The Sacrament of Confession
THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION
Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB
The great philosopher Aristotle once said that man is a rational animal. But I would like to add that he is also a social animal. Hence whenever we have gone through some fear or doubt, sorrow or misfortune, we all feel the need of comfort and consolation from our parents, a loved one or even our friends, especially those who are close to us.
Anticipating our needs, our Lord already knew that given the fact that the human nature is frail, we need someone to support us. Hence, He instituted the Sacrament of Confession. So Jesus who knows like nobody else does, says, “Come to me, all you that labour and are burdened and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).
It is for this reason that He appoints His priest to represent Him to be another Christ. He bestows plenary powers on His delegate, assists him with divine inspirations and prepares him with many years of study – all of which fit him for the great ministry He calls him to.
In the Confessional the priest is the plenipotentiary of Jesus. He is there to continue the mission of Our Lord to sinners; he is there to dispense with the utmost generosity the mercies of God to all people.
Long, weary hours, day after day, for many succeeding years, the priest labours in the Confessional. He listens, he pardons, he comforts, he encourages, he raises up, ever snatching souls from Hell and presenting them to God. The greatest and happiest moments in the life of a priest are on the ALTAR with his God and in the CONFESSIONAL with his penitents.
God implants in his heart a love and affection for the poor souls that come to him just as it is seen in the love of a mother for her children.
The Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Jesus and not by anybody else. We have an explicit proof from Sacred Scripture as it is seen in His statement which He made to St. Peter, “Whosoever sins you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whosoever sins you loose on earth shall be lost in heaven.” Besides, if ever the Sacrament of Confession had to be instituted by a human person, then it would only lead to chaos. This is because nobody would feel like going for confession since if the person himself who has instituted the sacrament is fallible, then how can we go to such a person for confession. This has been one of the main arguments from our separated brethren (Protestants) where they state that it is enough to confess one’s sins to God. Yet, we should not forget that confession was a sacrament instituted by Christ Himself.
Another aspect as to why we should believe that Christ instituted this sacrament was that the very purpose of His coming was to destroy sin. Thus to every penitent who goes to Him in the Confessional, He says, “Your sins are forgiven, go in peace and sin no more.” This is because Jesus Himself said, “I have come not to call the just, but sinners” (Matthew 9:13). Besides forgiving, our Lord also gives us the will and the strength to sin no more. Many of the early Church Fathers have spoken in support of the Sacrament of Confession. I would like to highlight two of them namely,
(i) St. Augustine: Our merciful God wishes us to confess in this world that we may not be confounded in the other.
(ii) St. John Chrysostom: To priests is given the power to forgive, not to Angels or Archangels for Jesus says, “Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
Many of our separated brethren (Protestants) find it hard to digest the fact as to how can we obtain forgiveness from a person who is himself fallible. To respond to that we should keep in mind that the priest in the confessional is God’s instrument for it is not the priest who forgives but it is God who forgives through the priest. That is why the priest is a servant of God. But it could still be questioned why should God do like that? Can He not directly forgive our sins?
Our Lord chooses to work through our humanness. Given the fact that He is God, yet He chooses to work naturally and not supernaturally (unless if required). Allow me to give some examples. In the incident of the 10 lepers, when all of them had begged Jesus to cure them, He said, “Go and show yourself to the priest.” He could have cured them, given the fact that he had the power to do so but He chose not to.
When St. Paul was converted, Jesus asked Him to go to Ananias. Now, Jesus could have told him personally what He wished him to do or could have filled his soul with light and made manifest His will. But then all the same, He sent him to Ananias.
Besides this, some of the other questions that people ask are,
1. Why pray to God! Does not God know all our needs; is He not aware of what we wish and hope for? Why does He, therefore oblige us to pray?
2. Could He not purify us from Original Sin by one word? Why does He oblige us to be baptized, to have water poured on our heads and certain words repeated in the process telling us that if this rite is not carried out, we cannot enter Heaven?
3. Why is the dying man anointed with oil; why do bread and wine have to be used in the Sacrament of the Eucharist? God could do all without human intervention, without the use of material things. Why did Jesus Himself use clay and spittle when curing the blind man?
The answer to the above question is that our Catholic faith is both, divine and human. It is divine in its origin, in the graces it bestows, in the lights, the peace, the consolation it gives. It is human because it must be in conformity with the condition of our nature, and in every way adapted to our needs. Besides, if we go to see we do not think abstractly, we think in images. We think concretely. Hence as a result, when we teach, we use examples, for the simple reason that, given the fact that we think concretely, it becomes easier for us to understand when examples are used. Hence, the mystery of God is far beyond comprehension yet He has chosen to reveal Himself through His Son Jesus. This is itself a good indicator as to why we need religious things and other such phenomena.
The Son of God became man in order to be like us and thus the more naturally to win our affections, gain our sympathy and compel our love. As our Lord and Master He could have obliged us to serve and obey Him, but He chose rather, with ineffable goodness, to captivate our hearts with sweet attractions to his love. It is for this reason that whenever Jesus taught, he always taught using parables. Ex: The parable of the Sower, the parable of the mustard seed and so on.
Besides this, Our Lord was truly human. In his dealings with people, He steeped to the needs of the humble and sorrowful. With what divine condescension did He not console the poor widow of Naim when he raised her son to life; how affectionately He wept at the death of Lazarus; how lovingly he defended Magdalene when she knelt at His feet in the house of the Pharisee. How, gently too, He pardoned the poor woman taken in sin; how sweetly He bade the little children to come unto Him and with what loving condescension He allowed John to rest his head on His divine bosom! Our Lord wished to be like us in every way so that we could more easily become like Him.
It is quite interesting to note that while there may be many of our separated brethren who would want to object the idea of the Sacrament of Confession, there have been quite a few who actually supported the idea, starting with Luther himself. Hence, even if all the other sacraments were foregone, this was one sacrament that they would not want to forego. Let us see some of the statements made by some of them,
a) Luther: In his book, The Babylonian Captivity, Luther writes,
“I would prefer to continue subject to the tyranny of the Pope than to abolish confession.”
b) Henry VIII: Henry VIII, before falling into his tremendous excesses, spoke thus of Confession in his book, On the Defense of the Sacraments,
“If I had not read the doctrine of Confession in the Sacred Scriptures or in the books of the Fathers of the Church, it would be sufficient for me to see how it has been practiced by all Christian people in every age to be convinced that it is not a human invention but a divine law.”
c) Leibnitz: The Christian Protestant philosopher Leibnitz, speaking of Confession affirms,
“We cannot but agree that the institution of Confession is worthy of the divine wisdom and that the Christian Religion contains nothing more noble or beautiful. The duty to confess contributes much, first of all, to keep us from sin above all if our hearts have not already been hardened and perverted. Secondly it is a great consolation for those who unfortunately fall, for it helps them to rise. For this reason, I consider that a pious, grave and prudent confessor is a powerful instrument of God for the salvation of souls. By his counsels he serves to mould our affections, he points out our defects and he warns us of occasions of sin. He exhorts us to restore that which we may have stolen, to repair injustices we may have committed; He resolves our doubts and consoles us when we are depressed. In a word, he helps us to cure or at least alleviate the weakness of our souls.”
This glorious testimony, written with full deliberation by a celebrated Protestant should therefore be meditated on by every serious thinker.
Thus the Sacrament of Confession or Reconciliation is a beautiful sacrament since it helps us to live a more genuine life. It is a means through which a person can go into himself or herself. Most of all, this sacrament gives us the grace to ask pardon from the Lord and also the grace to avoid sin in the future.
