Physical Confession

[john_david_91]

My question that I bring forth today concerns the Act of Confession (not the prayer itself, just the ACT of telling someone physically). Why do we HAVE to speak aloud in a Confession Booth to a priest or higher pontiff when we KNOW God is always listening, always forgiving, always present within us? Christ needed no one to confess his sins and purge himself in Gethsemane, so I’m curious as to why we must forsake that intimate inwardness for outwardness.

 

[LilyM]

My question that I bring forth today concerns the Act of Confession (not the prayer itself, just the ACT of telling someone physically). Why do we HAVE to speak aloud in a Confession Booth to a priest or higher pontiff when we KNOW God is always listening, always forgiving, always present within us? Christ needed no one to confess his sins and purge himself in Gethsemane, so I’m curious as to why we must forsake that intimate inwardness for outwardness.

Christ was God incarnate, He had no sins to confess, ever!

As for ordinary prayer such as He prayed, of course we can pray to God directly at any time.

Confession of sins was frequently if not routinely done via an intermediary priest or prophet in the OT. Leviticus, if memory serves, stipulates that a sin offerin made inthe Temple is preceded by oral confession to a priest. And David, after his adultery with Bathsheba, both confessed fault to the prophet Nathan and kept up his fasting and repentance until assured orally by Nathan that God had forgiven him.

Finally, Christ established His apostles as arbiters of forgiveness and retention of sins “Whose sins you forgive … Whose sins you retain …” How the retention of sin especially can occur without verbal confession is beyond me.

 

[lissa70]

Because Jesus raised confessing your sins to the level of a sacrament. Since it is a sacrament there must be an outward sign of the invisible grace that is given to us. The humility involved in confessing our sins out loud to someone helps us to grow in virtue. And cultivating virtues is what sanctifies us, along with the Sanctifying Grace we are given from receiving the sacrament.

 

[JamestheOlder]

It’s hard, isn’t it? Telling another person that we are not “perfect”. It’s called Pride, the first of the seven deadly sins.

We confess our sins, out loud, to a priest, because we need to admit them. You are right, in one way, we need to confess those sins to G-d, first, because we need to have contrition for what we have done wrong before we make our physical confession.

But, of all people to confess to, who will never acknowledge that you have sinned, outside the confessional? Only the priest. He can never speak of that which you confess.

And why do we confess? To receive our grace in the absolution of the priest (“Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven”). Absolution is the assurance that God has forgiven us.

There is no other way.

Peace.

 

[john_david_91]

Thank you everybody. Your replies were very VERY helpful