Sacrament of Reconciliation

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Dear Friends,


Many of our children are preparing themselves for the sacrament of First Reconciliation. I had the opportunity to address their parents on the importance of this moment in the lives of their families. I want to share with you a part of my conversation with them.


“Almost 50 years ago, Dr. Karl Menninger raised a concern for both psychiatrists and religious leaders. His book, Whatever Became of Sin?, noted that our understanding of the sins which caused us to need healing and forgiveness had passed over to something outside of oneself, the famed excuse that “the Devil made me do it.” Personal responsibility was lost; victimhood took its place. Half a century later, his book still stands as a challenge to our own contemporary world.”


“In Catholic circles in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, patterns of regular confession that were once in abundance began to fade. And that raises a similar question: Whatever became of confession? While frequent confession became a thing of the past, Catholics continued to receive Communion. A traditionally minded Catholic response was that people treated Communion lightly, and their moral consciences were badly distorted. Those on the other end of the spectrum saw Communion itself as the healing remedy. It did not require confession to prepare for it.” (Taken from America Magazine). 


“Why confess your sins to a priest when you can just confess them straight to God?” At one time or another, most Catholics have heard this objection from their Protestant friends. We may have even heard it from a fellow Catholic who doesn’t understand the importance of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.


A group of friends brought a paralytic on a stretcher to Jesus so that He could touch and heal him. And when

they could not get near him because of the crowd they removed the roof above him and lowered the paralytic bed in front of Jesus. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” The religious leaders were scandalized by this announcement to forgive sins because they believed Jesus to be “a mere man” and were horrified by His claim to have an authority that belonged to God alone. 

 

But Jesus answered them: “Why do you think evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic— “Rise, take up your bed and go home.” And he rose and went home. When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men. Jesus proved His divinity to them—and therefore His ability to forgive sin—by His power over creation, which He demonstrated through miracles of healing or of absolute power (such as walking on water or cutting a violent storm short with a mere command).


Alright. It’s one thing for the Son of God - being God – to forgive sin. What about Catholic priests forgiving sin?

 

The Old Testament reveals an interesting thing. It’s this: from the earliest days of God’s interaction with the human beings He created, He has chosen to speak and work through hand-selected persons on behalf of everyone else. God doesn’t have to do this. But for His own purposes—which we may find mysterious—He chooses to. Abraham. Noah. Moses. Isaiah and all the prophets, right up to John the Baptist. The Lord chose to communicate His will through them, to bring about His will through them, and to perform great works through them. They became His mediators. 

 

In His mercy and unfathomable wisdom, Jesus chooses to associate us with Himself and even allows us to participate in His mediation. Jesus granted the ministry of reconciliation to the twelve Apostles after His Resurrection, as recorded in the Gospel: “The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them

again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, 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.” In this moment, He handed His mission of forgiveness over to the Church; specifically, to Her ordained ministers, the successors to the Apostles.

 

That is why the Catechism says: “…by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name. …he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution [power to forgive sin in the name of Christ] to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the “ministry of reconciliation.”


Please note what is (and is not) being said here: when a sinner participates in the Sacrament of Confession, and receives absolution from the priest, it is God who forgives—not the priest himself. If you find this hard to believe, it will be helpful to read the Words of Absolution recited by the priest: “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 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.”

 

The priest stands in for the person of Christ—that is, in persona Christi. When we confess, we confess first and foremost to God whom we have offended. Then the priest—acting on the authority given to him by Christ through the Apostles—forgives us in the name of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Christ told His Church that “the sins She forgave would be forgiven.” We Catholics take Him at His word. (To be continued later)


~Fr. Paulson



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