REPARATION. - In ascetical usage, besides actual reparation (the restoration of man to his original integrity, the passage from corruption to incorruption), reparation usually denotes the meritorious principle which, by associating men with the expiation (v.) and satisfaction (v.) offered by Jesus the Redeemer, tends to the compensation of the glory of God outraged by sin (formal reparation).
To the love of God disowned by the sinner there corresponds the expiatory offering, in which man embraces for the love of God the temporal punishment of sin. This reparation reaches the degree of sacrifice in immolation, whereby man offers himself to the divine sanctions. In the one elected to Grace, sin carries with it a mystery of malice and of decay that cannot be repaired as is fitting except by the priesthood, the ministry (Heb. 8:2) and immolation of the God-Man (ibid. 2:10-15). True it is that the capital act of reparation, the Redemption (v.), will remain exclusively personal to the Incarnate Word; but, organized in him, all the faithful will contribute personally to the complementary reparation of the Church, the spouse of the Lamb (Col. 1:24; Phil. 2:17). This participation is symbolized by the drop of water poured into the wine destined for the Holy Sacrifice (Council of Trent, session XXII, ch. 7). In order to be fit for this reparation, Christians receive, in the sacramental character, a graduated participation in the priesthood of Christ (per Christum; Sum. Theol., 3a q. 63, a. 3); in order to be well disposed, they receive in sacramental incorporation (Sum. theol., 3a, q. 62, a. 1) a spiritual association with the ministry of Christ (cum Christo), and in sacramental Grace (Sum. Theol., 3a, q. 62, a. 2) they receive the energy sufficient to be able to immolate themselves (in Christo).
The substance of reparation (whether actual or formal) is the "superabundant" charity (Eph. 2:4), compensatory, victorious, which from the opened heart of the Divine Redeemer pours itself into the whole structure of ecclesial life, in order to form it upon the consummate exemplar of reparative action (Eph. 4:11-16; Gal. 6:14). The reparative will finds its verbal expression in the "acts" or formulas of reparation (Act. 4:24-31), and its affective expression in compassion for the sufferings of Christ (I Cor. 12:26): formulas and sentiments cultivated in devotion to the Sacred Heart and inculcated by the encyclicals Miserentissimus Redemptor (8 May 1928; AAS, 20 [1928], pp. 165-78) and Caritate Christi compulsi (3 May 1932; AAS, 24 [1932], pp. 177-194). Cf. Council of Trent, session VI, ch. 7; session XIII, ch. 8.
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Michele Ledrus