Thank you for explaining the difference between absolution vs. forgiveness/remission Father. Interestingly, I have even seen someone that made a distinction between forgiveness and remission, though this was a Mormon, so I’m not sure if there is a difference between the two in Catholic theology (it seems like there is not).
So holy water remits venial sins, but it does not absolve them. The Eucharist also does this as well, for the same reasons you explained in reference to holy water.
It’s not the holy water itself, or even the Eucharist itself (not the physical act of receiving/consuming the Eucharist I mean) which forgives. We obtain forgiveness from the mercy of God, as a result of our own repentance, and the sacrament or sacramental is the outward act which signifies that repentance & forgiveness. I say this because there’s a certain danger here of thinking that we don’t need the Sacrament of Confession because Holy Water, other sacramentals, the penitential rite of the Mass, or even the reception of Communion, etc. is somehow seen as a “replacement” for Confession. I see that idea posted a lot here: someone posts “you don’t need to go to Confession because the penitential rite remits venial sins.” It’s like someone saying “a bandaid stops bleeding.” It might be true in itself, but it can be taken too far, and the subtleties of this true-statement still need to be articulated. There are times when we need stitches, and a bandaid isn’t enough. And I am not just talking about the obvious distinction between mortal and venial sins either. We need confession even for our venial sins (yes, I know canon law says that it’s only required for mortal sins, but that too can be, and sometimes is, taken too far). Even though sacramental confession isn’t required by canon law for venial sins, strictly speaking, we still need the other forms of healing that come only from this sacrament.
One of the reasons why it’s essential to distinguish between forgiveness and absolution is that we need to remember that even though our venial sins might be forgiven by sacramentals, we can only be absolved in the Sacrament. We can only be reconciled to the Church by the absolution imparted by a priest. This reconciliation is an important value in itself. When we commit venial sins, we aren’t separated from the Church to the same degree that results from mortal sins: obviously, if we comit murder we can’t receive Communion, but venial sins don’t prohibit us from receiving Communion. But sometimes we are still in need of reconciliation to the Church even though the wound itself isn’t so severe as to keep us from Communion.
Again, my concern here is that the idea of sacrementals “forgiving” our sins can be taken a bit too far, and we need to temper that thought by explaining that these are never to be seen as an outright substitute for Sacramental confession & absolution. It’s a very real concern because I see that idea posted on these threads quite often, and I hear it said in CCD & RCIA classes all the time. It’s not enough to simply say “yes, we can be forgiven by/through sacramentals” and leave it at that; because the hearer
may very well go away with the impression that sacramental confession only applies to mortal sins. Personally, I think that this is
one of many contributing factors to the drop in confession which we’ve seen in the past few decades.
Finally, in Catholic usage, forgive and remit are more-or-less the same. There are some subtle differences between the words, but not enough to matter for our purposes. But I’ll say it anyway. For example, a person might “remit” a debt but not “forgive” the debt–let’s say someone owes me money and I say to myself “he’ll never pay it back, so I’ll forget about it.” I have remitted the debt because I’ve stopped expecting repayment, but I haven’t forgiven it because I still want to be repaid. If I forgive the debt, I’ve both stopped expecting payment and no longer want to be repaid. God, on the other hand, whenever He remits He also forgives because in His infinite mercy He doesn’t hold-back anything. But keep in mind that as we use the words in sacramental discussions, it’s safe to say that forgive and remit mean the same thing.
