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Confession: The Sacrament of Grace and Mercy

I have wanted to write on this topic for some time now, yet apologetic needs on this blog have occupied much of my time as of late. Confession, or Penance and Reconciliation (as the Church formally calls it), for me, as a Catholic, has been on of the richest, most fruitful experiences of God’s grace and mercy I have ever known. The act in itself of confessing one’s sins to a priest and hearing the words “your sins are forgiven” is liberating. But rather than discuss the incredible fruits of this great Sacrament of the Catholic Church, I intend to provide a two-fold overview of confession; 1) as defined and practiced by the Catholic Church and 2) as administered during the first 400 years of Christianity. From this two-fold overview I hope to achieve a two-fold effect; 1) to answer some misconception about what confession exactly is, and 2) to plant a seed in those of you that are Catholic that will result in a greater use of this God-given Sacrament.

So let us first look to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I have quoted only a section from the chapter that covers the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. I highly advise all readers to read the entire chapter.

The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation

1440 Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with Him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God’s forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.

Only God forgives sin

1441 Only God forgives sins (cf. Mk 2:7). Since He is the Son of God, Jesus says of Himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercise this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven” (Mk 2:5, 10; Lk 7:48). Further, by virtue of His divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in His Name (cf. Jn 20:21-23).

1442 Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action His whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that He acquired for us at the price of His blood. But He entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the “ministry of reconciliation” (2 Cor 5:18). The apostle is sent out “on behalf of Christ” with “God making his appeal” through him and pleading: “Be reconciled to God” (2 Cor 5:20).

Reconciliation with the Church

1443 During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin has alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God’s forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God (cf. Lk 15; 19:9).

1444 In imparting to His apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ’s solemn words to Simon Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Mt 16:19; cf. Mt 18:18; 28:16-20). “The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head” (Lumen Gentium, Vatican II).

1445 The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into His. Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.

The sacrament of forgiveness

1446 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. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as “the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace” (Tertullian, De Paenit).

1447 Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this “order of penitents” (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once in a lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the “private” practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the Church has practiced down to our day.

1448 Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God’s action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial communion.

1449 The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament: the Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of sinners through the Passover of His Son and the gift of His Spirit, through the prayer and ministry of the Church:
God, the Father of mercies,
Through the death and the 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 give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins
in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Though lengthy, this provides a good overview of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. For those of you wanting even greater understanding there is much more in the Catechism discussing this Sacrament.

I would now like to look at what the Early Church Fathers had to say about the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. As I have said often, understanding the Faith that was lived during those early centuries of Christianity is crucial for developing a sound knowledge and foundation for Catholics attempting to live their Faith today. So let’s look at what the Fathers have to say:

On the minister of the Sacrament of Penance:

But they spurn and despise all these warnings; and before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest…Finally, of how much greater faith and more salutary fear are they who, though bound by no crime of sacrifice or certificate, but since they did take thought of doing such a thing, confess even this to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience…I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while satisfaction and remission made through the priests are pleasing before the Lord. - St. Cyprian of Carthage, The Lapsed, 251 A.D.

It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist; but in Acts they confessed to the Apostles, by whom also all were baptized. – St. Basil the Great, Rules Briefly Treated, 370 A.D.

They who inhabit the earth, they who make their abode among men, are entrusted with the dispensation of the things of heaven! Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: “Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.” Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can bind only the body. Priests, however, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself, and transcends the very heavens… “Whose sins you shall forgive,” He says, “they are forgiven them: whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” What greater power is there than this? - St. John Chrysostom, The Priesthood, 386 A.D.

What is there more severe than the practice of [the Novatianists], who proclaim a penance which they will not grant? By denying forgiveness they remove the incentive to repentance. For no one could do penance properly if he did not hope for forgiveness. For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only…It seemed likewise impossible for sins to be forgiven through penance; yet Christ granted even this to His Apostles, and by His Apostles it has been transmitted to the offices of priests. That has been made possible, therefore, which seemed to be impossible. – St. Ambrose of Milan, Penance 387-390 A.D.

Just as in the Old Testament the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so in the New Testament the bishop and presbyter binds or looses not those who are innocent or guilty, but by reason of their office, when they have heard various kinds of sins, they know who is to be bound and who loosed. – St. Jerome, Commentaries on the Gospel of Matthew, 398 A.D.

And so we find clear evidence of the Catholic teaching in regards to confessing one’s sins to a priest throughout the Early Church Fathers. I would like to show support for this great Sacrament in one other place. I will be quoting from Dr. Scott Hahn’s book on Confession:

If Jesus hadn’t left us the sacrament of confession, we’d probably have to invent it. For God made us with a need that only confession can fulfill. Those who know the consolation of confessing their sins tend to cling to it tenaciously. The Protestant reformer Martin Luther wanted to dispense with all the sacraments but baptism and Eucharist; but his instincts prevailed upon him, and he “added the sacrament of penance to these two.” He explained why: “Without doubt, confession of sins is necessary, and in accordance with the divine commandments….As for secret confession as practiced today…it seems a highly satisfactory practice for me; it is useful and even necessary. I would not wish it to cease; rather I rejoice that it exists in the church of Christ, for it is a singular medicine for afflicted consciences.” Even today, the Lutheran Book of Worship includes a rite for auricular confession….Luther clung to confession even as he left the Catholic Church.

May all of us cling to the Sacrament of Penance and make use of the forgiving grace and mercy of Jesus Christ that can only be found in Confession.

In Christ,
Joe