Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)
Ius canonicum
144 GORAN JOVICIC stand in a designated place at the church’s front doors; affer the Liturgy of the Word, they had to leave the church. The bishop had the responsibility to decide on the amount of penance: the greater the guilt, the greater the penance115 (Ambrose, De Paen. 1: 3, 10). In making his decision, the bishop had to take into account the disposition of the sinner as well the gravity of the sin: “ac tunc iubere dimitti, cum viderit congruam satisfactionem” (Pope Innocent I, Ep. 1: 7 ad Decent.)116 The reason why penitents in the early Church were excommunicated is in the theology of St. Paul. As we read in his writings, the baptized believers are all members of the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:12-13), and what each individual does affects the whole Body (2 Cor 2:5). For this reason, Paul perceives the sin of one member as yeast that infects the whole mass of dough, that is, the whole community (1 Cor 5:6-8). Holding fast to the legacy of St. Paul, the early Church understood sin as a violation of the community (common-union).117 In this light, the Church, according to Origen, excommunicates, or cuts off from the congregation of saints, those who commit a grave manifest fault and after several exhortations (third time) to a better life fail to come to repentance for their sins.118 Origen furthermore stresses: “(■..) If the malignancy of the tumor does not respond to the medications, there remains for us the sole remedy of excommunication”119. If the iniquity is not evident, Origen says, then one cannot dismiss a person from the community, since in eradicating the weeds (cockles), we could eradicate the wheat as well.120 From a number of passages in Origen’s writings, it is clear that this power of excommunication, on one hand, and the power of remitting sins, on the other, resides in the bishop as the highest member of the hierarchy.121 He claims that it is a long-established custom in the Church to dismiss notorious sinners from the community.122 Excommunication was medicinal and intended to bring healing to the sinner. As St. Augustine testifies, quoting St. Paul excommunicating the incestuous men (1 Cor 5:2), the excommunication was not understood at that time as 115 Poschmann, B., Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, 93. 116 Poschmann, B., Penance and the Anointing of the Sick, 93. 117 Detish, S., A Brief History ofthe Sacrament of Reconciliation', https://files.ecatholic.com/24263/ documents/2021/1 /a.%20F or%20Parents%20%20DID%20 Y OU%20KNOW.pdf?t= 16097878 02000 (consulted: 1/27/2023). 118 See Latko, E. F., Origen’s Concept of Penance, 70. 119 Origen, Horn, in Josue, 7: 6 (PG XII. 862); for the translation see Latko, E. F., Origen ’s Concept of Penance, 70. 120 “Eiciamus saltem quos possumus, quorum peccata manifesta sunt. Ubi enim peccatum evidens non est, ‘eicere’ de ecclesia neminem possumus, ne forte eradicantes zizania eradicemus simul illis etiam triticum”: Origen, Hóm. in Joshue, 21:1 (PG XII. 928). For the translation see Latko, E. F., Origen ’s Concept of Penance, 70. 121 Latko, E. F., Origen ’s Concept of Penance, 71. 122 According to Latko’s thesis, Origen talks in the commentaries on Matthew about the long established custom. See Latko, E. F., Origen ’s Concept of Penance, 71.
