"The other episode – a sad one – is the betrayal of Judas who is unable to carry forward love; and then money, selfishness lead him to this bad thing. But Jesus forgives everything. Jesus always forgives. He only asks that we ask for forgiveness."
There are two egregious errors in these remarks: (a) the claim that Christ forgave Judas, and (b) the claim that in order to have our sins forgiven, all …More
"The other episode – a sad one – is the betrayal of Judas who is unable to carry forward love; and then money, selfishness lead him to this bad thing. But Jesus forgives everything. Jesus always forgives. He only asks that we ask for forgiveness."
There are two egregious errors in these remarks: (a) the claim that Christ forgave Judas, and (b) the claim that in order to have our sins forgiven, all we must do is ask Jesus Christ for forgiveness.
Both ideas are false, and the second one is definitely heretical to boot.
What is needed to obtain forgiveness?
To be forgiven by God of our mortal sins, several conditions must be fulfilled after we have examined our conscience. We must have contrition, we must have a firm purpose of amendment, we must confess our sins to a priest and receive absolution, and we must (at least be willing to) make satisfaction. (It is true that confession and absolution are not absolutely necessary and can be supplied by means of perfect contrition, but this too involves certain conditions.)
We won’t elaborate on each of these points now, except to point out that contrition, which is a specific kind of sorrow for sin, must itself have certain qualities: It must be interior, supernatural, universal, and sovereign. Not just any kind of sorrow for sin is compatible with, and sufficient for, forgiveness. For instance, we might regret having sinned because our sin has brought public shame on us, but this would be a merely natural motive, whereas contrition must be supernatural, meaning that we must be sorry for our sins because they have offended God or because we are afraid of eternal punishment, for instance. Etc.