Contrition as the Key to Transformation
At the moment, however, this essay will return to step five. Since I have been working on this issue, the Gordian knot has always been the question of motivation: “What causes or enables change?” I have found that it is contrition that enables moral agents (people) to be willing to change their lifestyles, most notably to consume less and to share more.[9] Though it seems counter-intuitive in our consumer culture, the ability to be alert to the ways we contribute to others’ misery is the beginning of our own true flourishing. Vitor Westhelle puts it stronger when he writes, “The movement of grace must always start with us… Grace can come only with repentance, and by allowing ourselves to be exposed to the wounds of the world.”[10]
I was recently brought up short by a comment made by ethicist and theologian Tex Sample. He said, “Asking ‘how’ [how to foster renewal, how to live a more moral life, how to change] is the wrong question. Instead, the question is: What am I as a follower of Jesus Christ to be?”[11] I was startled to realize that I had been pursuing this question of transformation the wrong way. I had been asking, “How” or “What should we do,” when I should have been asking, “Who should we be,” “Who are we,” or “Who is God.” Sample helped me go beyond my previous inquiry which may have been confined, in part, to a utilitarian examination of human capacity. Sample’s comment does not express the whole truth, but it does contain at least half the truth.
Whereas Westhelle emphasizes human responsibility and action, Sample prioritizes the initiatory act of God. Both, though, point toward the necessity in transformation of “becoming” or “embodying,” not just “doing.” In regard to their perspectives, I maintain it is grace that allows us to be alert, to recognize our appropriation and complicity, but I also contend that it is necessary to respond to that grace by opening ourselves to the “how” of transformation.
Both Westhelle and Sample have important points to make. I recognize them both as necessities, in sequence: first, the movement of grace to bring us to openness and awareness, and then application of human ingenuity to transform the hungers of the world. This sequence is made possible by contrition.
So what is contrition? Robert Roberts was instrumental in getting my thought moving in this direction. In his book, Spiritual Emotions: A Psychology of Christian Virtues,[12] he differentiates contrition from guilt and other related emotions. Contrition is the awareness that my actions are implicated in others’ distress and that I recognize my own turpitude before God in that distress. In short, my actions have contributed to that distress. Contrition also entails an awareness of the forgiveness of God and that my turpitude before God can be forgiven;[13] thus, my life does not have to continue in the past ways that have generated regret and wrong. I recognize that there is the possibility of change.
Contrition is a complex emotion, and the task of excavating its nuances is complicated. My definition arises from personal experience, research, and from conversations with others. To begin, let us lay out its ingredients. Note that there is some sequential movement in these elements of contrition. Regret and awareness precede the elements of forgiveness and community, which precede the element of having a rule of life or discipline.
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