Question about confession

[jmcrae]

But how much penance do you think I’ll have to do? It’s been a long, long time. My pride has kept me from confession. I can’t take it any longer. I must go.

Then go, and don’t worry about it. Just be resolved in your heart to do whatever penance is necessary.

The longer you put it off, the more anxious you will become, and the more you will be tempted to put it off even more.

 

[jmcrae]

I need plenty of soap, and possibly a metal-thistled scrub-brush. There might be some bleeding.

Less than you fear, I think.

 

[Frinjaaa]

The Forgiveness taught in John 20, is an authoritative forgiveness. When the priest forgives someone, God, in turn, forgives them, and their sins are washed away. If the priest does not forgive someone, God in turn, does not forgive them.

So, once again, you are stripping me of my personal relationship with God that the Bible says I have.
Like I need a ‘go-between’ priest to receive God’s forgiveness.
Why?

 

[Frinjaaa]

The Bible does not say anything about people having a “personal relationship” with God, who are not also connected to the Church - it is through the Church and by means of the Sacraments that we enter into a relationship with God, which then becomes “personal” when we pray with the Church, and participate with our whole mind and heart in the activities of the Church.

Thank you for supporting my point… ?
I am speaking of those who are part of the body of Christ.
Members of the church.
saints.
Whatever you want to referr to us as.
These are the people I am referring to when I say that the Bible says we have a personal relationship with God.
I thought MAYBE it was a given since I doubt there are a whole lot of non-believers giving a hoot about confessing or forgiveness from our God.

 

[jmcrae]

So, once again, you are stripping me of my personal relationship with God that the Bible says I have.

Where does the Bible say that you have a personal “lone ranger” type relationship with God, with no need of His Church?

 

[jmcrae]

Thank you for supporting my point… ?
I am speaking of those who are part of the body of Christ.

Church members. Yes.

These are the people I am referring to when I say that the Bible says we have a personal relationship with God.

We get that personal relationship by means of the Sacraments, including the Sacrament of Reconciliation (aka Confession) - if we don’t make use of the Sacraments, then we harm our relationship with God.

I thought MAYBE it was a given since I doubt there are a whole lot of non-believers giving a hoot about confessing or forgiveness from our God.

Actually, there are plenty of “lone ranger” types who think that they can have a “me and God” relationship without any need of the Church. They consider themselves “believers” but they pick and choose what they will believe, and avoid things that make them uncomfortable.

 

[graceandglory]

When Jesus died on the cross, he took away that barrier between me and God. All of my past, present, and future sins are forgiven and I have direct communication with God. I don’t need to go through a priest.

Can you please back this up with Scripture? If you’re going to deny a truth based on the bible, then please use the bible in your defense.

Christ IS the avenue between us and God. Christ gave the power to bind and lose to the apostles. The Catholic Church is just continuing as they always have from the time of Christ.

Jesus instituted the priesthood and the Sacrament of Confession. The protestants got rid of it. You are right that we no longer need a priest offering the sacrifices of lambs anymore, that was Old Testament. Jesus was that final sacrifice, and we “don’t need” priests to do that for us anymore.

Confession to a priest was instituted in the New Testament, and has been going on for 2,000 years. The priest isn’t listening as Fr. Joe, he is sitting and in the name of Christ he listens and forgives sins.

There is something about human nature that we don’t want to tell someone the darkest ugliest things about us. Knowing that we are required to, ends up making us stay away from those sins. We are also promised grace to “go and sin no more” when we take part in the Sacrament of Confession.

 

[KingAlfred]

I’m embarrassed by how long it’s been.

 

[jmcrae]

I’m embarrassed by how long it’s been.

Priests have heard it all - including this.

One time I went to Confession and I couldn’t remember what to say for my Act of Contrition, so I just made something up, and it was fine.

Another time I went to Confession, and I got so upset that I couldn’t remember what I wanted to confess, and the priest helped me get through it, and I was just fine.

You will be okay. The priest is there to help you. It is not a test - you will not be graded on it.

 

[NotWorthy]

So, once again, you are stripping me of my personal relationship with God that the Bible says I have.
Like I need a ‘go-between’ priest to receive God’s forgiveness.
Why?

So, once again, you ignore the entire context of John 20:20-23.

Please answer this question… if Jesus explicitly gave the authority to forgive sins to a group of men, then who are you to reject that authority? Doesn’t it make sense that Jesus intended the faithful to use this method?

 

[ShemariahBeans]

I need plenty of soap, and possibly a metal-thistled scrub-brush. There might be some bleeding.

The Holy Spirit has given you a spirit of repentance. It’s actually a good place to be: in recognition of what is cutting us off from walking forward with the Church. Work with Him, my friend.

We could get into a one-up contest like in Jaws when they were showing their scars (and I could go you a few rounds with my major failures over time) - but I think St. Paul summed it up for all of us in 1 Timothy 1, verses 15 & 16:

***15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst:

16 for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.

17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen. ***

 

[KingAlfred]

 

[graceandglory]

So, once again,** you are stripping me of my personal relationship with God that the Bible says I have.**
Like I need a ‘go-between’ priest to receive God’s forgiveness.
Why?

Dear Frinjaaa,

Where in your bible does it say you have a personal relationship with God? It’s not in there. Just like the Trinity isn’t in there, the word “Purgatory” isn’t in there, and neither is “the Lord’s Supper.”

Those are all ideas, doctrines, formulas for understanding our relationship with God and salvation, but those are part of “Tradition” and not spelled out in Scripture. Yes, we have a personal relationship with God. No one is denying you that personal relationship with God.

Only God forgives sins through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ. Go back to the Bible and see where Jesus gave the apostles the power to forgive sins. The Catholic Church is the Church that is following Scriptural commandments here.

**The expression “personal relationship” comes neither from the language of the Bible nor from the history of Christian faith. The expression comes from the humanist psychology of the last hundred years, **principally that of Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Eric Fromm. **It also has its roots in over emphasis on the attitude of rugged individualism of the early development of America. **

If you want pure, unadulterated faith, that is the True Church of Jesus Christ, then look at the Catholic Church. If you want some pop-psychology garbage thrown in so much you don’t know what is scripture and what isn’t, you’ll have to look elsewhere.

 

[peary]

If you can confess to God, then to the person you sinned against, what’s the point of confession if all you get is sanctifying grace?

…“if all you get is sanctifying grace…”? What other grace is there for eternal life? Think!

 

[graceandglory]

It is not the business of a priest what sins I have commited.** It is between me and God.**

Actually, that isn’t Biblical. It’s a biblical commandment to confess our sins to a priest.

It’s one thing if you don’t like something, it’s quite another thing if you make a decision to deny that it’s biblical, especially after people show you that it is.

 

[Molly_1]

The greatest gift you can give a priest is to go to confession.
His salvation is largely contingent on your salvation, he wants to help you.

 

[NotWorthy]

The greatest gift you can give a priest is to go to confession.

I agree!

His salvation is largely contingent on your salvation, he wants to help you.

What?!? His salvation is largely contingent on my salvation? I understand that bringing others to Christ covers over a lot of sins, but I’m not sure it should be so directly linked to confession. Is that what you were implying?

 

[bbentrup]

Frinjaaa is correct on a limited level in that she doesn’t need to go to confession, that she can rely on her direct communication with God, confessing her sins in that manner. This is because, as others have stated, that if you make a perfect act of contrition, then it is possible to receive sanctifying grace.

But isn’t this risky??? What is a perfect act of contrition? Do we all realize how much we offend God every day? How can you be willing to risk your eternal soul on such a gamble? - even that lack of prudence seems like it should be something that should be confessed. If you go to confession, you have God’s promise that your sins will be forgiven - don’t take this lightly.
The fact that you seem reluctant/embarrased to go (if indeed that’s true) should be a sign that you still have some attachment to your sins.

Sacramental confession is, instead, a great opportunity that we all need to avail ourselves of frequently. The grace that we receive helps us to fight against our pattern of sins; sometimes the penance assigned or the advice given by the priest can do wonders as well. My challenge: even if you don’t think it’s necessary, try to come up with an argument for how it is harmful…if you can’t, go and make a sincere, complete confession and see how the experience is.

I think it’s really great that you daily confess your sins to God. As Catholics, we are called to make a nightly examination of conscience of the day’s affairs. Being aware of our sins is a huge step towards sanctity. Just do the next step and trust in the Lord’s revelation in sacred scriptures as taught to us by holy mother church. Go to sacramental confession, and receive the peace of knowing that your sins are *definitely *forgiven (not “probably” as you’ve thought up until now).

 

[peary]

You’ve made the mistake of assuming that Jesus was giving this benefit to everyone.

Jesus talks of forgiveness in two ways:

1. To all the faithful - You must forgive sins if you wish yours to be forgiven. Notice in this one, to not forgive someone imposes judgment on yourself.
2. To the Church - In this one, IF you forgive someone’s sins, THEN God also forgives them. The priest is acting as God’s Amabassador. But, and this is a big BUT, IF you don’t forgive their sins, then God also doesn’t forgive them. THAT IS AN AWESOME RESPONSIBILITY!!! It should not be giving willy-nilly to just anyone, only someone whom has been chosen to be shepherd of the flock. And notice further, there is no punishment to the Apostles for not forgiving others, whereas in the first example their is punishment for withholding forgiveness.

That should tell you Jesus is talking of two different levels of forgiveness.

BTW, frinjaaa, welcome to the Forums!!! I hope you enjoy your long stay with us!

**This is not what the Church teaches. If one goes to Confession and sincerely confesses his or her personal sins, and when the priest grants absolution, the sins are absolved for that person for all eternity, regardless as to whether or not the individual has forgiven others which, by the way, still needs to be done on the personal level. Hopefully, this will eventually happen, but sometimes the hurt is so deep that psychologically it takes a long time to get to that point. That is only natural.

 

[peary]

It says that the priest will annoint him, it doesn’t say that the priest is the one forgiving the man.
You people misunderstand where I am coming from.
I am not afraid of confessing and I do it daily. I just believe that I am able to confess directly to God. I am also able to forgive people who have done wrong toward me.
When Jesus died on the cross, he took away that barrier between me and God. All of my past, present, and future sins are forgiven and I have direct communication with God. I don’t need to go through a priest.
That joy you speak of, jmcrae, is a joy that I experience as well, but on the utmost personal level. It is not the business of a priest what sins I have commited. It is between me and God.

**But that is not what Christ said in the gospels. He gave the divine mandate to his apostles and those after them to forgive sins in his name. How were they supposed to forgive sins in a person if they didn’t know what the sins were? This teaching and practice has come down to us since apostolic times, and so has the sacrament of reconciliation. It definitely is the business of a priest because he can forgive sins.

You’re really way off on this.**