Confession... Specifically the Penance part

[descout]

I was recently questioned on how I could really be sorry for my sins if the priest is the one telling what I must do for the sins I just confessed. I guess I always explained it in such a way that if I stole from someone and I went back later and confessed that I had done it and that I could not return the item I stole, I would want to do what ever they felt was right for me to do to “make it up” to them. The questioner argued saying that I should feel sorry enough and figure out what I wanted to do for the penance. Her point was that this penance was not in the Bible anywhere. She did agree that confessing sins to a priest or another person was biblical, just not the priest telling us what to do for our sins.

 

[ljubim]

I’d say the burden of evidence is on her!

 

[LilyM]

I was recently questioned on how I could really be sorry for my sins if the priest is the one telling what I must do for the sins I just confessed. I guess I always explained it in such a way that if I stole from someone and I went back later and confessed that I had done it and that I could not return the item I stole, I would want to do what ever they felt was right for me to do to “make it up” to them. The questioner argued saying that I should feel sorry enough and figure out what I wanted to do for the penance. Her point was that this penance was not in the Bible anywhere. She did agree that confessing sins to a priest or another person was biblical, just not the priest telling us what to do for our sins.

The power to prescribe penalties and punishments in regard to sin is an inherent part of the authority to forgive and retain sin.

Put it this way. Every secular judge, along with and as part of their power to acquit or condemn, has the power to impose certain penalties upon those who admit their transgressions of the law by pleading guilty (confessing). And they can and do impose such penalties as fines even on those occasions where they decide, for whatever reason, not to record a conviction, or to suspend more serious sentence such as jail, of the person who has broken the law.

So it is with confession, where the priest stands in the place of Christ as judge, Who both passes judgement and imposes penalties or punishments upon the guilty, even though He ultimately remits the sentence of damnation against those same guilty when they are sincerely contrite.

Of course the penance the priest imposes is not the be-all or end-all by any means. It’s not like, having performed the assigned penance, we automatically have discharged all consequences or obligations. No Catholic who has a correct understanding of the sacrament would believe so, that’s why we are SO big on voluntary penances and restitution to the victims of our sins, much more so than the majority of non-Catholic Christians I’ve come across.

 

[LindaSK]

I was recently questioned on how I could really be sorry for my sins if the priest is the one telling what I must do for the sins I just confessed. I guess I always explained it in such a way that if I stole from someone and I went back later and confessed that I had done it and that I could not return the item I stole, I would want to do what ever they felt was right for me to do to “make it up” to them. The questioner argued saying that I should feel sorry enough and figure out what I wanted to do for the penance. Her point was that this penance was not in the Bible anywhere. She did agree that confessing sins to a priest or another person was biblical, just not the priest telling us what to do for our sins.

This is the first passage that came to mind:

Jonah
Chapter 3
*
1
The word of the LORD came to Jonah a second time:
2
“Set out for the great city of Nineveh, and announce to it the message that I will tell you.”
3
So Jonah made ready and went to Nineveh, according to the LORD’S bidding. Now Nineveh was an enormously large city; it took three days to go through it.
4
Jonah began his journey through the city, and had gone but a single day’s walk announcing, “Forty days more and Nineveh shall be destroyed,”
5
when the people of Nineveh believed God; they **proclaimed a fast **and all of them, great and small, put on sackcloth.
6
When the news reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, laid aside his robe, covered himself with sackcloth, and sat in the ashes.
7
Then he had this proclaimed throughout Nineveh, by decree of the king and his nobles: "Neither man nor beast, neither cattle nor sheep, shall taste anything; they shall not eat, nor shall they drink water.
8
Man and beast shall be covered with sackcloth and call loudly to God; every man shall turn from his evil way and from the violence he has in hand.
9
Who knows, God may relent and forgive, and withhold his blazing wrath, so that we shall not perish."
10
When God saw by their actions how they turned from their evil way, he repented of the evil that he had threatened to do to them; he did not carry it out.
*

There are many other similar verses about the imposition of ashes (which is where the tradition of Ash Wednesday came from, if I am not mistaken), and the wearing of sackcloth or hair shirts, and fasting. They may not specifically show the priest imposing a penance, but, they indicate that the concept of performing acts of penance in an attempt to repent of sin.

If you bear in mind that the priest is ‘in persona Christi’, Jonah 3:8 - “call loudly to God” may be perceived as a ‘Confession’. The priest gives a Penance. We choose, though, whether we will do the Penance we are given. The people of Nineveh took it upon themselves to do the Penances as decreed, in this case, by their king. To me, this chapter of Jonah is a parallel to the Sacrament of Confession, and the grace that comes from making a sincere Confession accompanied by acts of penance.

 

[Symeon]

Also remember one purpose of the penance is to effect healing in the penitent. We confess and acknowledge our sins and are forgiven, but still need help in avoiding the sin and acting in love and obedience to Christ. The priest, in persona Christi, is acting as a physician for our souls. What your questioner is suggesting would be akin seeing a doctor, but expecting to come up with the prescription yourself.