A
adrift
Guest
I enjoy this and all of its incarnations. ThanksHi a,
Agreed. Yet we walk in the light we have been given. It could be the opposite of the old Bazooka Joe comic strip where Joe is looking for his lost keys under the street light. He is asked where did you drop them, and says over there (in the darkness). He then is asked why then are then you looking over here, and responds because that is where the light is.
I get lost in your post. So I am going to answer this way.
What I believe you are saying is that you see not evidence of Jesus establishing penance as a Sacrament. You base this on the observation that neither Jesus or His Disciples forgave sins, You made the statement that this was a new teaching. I am saying that the forgiveness of sins began in the OT. Jesus ministry talked about forgiving of sins for instance His parable of the prodigal son. You bring up an interesting argument that we don’t see them doing this during Jesus ministry. I guess you could make the same argument against the Eucharist. You seem to believe that Jesus wouldn’t bring up a new teaching at the end of His ministry. You assume that it was new teaching but neither the Eucharist nor penance was new. As I thought about this today, one thing came to mind. Forgiveness of sin can only be from God. Jesus could not have said one day your are going to start forgiving sins in the same way that He told them to baptize. They would have been scandalized. They only learned that Jesus was God gradually and with evidence.
I am not sure if you have addressed Jesus’ words. What was the point of breathing on them and telling them that the sins they forgave would be forgiven etc. ?
How this was exercised by them I don’t know. It is my understanding that it was more communal that developed into what we have today.
