Most Zealous Doctor!

Friday, August 1, 2025

Feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori

Lev 23:1, 4-11, 15-16, 27, 34b-37; Mt 13:54-58

The feast of St. Alphonsus Liguori invites us to be apostles of compassion like him. 

The patron saint of confessors and moral theologians, St. Alphonsus promoted a pastorally sensitive approach that emphasized God’s love and the dignity of the human person. For this reason, he insisted on the four roles of a confessor, namely, father, doctor, teacher, and judge. 

St. Alphonsus’ emphasis on the compassionate role of confessors was quite significant, especially against the backdrop and influence of Jansenist rigorism of his time that reduced the confessional to be a place of fear, scruple, and judgement. However, the moral reimagination of St. Alphonsus reinstituted it as a place of healing and divine mercy. 

In all, St. Alphonsus was deeply convinced of maintaining confessionals as places that sought after souls in compassion. Thus, he was a pastor of penitents for four reasons. 

1. In Receiving the Penitents: For St. Alphonsus, confessionals are places of charity toward penitents. To give confidence to penitents and encourage them in discernment, he offered particular phrases to penitents in charity. ‘There is no need to be afraid… Take your time… If you get stuck, I will help you examine your conscience…You have got every reason in the world to be at peace… God’s mercy is bigger than your sins.’ Thus, Liguori’s use of charitable words and expressions transformed confession into a joyful and homecoming experience for many. The penitents could find the merciful father in St. Alphonsus, the confessor. 

2. In Offering Penance: While St. Alphonsus agreed with the Council of Trent’s call for the weight of the penance to match the gravity of the sin, he was strongly convinced that penances that fail to match the goal of a person’s salvation ‘poison,’ much like a strong overdose of medicine. For this reason, St. Alphonsus viewed penance as a remedy and advised confessors to advocate the best means for the sinner’s freedom from sin and avoidance of hell. Oftentimes, without diminishing the gravity of sin, St. Alphonsus advocated for special remedies in cases of special sins. He said,‘Mortification of the senses should be imposed for sins of sensuality, almsgiving should be imposed for sins of avarice, prayer for blasphemy, and so on.’ In administering penance, he took care that the penitent was able to repair his/her relationship with the Crucified Lord. 

3. In Facilitating Repentance: St. Alphonsus understood the role of a confessor as a judge very differently. For him, the priest as a judge in the confessional was one seated in compassion, not in condemnation. Accordingly, he held, ‘The confessor must learn the state of the patient’s conscience, then find out his/her dispositions, and finally impart or deny absolution.’ For this reason, he insisted on the confessor’s ability to weigh the facts and discern the degree of readiness in the penitent to receive absolution. While St. Alphonsus looked at the penitent’s conscience to weigh the remorse, his great boast was that he never denied absolution to anyone, not even in moments of impatience or anger, though for some reason, it was an occasional occurrence in his time. Thus, he called on the confessors to evaluate the conscience of the penitents. 

4. In Forming the Conscience: St. Alphonsus strongly believed in the role of confessors to be the physicians of souls. Hence, instead of making the penitents scrupulous or guilty, he was interested in training their consciences. Like a well-trained physician, he wanted the priests to correct mistaken notions about faith and morality that would have led the penitents to make bad spiritual decisions. While he advocated a moderate balance (keeping the happy mean) between law and liberty, he profoundly believed that a well-formed conscience was essential for a healthy spiritual life. The same view was upheld by Pope Francis when he said, ‘We have been called to form consciences, not replace them.’ St. Alphonsus believed that forming consciences would facilitate moral decision-making, especially when the penitents faced uncertainty. Thus, the patron saint of confessors took away the fear and inhibition that revolved around confessionals and helped people return to God in freedom and joy. 

Let us pray that we may follow the inspiring life of St. Alphonsus, the most zealous doctor, to facilitate religious conversion and foster spiritual growth. 

Fr. Dhinakaran Savariyar