the moment all grievous transgressions. To both questions they answered in the negative, judging that an act of sorrow which implicitly included all one's sins would be sufficient. Sovereign According to Mark 8:35–37, Jesus admonished his disciples: "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it. For what will it profit them to gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Indeed, what can they give in return for their life?" Contrition for sin must take precedence over temporal concerns. When the envoys of the Empress Eudoxia threatened John Chrysostom, he responded, "Go tell the princess that Chrysostom fears only one thing, and that is sin." Sacrament of Penance Contrition is not only a moral virtue, but the Council of Trent defined that it is a "part", and even more, quasi materia, in the Sacrament of Penance. "The (quasi) matter of this sacrament consists of the acts of the penitent himself, namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction. These, inasmuch as they are by God's institution required in the penitent for the integrity of the sacrament and for the full and perfect remission of sin, are for this reason called parts of penance." In consequence of this decree of Trent theologians teach that sorrow for sin must be in some sense sacramental. La Croix went so far as to say that sorrow must be aroused with a view of going to confession, but this seems to be asking too much; most theologians think with Schieler-Heuser (Theory and Practice of Confession, p. 113) that it is sufficient if the sorrow coexist in any way with the confession and is referred to it. Hence the precept of the Roman Ritual, "After the confessor has heard the confession he should try by earnest exhortation to move the penitent to contrition" (Schieler-Heuser, op. cit., p. 111 sqq.). For repentance is essential for the effectiveness of this sacrament, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains: Jesus' call to conversion and penance ... does not aim first at outward works ... but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion (1430). Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, ... the desire and resolution to