Confession

[eddie_too]

God is omniscient, He knows all things. God knows your sins. why would you think that telling your sins to Him that He already knows would change your relationship with Him? the sacrament of reconciliation involves far more than mere confessing one’s sins, although confessing one’s sins is an integral part of the sacrament.

Jesus gave the authority to forgive and retain sins for a reason. the full understanding of the Lord’s reasoning may not be available to us, but the fact remains that He gave that authority to the apostles.

elsewhere in the new testament, i believe maybe in one of st. john’s epistles, we are taught that some sins may be forgiven through prayer; but, others, mortal sins, cannot be forgiven through prayer.

 

[Wesrock]

Ultimately, I don’t know all the answers. If I can talk for a moment out of my rear end, I’ve always gotten the sense that forgiveness of sins for a Catholic by confession directly to God is only extraordinary and in the absence of an opportunity for confession. To willingly abstain from the sacrament when it’s available and insist on confession straight to God only gives no guarantee of forgiveness. By this I don’t just refer to the words of absolution of the priest, but that God might not offer absolution due to the Catholic’s own lack of faith in the Church God established, of those God entrusted to act as Christ, in the Body of Christ itself. In a sense, the confession is imperfect, because the Catholic penitent is still holding back and perhaps even sinning by lack of faith in the Church.

So if a Catholic has no opportunity for a priest, he can make a valid confession directy to God with an act of perfect contrition. But if a priest is available and the Catholic refuses, the act is imperfect and not forgiven, that ia only my “sense” of the matter. Perhaps it’s terrible of me to write this. I do know that Catholic texts that speak of validly confessing directly to God in extraordinary situations also say the penitent should still intend to confess those same sins to a priest at the earliest opportunity.

God gave us the sacrament of reconciliation, not because God is limited, but for our sake. To doubt it and act in disobedience to it as a Catholic is to doubt Christ. Sins against Christ are sins against all Christians, for the Church is the Body of Christ, and it is Christ who lives in all faithful Christians. Full restoration, then, is not only to God, but to the brothers and sisters you sinned against (all Christians). Confession is not only about forgiveness, but having the opportunity to be transformed by good counsel and true submission to Christ through the Church, and restored to Christ’s body, the Church. This is why Jesus gave his apostles the authority to bind and loose, to forgive sins or retain them, and why James speaks of confessing sins to each other. We are not just individuals, but a community of brothers and sisters, and our place in that community is as real as us also being individuals, united by participation in Christ. Our relationship with Christ is not only one-on-one. Our relationship with our brothers and sisters, his Church, is also a direct relationship with Christ. Christ is in us all. We participate in Christ. What we do to each other we do to Christ, and what we do to Christ, we do to each other. Our relationship with the Church, our brothers and sisters, is also a part of our “direct, personal relationship” with Christ, and not something separate.

I don’t write this to persuade non-Catholics. Just inter-Catholic dialogue, here.

 

[DanielStDominic]

I just don’t understand confessing my sins to a priest? Can’t I just confess directly to God?

Why are you asking us? Can’t you just go directly to God and ask Him?

I don’t mean to sound flippant, but merely to point out that God has chosen to work through mediators. As St. John XXIII said, “We are saved like grapes: in bunches.”

As the Bible says in Leviticus 5,

5 When a man is guilty in any of these, he shall confess the sin he has committed, 6 and he shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord for the sin which he has committed, a female from the flock, a lamb or a goat, for a sin offering; and the priest shall make atonement for him for his sin.

And again a little further,

10 Then he shall offer the second for a burnt offering according to the ordinance; and the priest shall make atonement for him for the sin which he has committed, and he shall be forgiven.

Now, does the fact that such things existed in the old covenant imply that it must also in the new? Of course not. But those things were all pointing towards Christ’s sacrifice and His priesthood, and they have been perfected in the new covenant, but not made completely obsolete.

Moreover, it is simply is an illustration of the fact that God using a priest as a mediator in His forgiveness of sin is not alien or foreign to how God interacts with His people. So it shouldn’t be written off simply because one might personally think such things are unnecessary.

 

[truetofaith]

You can confess directly to God & are forgiven …but to receive Holy Communion you must get absolution from a priest in the sacrament of Penance.

If you are in danger of death, you will go to heaven if you repent to God but can’t get a priest in time.

 

[pablope]

All of what the Council of Trent says makes perfect sense to me, a Catholic, and I try to go to confession weekly. The problem is that my non-Catholic friends and relatives do not accept the Catholic Church much less the teachings of the Council of Trent. When I quote John 20:23 to them they say, “Okay, you do it your way if you want, but I am going to cut out the middle man and go directly to God.” I would like to tell them that this verse means God will not forgive your sin unless you confess it to a Priest. This thread seems to indicate differently: that God does indeed forgive you sins if you go directly to Him outside of Catholic confession. If it were not the case, most, if not all, non-Catholics are going to spend eternity in Hell which is not the teaching of the Church.

When discussing this with non-Catholics, I always cite the way King David repented and was forgiven:

2Sam 12 (please read the whole chapter, will only cite this verse):

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the LORD, the son born to you will die.”

Question: Why did God send Nathan to David to confront him for his sin? Why was Nathan needed? Why did God not just forgive David directly?

Here, King David admits his sin to Nathan, the prophet, and Nathan pronounces the absolution. This seems like a forerunner of the sacrament of confession, doesn’t it?

From King David’s example above, this is one of the aspects of the sacrament, we convict ourselves that we have offended God, and now seek humility and God’s forgiveness through the sacrament…and because it is the way He wanted it because He wanted a true confession and true contrition on our part by not making it easy. One thing non-Catholics do not recognize is that going to confession is not easy.

One of the most difficult thing for us humans to do is to admit to a guilt, to a sin. We tend to rationalize, which is what usually happens. When one confesses to God directly, which we can certainly do, don’t you find it easy? And you tend to go back and do the transgression again.

But with the sacrament, there is no rationalization. When one goes to the confessional, there is an admission of guilt, we accuse ourselves that we have sinned. Then we now have to find the courage to go to confession, and orally account to the priest, who represents Christ, our sins. There is no ifs and buts, but a straight accounting of our transgressions and our admittance of guilt. Then when the priest says the absolution, there is relief in knowing that our sins have been forgiven.

 

[pablope]

I thank the Forum Master and Church Militant for their excellent replies. Maybe I could expand just a little more. I teach a 7th grade CCD class and we are going through the sacraments one by one. The sacrament we will discuss at the next session is (you guessed it) Penance. These children all go to the public schools and they are surrounded by views other than Catholic mostly atheistic. So, if I understand what you are all saying I will tell them that the normal and most assured way to be forgiven of sins—mortal and venial–is through verbal confession to a priest. In the spirit of full disclosure I also need to tell them that there is another way your mortal sin may be forgiven—the way the non-Catholic Christian does it. That way is to appeal directly to Jesus. This latter method can be just as efficacious as confession but it has to be done perfectly with perfect contrition and a flawless resolve not to do it again. If you don’t ‘dot your i’s and cross your t’s’ just right Jesus will not forgive you. Furthermore, since Jesus doesn’t talk to you like your mother and dad or I do you can never be sure that you did it exactly right and your terrible sin may be still on your soul and lead to your eternal damnation.

I can see the power point slides beginning to form in my mind already.

Do your 7th Grade CCD know the story of King David and his sin of adultery?

Cite to them the example of King David and Job:

Job 42:

7 After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has. 8 So now take seven bulls and seven rams and go to my servant Job and sacrifice a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer and not deal with you according to your folly. You have not spoken the truth about me, as my servant Job has.” 9 So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite did what the LORD told them; and the LORD accepted Job’s prayer.

Question: Why did God, who spoke directly to Eliphaz, not just forgive him directly? And why did God order him to go through Job?

2Sam 12 (please read the whole chapter, will only cite this verse):

13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.”

Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for[a] the LORD, the son born to you will die.”

Question: Why did God send Nathan to David to confront him for his sin? Why was Nathan needed? Why did God not just forgive David directly?

Here, King David admits his sin to Nathan, the prophet, and Nathan pronounces the absolution. This seems like a forerunner of the sacrament of confession, doesn’t it?