Let's begin on what contrition means. Contrition is a word that describes the feeling of sorrowfulness that we feel because of our sins. While it's topically a similar feeling, pierce the surface just a little and you notice exactly why it's different. THe intention is what really counts here. In this case, the end is affected by the intention. Imperfect contrition aligns with "well I don't wanna be condemned to hell, so I'll go to confession." Is that the holy thing to think? Absolutely not. We are meant to love God and to cherish him. That means we should value our relationship with him for more than avoiding eternal damnation. As Catholics, we should strive to love God. Moreover, the feeling of fear of hell is a selfish feeling. When we rationalize in the way that would best benefit us it makes us selfish in the sense that we are still thinking of ourselves and only ourselves. That means imperfect contrition not only allows the possibility of future sin, it re-entrenches it.
So how do we achieve perfect contrition? It's a simple and nuanced thing we call love. We should love God, not fear his wrath. What's the distinction? First of all, one of them is a negative feeling. We're afraid of God instead of embracing him. We try to do what he says to flee his actions. The other involves us embracing his ideals and his actions to become closer to him. That means imperfect and perfect contrition are fundamentally different. Second, a fear of God means we aren't truly understanding the justification behind his rules. He doesn't make rules to have power over us. He makes rules because they are the just and moral things to do. Recognizing the rule and the justification behind the rule and the fact that God is creating these rules out of love means we can be perfectly contrite and truly accept redemption. Otherwise, there's no way we can have true contrition because we just fear the effects of breaking the rules rather than understand the justifications for them.
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