“God, the Father of Mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace.”
— Prayer of Absolution
The Seven Sacraments
Christ personally addresses every sinner: “My son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mk 2:5)
He is the physician tending each one of the sick who need him to cure them. (CCC 1484)
Be Reconciled to God
“On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, Jesus showed himself to his apostles. He breathed on them, and said to them: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (Jn 20:19, 22-23)
Instituted By Christ Himself
The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains that “the Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health (Mk 2:1-12), has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation. Jesus extended his power to forgive sins to his Apostles.” He did this on Easter Sunday, signifying the connection of the Resurrection to spiritual life. Jesus does so by breathing his Holy Spirit upon them. The only other time that God breathes on anyone was when he breathed life into Adam (Gen 2:7). This was to express vividly the reality that Christ has given his Holy Spirit to the Church and her sacred ministers to continue the mission and the sacramental work that Christ himself instituted.
Throughout his public life, Christ proclaimed the mercy of God toward sinners. He came to preach the good news of salvation and deliverance from sin. He taught that tax collectors and prostitutes will reach the kingdom of God before those who do not recognize their sinfulness or their need for God’s mercy (Mt. 21:32); that there is more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine self-righteous people who have no need of repentance (Lk. 15:7); He gave us three unforgettable parables — of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost or prodigal son (Lk 15:1-32) — each illustrating God’s fatherly love and of his divine solicitude for those who invoke his mercy.
“Sin,” as the Second Vatican Council teaches, “is before all else an offense against God, a break in communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion is both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Reconciliation also called confession or penance” (Lumen Gentium, 11). God’s mercy and love washes away our sins if we are truly sorrowful and seek repentance. The parable of the prodigal son is Christ’s way of explaining to us God’s endless capacity to forgive us.
The Sacrament of Penance is such a gift! Christ Jesus, in His most holy wisdom, gave us this precious Sacrament to literally and truly bestow His grace upon us through His priests as a means of forgiving us and assuring us of His mercy and love for us. This psychological benefit of “feeling assured” and “clean again” stems not only from the supernatural fruits of the Sacrament, but from our human nature and our need to purge ourselves of those sinful actions that plague our consciences. Christ, the great physician, knows us well and knows that confession is good for the soul, in both a supernatural and psychological sense.
Almost everything Christ Jesus said and all the wonderful miracles he worked speak of his mission and identity – to be the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world. Consistent with his words and actions until the moment of his death, forgiving those who crucified him, the risen Christ instituted this sacrament of mercy as his first gift to the Church on Easter Sunday night. The scene of his appearance to the disciples is recorded by St. John:
He said to them, “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you.” After saying this he breathed on them and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained” (Jn. 20:20-23).
The Catholic Church understands these words of Christ himself to imply that Christ conferred on the apostles and their successors not merely the right to declare that a person’s sins are forgiven, but rather he gave them the power of forgiving in his name those who are judged worthy of remission Jesus wanted his priests to continue his sacramental mission of forgiving sins.
The Sacrament of Penance is only valid if the person is truly sorrowful for his or her sins and strives to never commit those sins again. Jesus calls us to conversion of heart, which is seeing sin for what it really is, something that separates us from God, one another and even ourselves. Through receiving forgiveness of our sins through this Sacrament we are reconciled with God and more capable of entering worthily into the mystery of the Holy Mass. We should not receive Holy Communion if we have committed a serious sin and have not repented of it. The Mass is where the faithful are fed with Word of God and the Eucharist.
Why Go to Confession?
Understanding that the sacrament of reconciliation is something that Christ instituted himself and wanted the Church to continue is only part of the issue. There are a variety of reasons why people have stopped “going to confession.” Some have had bad experiences in the past, some are afraid to go because they have forgotten how to do it or don’t remember the prayers. Some may believe that they can just say they are sorry to God directly and don’t need to confess to a priest. Others may feel that God can’t or won’t forgive them. Still others may be in a state where they are not ready to let go of their sinful habits.
If one has had a “bad experience” in the confession with an uncompassionate priest, there is nothing to say except sorry that one ordained to be a minister of God’s mercy was anything but. To stop going all together to confession as a result, however, is only denying oneself of something that Christ generously offers to each of his disciples.
If you are worried because you haven’t done this in a while, that’s okay! It’s okay to be nervous and there is no need to be embarrassed. Tell the priest that you are nervous. Let him know it’s been a while. He will put you at ease and help you through it and will be so glad you’ve come to receive God’s forgiveness and the graces our Lord wants to pour out on you.
Many ask why they must confess to a priest? Confession to a priest is an essential part of the Sacrament of Penance. During his life, Jesus forgave the sins of those who came to him seeking healing (Mt 9:2-8). Jesus entrusted that ministry of forgiving sins to the Apostles and their successors. It is important to note that it is not the priest forgiving the sins, but the priest standing in the person of Jesus Christ (Jn 20:23; Jam 5:16). St. Paul explains how the Apostles are ambassadors of Christ’s work of reconciliation (2 Cor 5:17-20). What does this mean but that they share in the ministry of Christ and forgive sins in his name?
Jesus was aware that sin would continue to be a part of our daily lives, that we are weak and that we often give into our temptations, and so he established a way for us to be forgiven sacramentally for our sins. He does so through other sinful human beings, who have been ordained to continue the work of Christ on earth. Christ was aware that St. Peter, to whom he gave the keys to the kingdom, and all other popes, bishops and priests, were all sinful people as well. This is the great paradox of our faith: that God continues to work in the world through our sinful humanity.
The confessional should not be something to be avoided, but something embraced, because it is there that we all encounter the mercy of God, which we all need, and which helps us to be faithful to our relationship with him. In the sacrament, we are given not only forgiveness, but also the grace to be more like Christ, to be what we are called to be – saints!
The spiritual effects of the Sacrament of Penance are:
– Reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace;
– Reconciliation with the Church;
– Remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;
– Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;
– An increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.
Individual and integral confession of grave sins followed by absolution remains the only ordinary means of reconciliation with God and with the Church.
Through indulgences the faithful can obtain the remission of temporal punishment resulting from sin for themselves and also for the souls in Purgatory.
Source: Fr. Roger Landry, Diocese of Fall River | Used with permission