How is catholic confession different from James 5:16?

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sunflower314

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How is going to Catholic confession different from the Bible verse James 5:16 “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.”
 
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Jesus gave the power to “bind and loose” to His apostles. He also told lepers he would heal to “show themselves to the priest.” Priests are the successors of the apostles and are acting in the person of Christ. We confess to a priest and are given absolution through the Treasury of the Church.
 
What makes you think it’s different? Try reading the verses before it, it says, in the RSVCE, second edition, the elders are to be called, or, presbyters, in other words, priests. We also know, that the earliest Christians, did have a type of communal confession, but it was still the presbyters or Bishops that granted Absolution. Now I can’t go into detail right now, but basically what you did, is you confessed your sins before an entire congregation , your sins were public, and so was your penance. I can’t really go into more detail at the moment, but yeah there’s all kinds of good stuff you can read about this.
 
sunflower314 said:
How is going to Catholic confession different from the Bible verse James 5:16 “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.”
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One is for mortal sins, the other for venial.

When we pray the Confeteor at Mass we are praying “to you my brothers and sisters” to ask God on our behalf for absolution of venial sins before receiving the Blessed Sacrament. At the Sacrament of Reconciliation we are confessing mortal sin to God for absolution of mortal sin so we are in the required state of grace to allow us to receive the Eucharist.
 
You’ve got some wrong information here. The Sacrament of Confession is for all sins, both mortal and venial. Many people go to frequent Confession with just venial sins on their souls. Mother Teresa went to Confession every single day, for one. It is true that you only need to confess mortal sins, but wrong to say that the Sacrament is only for mortal sins.
 
Limoncello4021 said:
He also told lepers he would heal to “show themselves to the priest.”
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Jesus told them to do that so they could see He healed them… not so they can confess to the priest for absolution… Jesus already absolved them from their sins when He healed them.
 
Limoncello4021 said:
You’ve got some wrong information here. The Sacrament of Confession is for all sins, both mortal and venial. Many people go to frequent Confession with just venial sins on their souls. Mother Teresa went to Confession every single day, for one. It is true that you only need to confess mortal sins, but wrong to say that the Sacrament is only for mortal sins.
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I’m not sure you are keeping up with the thread.

I didn’t mean to imply that it wasn’t. I was responding to the OP who asked if the sacrament was different from what St. James discussed in his letter. And it is.

Mortal sin can only be absolved at Baptism, through a perfect act of contrition, through annointing of the sick, and through the sacrament of confession. And one cannot receive the Eucharist if Mortal Sin has not been absolved.

And, at Mass, through the Kyrie or Confeteor we prepare ourselves for the Eucharist by absolution of venial sin, and in the Confeteor, we do so by asking others to pray for us, as James discussed.
 
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Context!

Although we are greatly tempted to, we do not live verse by verse, nor do we develop our theology piecemeal. The Covenant with God is a seamless whole, like the garment Jesus wore. Let’s take a look at what James wrote and why:
James 5:14-16 Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.
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Note that, in those days, sickness was much more likely to result in death - and judgment. Not good to appear before God with sin on your soul. Sin and sickness were held to be cause and effect. But, this is clearly an exceptional case. Not everyone was sick and dying all the time.

Lazarus was sick and dying (nd did ‘die’), but yet our Lord said that “this sickness will not result in death.” (John 11) How can this be? To our eyes, it did lead to death. There was clearly more to this than what was obvious to our eyes.

Now, as to the normative means of forgiveness, the power of binding and loosing sin has already been shown. An example maybe not quite as clear - due to the murkiness of some modern bibles - is Saint Paul. He had a ministry of reconciliation: Christians being reconciled to their God. He exhorted believers to be reconciled to God (2 Corinthians 5).

But how? We see in 2 Corinthians 2 that Saint Paul forgave sins in the Person of Christ (with the authority of Christ) - exactly as Priests do to this day. No mention of sin and impending death - only death of the soul via unremited sin.

James: Healing and forgiveness of those dying.
Saint Paul: Healing of the believer’s relationship with God.
 
No need for a put down. Yes, I am keeping up with the thread. And thanks for explaining yourself, which you did not do in your first post. Therefore, I stand by my correction to your first post which, as you clarified later, at best was incomplete.
 
Thank you all for your explanations and sharing your knowledge on this topic. I realize I didn’t read the entire verse and now see what they meant before that sentence.

We all have so much knowledge and understanding to share with each other and I appreciate everyone’s contribution to this thread.
 
Limoncello4021 said:
No need for a put down.
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Perhaps, and if offended you I apologize, but your
“You have some wrong information “ was rather accusatory…we need to hold ourselves to the same standard…all is forgiven on my end, hoping you will forgive me…let go and let God!
 
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As to the OP: Both are Sacraments established by Christ. The Anointing in exceptional cases (which I have received too many times to count) and one for routine confession of sins.

As to the Sacrament of Anointing, I have zero doubt of its efficacy. After 12 years and three cancers, my chances of surviving even one of those cancers is statistically zero. Surviving all three? At the same time?

God is gracious and merciful. Gracious. Merciful. Excellent attributes to ponder in this age of ‘panicdemic’.
 
If you want to confess to your friends by all means go ahead . I will stick with the priest and the privacy of confession.
I believe in acts they had to confess publicly to everyone.
 
sunflower314 said:
How is going to Catholic confession different from the Bible verse James 5:16 “therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other that you may be healed.”
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James appears to be concerned with how the body of Christ acts toward one another all throughout his epistle. In this instance, he seems to advocate for lay people to confess to one another where they have offended one another that they might be reconciled one to another. Its not that different than what you see when people asked John the Baptist what they should do after repenting, and he tells them pay back those who they have wronged, etc. Likewise, we pray for one another to each other’s benefit.
 
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