Confession: The special sacrament of receiving God's mercy
“Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them.” (John 20:23]
By Bishop Michael Pfeifer, OMI
One of the first gifts that the newly risen Christ gave to His disciples during His first apparition to them was the power and gift of forgiving sins. During that first marvelous apparition on the evening of the first day of the week, the risen Savior told His disciples: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (J.20:22-23) Implied to receive this forgiveness is confession of sins which James makes explicit: “Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed.” (James 5:16)
Sacrament of Mercy and Reconciliation
This gift of forgiveness of sins given by the risen Christ is what we celebrate in the Sacrament of Penance, Reconciliation, each time that we go to Confession. In each Confession, we share in the merciful grace that comes from Christ’s death on the cross to forgive our sins, and his Resurrection for our justification. Only God forgives sins. Christ, the Son of God, through the person of the priest, forgives our sins that we humbly and sincerely confess, as we contritely and gratefully open our hearts to receive God’s pardon. In the Sacrament of Penance, we obtain mercy from God for sins committed against God, and are reconciled to the Church which is wounded by our sins.
The minister of the sacred act of God
Some of our non-Catholic friends stress that they confess their sins directly to God. We, Catholics, also say that in accord with a biblical premise, we confess our sins to God but in the Sacrament of Penance administered by the priest who represents the Christian community. Christ has entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which He charged with the ministry of reconciliation [C.1442]. This ministry continues to be carried out today by ordained priests. As in all of the Sacraments, Christ designates a human representative—the priest—to be the minister of the sacred act we celebrate with our God.
The Sacrament of Penance—Confession—is the Sacrament of God’s great mercy and forgiveness that is offered to God’s people. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read: “Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion.” [CC 1446]
A very misunderstood Gift
Sadly, the Sacrament of Penance—Reconciliation—is one of the most misunderstood gifts from our kind, loving Almighty Father. In this gift, God forgives our sins and fills us with mercy, and this Sacrament also has the power to calm violence, to restore unity where there is division, to help heal marriages and families that are in strife and difficulty. The overwhelming truth about the Sacrament of Confession—Reconciliation—is that God wants to heal us more than we want to be healed. Our heavenly Father loves us so much that he wanted to manifest His love in a visible and sensible way by asking His Son to be Incarnate, so that God could touch us with flesh like our own, look into our eyes with human eyes, and speak to us with human words. We have Jesus, the sign that is the great Sacrament of our loving God.
If anyone wants to truly know how good God is and how much God wants to show His mercy and forgiveness, all we have to do is read in the Gospels about the compassion, forgiveness and healing Christ brought to people when He walked this earth. We especially need to humbly and sorrowfully kneel at the foot of the cross, recognizing that Jesus gave His life to forgive our sins by dying like a criminal on the cross. The same loving Jesus who showed forgiveness and mercy during His life on earth, is still eagerly and heartily welcoming us to reconciliation, offering us healing, pardon and peace in the Sacrament of Confession. Christ is not interested in punishment and reprimand. In his homily at National Stadium in 2008, Pope Benedict XVI stressed the great importance of the Sacrament of Penance for our spiritual life: “To a great extent, the renewal of the Church in America, and throughout the world, depends on the renewal of the practice of penance and the growth in holiness which the Sacrament both inspires and accomplishes.”
Overcoming Pride – “I have sinned”
In the Sacrament of Confession, priests are asked to be agents of God’s mercy and forgiveness as they help us to recognize our sins, and to open our hearts to receive the abundant mercy of Christ. Many Catholics do not take advantage of this great merciful gift given by Christ to our beautiful Catholic Church. Why? Perhaps because of lack of understanding or appreciation of the beauty, benefits, and need of this Sacrament for our spiritual life. Others, perhaps, are fearful and overcome by pride, lack the courage and humility to simply say—“I have sinned—I need God’s forgiveness.” The spirit and attitude that is needed is that of the Prodigal Son who falls at his merciful father’s knees, confessing—“Father, I have sinned against God and against you.” (Lk.15:18) Our compassionate heavenly Father then runs, embraces us, and forgives us.
The central word the Church emphasizes in the Sacrament of Confession is reconciliation. When we allow sin to possess our spirit, we become a stranger to ourselves and even to our neighbors and to our God. Forgiveness and reconciliation go together. God’s forgiveness of our sins in Confession demands that we then forgive others and calls for sincere efforts to work for reconciliation. We pray in the Our Father that our Heavenly Father forgive us to the degree that we forgive others. Reconciliation is putting back together what was once one. It is rediscovering the unity and love that God wants for our life.
Evil of Sin
The Sacrament of Confession offers God’s forgiveness for our sins. Today perhaps we have lost much of the understanding of the evil of sin, and the evil that it brings to our lives and to our relationships with others. Sin is the willingness to let our relationship with God be strained, or even to be broken. To truly receive the fruits of the Sacrament of Penance, Confession, first and foremost, we have to humbly recognize our weakness and to humbly admit that we have sinned. If one were to sin seriously—mortal sin—it would destroy charity in one’s heart by a grave violation of God’s law; turning one away from God by preferring an inferior good to him. [CC 1855] Celebrating the Sacrament offers reconciliation. If one has sinned grievously, then one should not receive Communion, as this would be a worst sin—a sacrilege. To prepare well for Confession, we need to take time to examine our lives truthfully and honestly with the Holy Spirit, admit our sins, express our sorrow in prayer for these sins, and then humbly manifest these sins to God through the priest in Confession, and perform our penance and resolve with God’s grace not to sin again. The most important act of the penitent is contrition, heartfelt sorrow and aversion for sin committed along with the intention of sinning no more.
Peace and serenity of Conscience
The whole power of the Sacrament of Confession consists of restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with our God in an intimate, personal friendship. When we humbly admit and confess our sins, we find new peace and serenity of conscience, spiritual hope, and strong spiritual consolation and strength, to help us lead good Christian lives, to overcome habits of sin and deal with temptation. The powerful grace that is given us in the Sacrament of Confession not only forgives our sins, but helps us to humbly and truthfully deal with the source of our sin. To enable our growth in grace, we should receive this Sacrament with a certain frequency. By receiving the Sacrament of Penance God’s grace is restored to those who may have committed grave sin. Frequent and careful celebration of this Sacrament is also a very useful remedy for venial sins, and helps us to overcome our predominant fault, or tendency to sin, to deal with the root cause of sin.
The Good Confessor
When the priest celebrates the Sacrament of Penance, the priest needs to realize that he is performing the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, or the Good Samaritan, who binds up wounds, or the father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial Judge whose judgment is just and full of mercy. The priest is the sign and instrument of God’s merciful love for the sinner. [CC 1465]
All of our churches have special times for the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance—Confession—and I encourage our priests to remind all of our people in the bulletins about these special times designated for the celebration of this beautiful Sacrament. I also encourage our priests and other pastoral leaders to preach and teach about the wonderful Sacrament of Reconciliation, Penance, that brings us God’s mercy.
