Confession

[anna1983]

This is a really basic question…As Catholics why do we need to go to confession and have a priest absolve our sins, why cant we ask God himself for forgiveness without going to a priest, Can someone please explain more to me?

 

[kage_ar]

The most basic answer? God designed us and knows what is best. When Christ was on earth, he was building a Church and one of the things he set up was Confession. Remember, when he breathed on the apostles and told them what ever sins you forgive are forgiven and whatever sins you retain are retained?

There is a good articles here:

catholic.com/library/Forgiveness_of_Sins.asp

catholic.com/library/Confession.asp

If you can, pick up Scott Hahn’s book “Lord, Have Mercy”.

One last thing, we should be doing a daily exam on conscience and asking God for forgivness - then, often go to Confession to recieve absolution.

 

[jwashu]

This is a really basic question…As Catholics why do we need to go to confession and have a priest absolve our sins, why cant we ask God himself for forgiveness without going to a priest, Can someone please explain more to me?

We CAN and SHOULD ask God for forgiveness and make our contrition as true as possible. And we should know that He forgives us.

However we are not perfect and often our acts of contrition, being truly sorry for the sin, are not perfect. God forgives our sins and will not keep us from Heaven if we ask for forgiveness. However to return to a full state of Grace and receive the Sacraments we should go to confession.

As a former Protestant I personally LOVE confession. During my conversion process and since I have shed new light on this to many of my Catholic friends and moreso to my Protestant / Evangelical friends. To that point that one, a VERY big Evangelical asked if he could go sometime.

Why? Because as Kage said, God knows us. He knows our strengths and weaknesses… Ever have a habitual sin that you seem to ask God to forgive you for over and over… not necessarily a mortal on but just something small. You could probably get past it but it’s easy to just ask. While we should never not ask, there is something about verbalizing that for us humans that makes it more real.

Regular confession, even if you don’t have any mortal sins to confess is a powerful sacrament we should not ignore. I can tell you right now that with my recent workload and the birth of our 4th son I haven’t been since right before Christmas and I’m longing for it.

Joe

PS - Scott’s books is fantastic as well!

 

[Simon_X]

I love Scott Hahn’s books too.

I don’t want to get into a deep theological discussion. You can probably get that if you post in the Spirituality or the Liturgy and the Sacrament Forums. But just being able to tell a fellow human (sitting in the place of our Lord) your biggest faults/sins and hear the words of absolution are incredible. I would not trade this great Sacrament for anything. That is not to say we shouldn’t tell God we are sorry for our sins in private, but this Sacrament is so much more than that…

 

[forgiveall]

It is easy to tell God our sins because we know that we cannot see his physical presence with our eyes. It’s harder to go to a Priest and tell him our sins because we can see his physical presence with our eyes.

A Priest acts as a Mediator (I hope I’m using the right word) between you and God. Since it is much harder for us to see someone and tell them our sins, it makes us more sorry for our sins, more humble.

When you go to confession God is acting through that Priest, to hear your sins and to help you and give you advice to sin no more.

So when you confess, God is there and you should tell the Priest your sins as if you were telling God.

I hope this helps.

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

Confession is a Sacrament. It gives us graces towards our eternal salvation.

One could still argue, why involve the priests, why not do it directly with God. Why do movie stars and athletes have personal trainers and someone dedicated to manage their nutrition? Why don’t they do it alone, can’t they take care of it on their own? I think the answer is pretty obvious: their trainers and nutritionists keep them on track much better. The same thing goes for the involvement of priests, confessors and spiritual directors in our lives. They are there for us, and they keep us on track on our journey towards sanctification.

I wouldn’t take the place of a priest who hears confessions. I mean, the part of listening to other people’s sins again and again, and comforting and exhorting, strengthening them, should be pretty tiring and not particularly enjoyable. But the ability to give absolution (because Jesus Christ specifically gave this power to the apostles) must be awesome!

 

[Joseph_L_Varga]

If you need to defend te Church’s teaching to Sola Scriptura people, use John 20, 19-23. It can hardly get clearer than this. Jesus sends his apostles into the world, breathes on them, and gives them the authority to forgive sins. Bishops and priests of today forgive sins using that authority. It is the Catholic Church that’s being faithful to the Bible, not those Scripture Christians who pick and chose what to believe and what to implement from Jesus Christ’s commandments and provisions for his Church.