The Church is the Sacrament of salvation, and its members must live a sacramental life. Confession is sacramental reconcilation. Just as no one goes to the Father except through the Son, so too no one goes to the Father except through the one whom the Incarnate Son has apointed to the priesthood to work in His Person. Only God can forgives sin, so only one who works in the Person of Jesus Christ, the same Person in whom God and man are forever married, can absolve sins. But God is not bound by His sacraments; He is Infinite and Almighty, the sacraments are only the ordinary ways He uses to gives souls Grace and Mercy. Extraordinarily, He forgives sins of those who are outside the Catholic Church, and this extraordinary activity is not an exception nor a special privlege but is simply, together with the ordinary, His way of dealing with sinners. For He died for all and makes no difference between the soul of the Christian and the soul of the non-Christian; all are sinners before Him, all are in need of His Infinite and All-Powerful Mercy. But it is better to be within the Church, and so receive the sacraments, than it is to be outside the Church and not receive the sacraments, for, one cannot presume God’s Mercy and the sacraments, while ordinary, help us extraordinary in the spiritual life and within sacramental reconcoliation attrition is only necessary to receive full forgiveness of sins, while outside the sacrament perfect contrition is necessary to receive full forgiveness of sins. And perfect contrition, while obtainable, is not easy for the soul. This is why Jesus gives us the Church, to make the way to Heaven all that much easier for us.
