinner unto true repentance, what does he do other than make an end to permanent sin and permanent punishment?  Thus, punishment passes into satisfaction, and the eternal into the temporary, and he who earlier was bound by the binding of damnation, now is bound by the debt of expiation."