COMPUNZIONE (Latin compunctio, unknown to the classical authors; biblical Greek κατένυξις). — A feeling of sorrow and confusion arising from awareness of one’s moral unworthiness. The doctrine of c. is one of the most important in the history of spirituality. The term is already found in Sacred Scripture, used metaphorically to signify repentance and profound sorrow for the offense against God and for sins committed (Acts 2:37; Rom. 11:8, “spirit of c.” is equivalent to “stupor”). This has remained its fundamental meaning, but over time various nuances have been added to it, modifying II.
Thus, to sadness and tears for one’s own sins were joined those provoked by the misery of this poor world, “lacrimarum vallis,” arousing in the soul of the fervent Christian contempt for its false pleasures, but also fear of allowing oneself to be led astray from the path of true life. Hence, fear of divine judgment and an intense desire for God, loved as the supreme good and the source of all happiness. In this state, the thought of heaven and its true joys fills the soul and gathers it into itself,
far from the concerns of this world. Sadness, the sorrow of having offended a God so good and great, always remains the principal characteristic of Christian c.; but the other ideas of contempt for the world, devotion to and intense love of God, and desire for eternal life are readily joined to it, so that in the development of spirituality, from the earliest centuries, among the monks of the desert, among the Fathers of the Church, such as s. Giovanni Crisostomo, s. Agostino, and especially s. Gregorio Magno, and throughout the entire Middle Ages, c. came to encompass within itself some of the essential ideas of Christian perfection.
From the sixteenth century onward, c. was discussed and written about much less; probably, as Fr. Pegna observes, because with the development and systematization of theology, the various ideas grouped in practical terms around the primitive notion of c. naturally became detached and went on to form new complexes. Finally, although the use of the term c. has become rarer, the ancient ideas that it encompassed have remained alive and even today are subsumed under other names (contrition, the idea of reparation, Christian humanism, etc.).