Many of my friends have trouble understanding why we do certain things, and I have been able to state to them where in the bible and why… But I was just wondering other ways people explain things such as:
-Purgatory
-Why we dont believe we can just say we are saved and thats how we get to heaven.
-Confession to a priest
Let me try to address these first:
As you may know, in the Gospels, we read that Jesus gave the Apostles the power to bind and loose sins. Catholics believe that that power was handed on down through the Apostles to their successors. In fact, Apostolic Succession is considered to be one of the two necessary things that define the Church (the other is a belief in the Real Presence at Communion). This is why the Catholic Church considers the Orthodox Churches “true” churches, while Protestant churches are referred to by the Catholic Church as “ecclesiastical communities”.
Catholics don’t believe in “once saved, always saved”. We believe that once one is baptized, they are clensed of sin and part of God’s church. If nothing else happens, they are indeed “saved”. HOWEVER… Catholics believe that by our free will, it is possible to reject God by turning from Him through committing certain especially grievous sins called mortal sins. A mortal sin, which could be something like murder, rape, and so on, harms our relationship with God so much that we need to confess and be truly sorry before we can merit a chance at salvation again.
Now, the short answer is indeed yes, we CAN go directly to God to have our sins, even mortal ones, forgiven. The problem, however, is knowing whether we are being honest with ourselves. Let me throw out a couple of hypothetical scenarios as examples. Years ago a boy gets into a disagreement with another boy at school about playing a new videogame. The other boy gets jealous and steals the game from his friend. Now, years later, he feels bad. He may truly be sorry for it, and so he asks God for forgiveness. Is he forgiven? Well… perhaps, if he’s sincere, but how do we know that for sure? Ok, let’s take the same scenario, only this time, he goes to Confession and lets the priest know what he’s done. The priest absolves him of his sin, and suggests a penance for him. The penance is to track down his friend, to apologize to him, and to purchase a new game for him (or something equivalent).
Several things have just happened here that help confirm that the person is indeed sincere. First, he actually admitted the sin to someone aloud. This is not easy to do. Second, he not only asked God for forgiveness, but agreed to try to ask the person he offended for forgiveness. He also agreed to provide restitution. Someone who was not sincere would probably not go through all of that trouble. It’s important to note that it’s NOT the
priest that’s absolving the sin, it’s God. The priest simply listens as a representative of God and an intermediary who has the same power to bind and loose sins that the Apostles did. His most important role is in getting us to say our sins aloud to someone and suggesting a suitable penance. The sacrament of Confession also helps relieve us of the guilt of our sins by making restitution, and is especially helpful if for whatever reason it was impossible to ask forgiveness from the person we offended (they don’t want to see you, they’ve moved, they’re dead, etc.).
Now, another difference here is the Catholic belief in Purgatory. Catholics believe that God deals with sin much like our justice system on Earth, because nothing impure can enter heaven. In other words, let’s say I kill someone. Later on, I am genuinely TRULY sorry for it. I beg forgiveness from the victim’s family, I pay them restitution, I talk to troubled youth to keep them from going down my path, etc. Now, even though I’ve done all of this, does it mean that I get off scot free? Nope. I am STILL expected to go to prison for a time to pay my debt to society. At some point, I may be released. Purgatory functions this way. Every sin you commit has a temporal and spiritual component. The spiritual component can be forgiven by God simply by praying. However, there are only three ways to get rid of the temporal component. First, you can do a penance. If you do that, it satisfies the debt. Second, you can go to Purgatory. If you beg God for forgiveness, he may grant it to you. But, since you did not pay your temporal debt by going to Confession, you will have to pay the debt in Purgatory, to clense you of the stain of your former sins (which ARE forgiven). Make no mistake, those that end up in Purgatory are GUARANTEED to go to heaven. They must however serve a penance after they die, so to speak, since nothing unclean can enter heaven. Now, mortal sins are ones that are SO severe, that they will doom you to hell if you do not ask for forgiveness. If I only ever committed venial sins in my life, and never went to confession, I would end up in Purgatory. But… if I commit even ONE mortal sin, I’m down to either Confession, or an Act of Perfect Contrition, which is the third way to get rid of the temporal component. An Act of Perfect Contrition is a prayer to God that begs Him to forgive your sins not because you are afraid of going to Hell, but because you truly regret disappointing Him and failing to do His will. You must also be
completely free from ALL attachment to sin. This means that you can’t look back fondly on the time you got drunk and did something crazy, even though you’re sorry. You can’t think, oh, I’m sorry I had premarital sex, but it
was good, wasn’t it? You must be
completely free from all inclination to sin again. This is
VERY difficult to do, but possible, as is proven by the Good Thief on the Cross.
So… Catholics have Confession to help guarantee that the
temporal effects of sin have been dealt with, but what do Protestants have? Sin isn’t a problem for them if they only commit venial sins. They can ask God for forgiveness, and end up in Purgatory or Heaven. HOWEVER… if they commit even ONE mortal sin, they are in grave danger. They have no access to confession. Even if they ask for forgiveness, will they make an Act of Perfect Contrition? Most will never have even heard of it, and even for Catholics that know what it is, it is incredibly difficult. This helps explain the role of penance further.
Here is a link to
ScriptureCatholic.com. This site provides the Biblical references, and the references from the Early Church Fathers, for many Catholic positions. It also provides some brief explanations. Read over my response, and then read over the link, and see if you have any questions.
scripturecatholic.com/confession.html
