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Green_Tea
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st lucy:
Quite right. But why, then, the specific necessity of the priest?
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Tonks40
Guest
Because Christ made it possible:
He was speaking to the apostles at the time, and giving them the authority to forgive sins on His behalf.
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melmac
Guest
I personally find it hard to forgive myself,even knowing God will, having a priest say those words, doing penance, and feeling lighter for having shared makes the biggest difference between saying confession to God privately and knowing if your earnest he will forgive, Its comforting to have someone hear you, and forgive you, that human contact. Thats just how i feel anyway
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Fisher
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Heb 004:015 For we have not an high priest(Jesus) which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.
004:016 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
1John 002:001 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. **And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: **002:002 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
004:016 Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
1John 002:001 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. **And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: **002:002 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for our’s only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
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Deconi
Guest
Some have provided some good answers already GreenTea, but I think the point of your query is *why does it have to be, specifically a priest? *
Short answer; Biblical. (as the others point out)
Christ gave the authority to The Apostles. He ‘breathed’ this authority upon them at Pentecost. (The ONLY other time God breathed upon a human, is in Genesis, upon Adam.) -See Scriptures.
The Apostles pass this authority on to those they chose. Remember the authority is God’s, so they cannot do it by letter or by word, because only God can ‘breathe authority’ upon anything.
After Jesus ascended into Heaven, the only way the Apostles can pass such an authority to some other human, is by ACTUALLY touching that human and ‘ordaining’ that person with that authority. This is corroborated by the Old Testament ritual which was through Moses and Aaaron in laying their hands on those they gave ‘authority’ to, specifically the ordination of priests in the priestly line of Aaron, etc.
So, from Christ ‘breathing’ upon the Apostles, and the Apostles laying hands on those they chose, through those they made bishops or priests or deacons, that is HOW the Authority has been passed down through AN UNBROKEN LINE from Christ to us.
As you may discover in your search and journey, no Pastor in any denomination has this authority. Not even illegitimately!
Only an ordained priest has that authority. Not because he is a priest or because he is Catholic, but because the ordination includes the bishop (who himself was once ordained) LAYS HIS HANDS on the priest and passes the authority onwards.
As far as experiencing the ‘feelings’ of elation about being forgiven goes, I would wager that many ‘Protestants’ will attest to the same feelings after ‘services’ and having their pastors / ministers tell them they are forgiven! Both the pastor and the layperson may truly believe what their positions and conditions are, but as you can see, from a Catholic’s point of view…aww…well,…you can see what ‘we’ see.
When asked about where their authority comes from to forgive sins, many pastors have just quoted Scriptures and/or say, “From the Bible!”
Not quite correct. The Bible is about Christ so all men may find Him. But it does not give any individual the Authority and Power of God,…which is what forgiving sins is.
As for ‘fear of confession?’ YES. How do you tell your father you’ve squandered ALL his fortune, burnt the house? For a cradle Catholic, I approach confession with fear and trembling. I know Our Lord loves me, which is why my shame keeps me tremblin’.
Sometimes I wish the Protestant method was legitimate so I can just cop out and say my confession to ‘myself’ in private.
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Green_Tea
Guest
Thank you all for your responses. Perhaps I am not communicating myself well, but I still have one basic question.
I understand the need for confession as such. I also understand that it is good to confess to other people, and that from a Catholic perspective confessing to a priest is qualitatively different than confessing to any other person, and superior. So I understand a statement like, “confessing to a priest is a pretty good idea.”
What I am having a hard time with is the necessity of confessing to a priest. Let’s say I have mortal sin, and want to participate in the mass. I could go to confession and have a priest absolve me, then I could participate (well, I couldn’t actually do either, since I am not Catholic, but you know what I mean). But why couldn’t I instead go directly to God in confession, receive absolution, and then participate in the mass?
I understand the need for confession as such. I also understand that it is good to confess to other people, and that from a Catholic perspective confessing to a priest is qualitatively different than confessing to any other person, and superior. So I understand a statement like, “confessing to a priest is a pretty good idea.”
What I am having a hard time with is the necessity of confessing to a priest. Let’s say I have mortal sin, and want to participate in the mass. I could go to confession and have a priest absolve me, then I could participate (well, I couldn’t actually do either, since I am not Catholic, but you know what I mean). But why couldn’t I instead go directly to God in confession, receive absolution, and then participate in the mass?
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MelanieAnne
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Because you cannot absolve yourself, so there is no way to “receive absolution” by going “directly to God”.
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st_lucy
Guest
The simple answer is because God said so.
Jesus gave us the sacarament of Penance to help us get to heaven. You need to remember sacaraments are outward gifts from God that gives us Sanctifying Grace. Jesus gave us the gift of penance will he was here on earth. You can read about it in St. John 20:23 and in 2 Cor 5:18.
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Green_Tea
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I am not talking about absolving myself; I am talking about being absolved by God. Do Catholics not believe that Christians can make their requests known to God directly, through the person of Jesus Christ?
st lucy:
“God said so” is a pretty good answer in my book.The simple answer is because God said so.
Jesus gave us the sacarament of Penance to help us get to heaven. You need to remember sacaraments are outward gifts from God that gives us Sanctifying Grace. Jesus gave us the gift of penance will he was here on earth. You can read about it in St. John 20:23 and in 2 Cor 5:18.
Where did God say so, though? I appreciate the verses you suggested, but neither of them suggested that God has abdicated the power of absolution of sins.
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st_lucy
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John 20:21-23I am not talking about absolving myself; I am talking about being absolved by God. Do Catholics not believe that Christians can make their requests known to God directly, through the person of Jesus Christ?
“God said so” is a pretty good answer in my book.
In red you can see that Jesus is giving the Apostles the power to forgive sins.
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Green_Tea
Guest
Oh, I see. So the Catholic interpretation of that power is that only the Apostles (and priests, by succession/ordination/I-don’t-know-the-proper-term) have the power to forgive sins – that God voluntarily abdicated that power in giving it to the Apostles, so that God cannot (by choice, of course!) any longer forgive sins except through the Apostles (and, correspondingly, the priests)?
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st_lucy
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No God did give up His power. God is not here on earth anymore. He knew that He was living and so He gave power to the Apostles to do this in His absences.
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Nordar
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When we go to confession the Priest is acting “in persona Christi”
Why? because Jesus gave this gift to the Apostles.
The Priests is acting as a conduit if you wish to Jesus, he absolves us of Our sins because he is acting “in Persona Christi”
Why do we as Catholics believe it? Quite simply because God said so. Jesus meant The Sacrament of Reconciliation to be a healing and a way to recieve many Graces.
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jmcrae
Guest
The “throne of grace” is in the Confessional. Notice that we are to “come to” the throne of grace; not merely imagine coming to it.
We meet Jesus in person, and we hear His words of forgiveness with our natural ears, when we receive the Absolution.
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jmcrae
Guest
This is the normal way that God chooses to do it, yes.
Obviously, God is beyond the Sacraments, and could certain choose to forgive someone without them going to Confession. But they would have no way of knowing whether God had chosen to do so in their case, since there would be no natural sign to show the person that God had, indeed, granted him Absolution. He would have to rely on his feelings, and as you know, feelings are notoriously unreliable - I recently heard of a group of women who believe themselves to be “led by the Holy Spirit” to help women procure “natural abortions.”
You and I can certainly discern what kind of spirit is guiding this enterprise, but they can’t, because they “feel right” about what they are doing, and they have themselves completely convinced that this is God’s work - it would be impossible to argue with them, because God has spoken “personally” to them.
And if it can happen to them, then it can happen to any of us. The safest course of action, therefore, is always to follow the teaching of the Church - we can be glad if our feelings correspond with Church teaching, but when they don’t, we have to assume that it is the Church who is right, and not ourselves, so that we don’t become deceived.
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cecilia97
Guest
Just beautiful…thanks for posting this!The priest doesn’t absolve you, Jesus does, the priest is just a conduit of absolution. People that believe the priest absolves you of your sins need to check the facts!
I finally came to terms with Reconciliation by listening to Mother Angelica. And she wasn’t even talking about Reconciliation at the time, but the same principle applied.
Verbalizing where you have fallen short is not the same as thinking about it. Verbalizing makes it more “real”, it transforms the situation into something you can act on. It is much more effective than abstract thought.
God doesn’t need us to confess. Reconciliation isn’t for Him. It’s for us. God already knows where we have fallen short but He wants us to tell Him. It’s really very simple. All the sacraments are gifts from God. When I look at Reconciliation that way, it becomes something to look forward to, like a receiving a birthday present.
I did let confession scare me away for quite a long time, because I didn’t have this understanding of it. Thank God, He has helped me learn some of this. I’m never happy to NEED to go to confession, but I find the more I go, the less stressful it is, and the more I look forward to being back in God’s grace again.
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Green_Tea
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Thank you all for explaining. I think I get the idea now.
It seems that in many ways Catholicism is not just different doctrines than I am used to but is also a whole different mindset than I am used to – a whole different way of thinking about God and about the world. I appreciate all who are kind and helpful in encouraging me to understand.
It seems that in many ways Catholicism is not just different doctrines than I am used to but is also a whole different mindset than I am used to – a whole different way of thinking about God and about the world. I appreciate all who are kind and helpful in encouraging me to understand.
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MelanieAnne
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Idontgetit
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I went to face to face confession one time, I told the priest everything, mainly because I knew he could not retaliate against me with it, which was rather comforting. Normally I would not do such a thing, needing is not a very Christian thing to do. Would I go to my “minister” and share my struggles, no, that cant be an option. But it was talking with that nice old man whom was a priest.
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colliric
Guest
I have been told that this is possibly actually the christian thing to think and do sometimes(to me it shows trust in the priest and consiquently in God), but that is up to personal interpretation I guess.
Knowing that the Priest is obliged to listen and respond allows someone to confess to God possibly better because it actually helps kill the fears that have put on you.
To me sometimes in order to help us to deal strongly with our possibly unwarranted fears and other such constraints God allows us to confess to a priest, any priest. You are under canon law actually entitled to confess to whichever priest you actually feel compleatly safe and comfortable with. They are not actually allowed to tell you to go to either another priest or the priest you celebrate the mass with(however if you confess that you are scared of your own priest they may perscribe some form of penance, such as, outside of confession, going and telling the specific priest himself so you can be helped with that). The reason is that you must feel able to confess without restraints and some serious worldly problems can sadly cause issue with that.
It is better to go and show compleate faith in the Priest who ministers to you by allowing him to be God’s representative in your confession, but a valid Confession to God is a valid Confession no matter who you go to. Trust in the Priest and Trust in God are mostly not mutually exclusive, but sometimes they actually are when the person is for some reason not sure about their priest and his personal interigity as a minister of God. Sometimes people need to actually protect their identity for various reasons.
It is also, clearly because sometimes your own parish Priest may not be contactable when you actually need a priest, such as in emergency situations or when you just see a church has confession on and you just get that spur of the moment urge to walk in and confess.
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