One of the major things I don’t agree with is confession. I don’t understand why I have to confess my sins through a Priest? Why can’t I just ask God for forgivness myself through prayer? I had to do confession several times growing up and all it made me feel was uncomfortable.
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”.
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? How does the boy know that he really is sincere, and not just saying, “Well, I’m sorry I did that, but its in the past, and I’m not really willing to make any special effort to fix it”? 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.). Also keep in mind that you are not
earning your forgiveness. God’s forgiveness is unconditional, regardless of the penance, but the penance has an affect too, which I’m about to discuss.
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.
continued…
