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littlesoul
Guest
Seems this should be obvious to me by now, but why again do we still need to confess our sins even though Jesus died for them?
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oldcatholicguy
Guest
If I do not seek forgiveness for my sins (confession) how can I repair the damage to my relationship with Him my sins have caused or attempt to grow closer to Him? Confession is a healing action, not a “I won’t forgive you unless you say you are sorry” action.
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littlesoul
Guest
So you mean that we go to Confession for ourselves rather than God?
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Cristiano
Guest
Yes! All the sacraments are God’s given gifts for our own good. The sacrament of confession is an action on the path of acceptance of the gift of forgiveness. Acceptance of the gift of salvation starts with saying “I am sorry because I understand that I wronged you”.
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littlesoul
Guest
So, in order to accept the gift of salvation, we need to be sorry for our sins…so does that mean that even though Jesus died on the cross for us, it is still up to us to accept that fact? Otherwise we are not actually saved by His dying on the cross? unless we accept it? Sorry if I am misinterpreting.
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oldcatholicguy
Guest
Yes. “You can take a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink.” God’s given us the water, taken us to it, put it in a nice pretty glass with lots of ice and has even offered to hold it for us, but He won’t force it down our throats. That part is on us.
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Cristiano
Guest
You are correct. Your understanding is perfectly reflected in the prayers during the consecration of the Eucharist. In the past the translation it used to say that “Jesus died for all” and that is absolutely correct because he made his sacrifice available for all. However, now we are using again the proper translation (that follows the Council of Trent rule) that says that “Jesus died for many”. That refers to the fruits of his sacrifice and that means that not everybody will be saved because not everybody will accept the salvation. God is so merciful that he sent his only son to die for everybody, and he is also so just that he will accept the rejection of that sacrifice by some people. Just to make sure, you have to understand that confession works not because we go with our laundry list of sins but because we do that as result of our faith, of our trust in God.
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littlesoul
Guest
You know what is most frustrating about all of this? Is that I believe! I believe it all! If I am told that I need to ask for forgiveness in Confession, then I do. But I am so worried about people coming up to me with questions about my faith - and not having the answers, that I try to ask all the questions before “they” do, so that I have the answers 
This causes me undo anxiety. Maybe I need to start another post 
This causes me undo anxiety. Maybe I need to start another post
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Cristiano
Guest
I think that is perfectly fine to say that you do not have all the answers. I am a catechist and that is my reply when someone asks something that I am not sure of. I am an anxious person too and so I understand why you feel that you need to be prepared to answer every question. The other thing is that if someone has an honest question you are going to try to help them, if they are just trying to make a point, to argue, then you have the right to ignore them. Personally I think that it is not very charitable to put someone down by questioning their faith, we evangelize by sharing our love for Christ.You know what is most frustrating about all of this? Is that I believe! I believe it all! If I am told that I need to ask for forgiveness in Confession, then I do. But I am so worried about people coming up to me with questions about my faith - and not having the answers, that I try to ask all the questions before “they” do, so that I have the answers
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fniper
Guest
John20:21-23. Jesus established the sacrament for a reason. And He established it with the power of the Holy Spirit, and the Ministers(priests) who would act with the authority Jesus established in them that day. It is quite telling that all the varieties of heresy, no matter how different they are from themselves, all seperate the heretic from the sacraments of Holy Eucharist and Holy Confession. I suspect that was because satan doesn’t care which lie of his you believe as long as it seperates you from the Power of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Eucharist and forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of Confession. Blaspheme the Power of the Holy Spirit and seperate yourself from the forgiveness of your sins, which flows from the Power of the Holy Spirit, as Jesus said in Matthew12:30-32. We need forgiveness of our sins, that is a Truth which satan labors to undermine without rest. Thank you Jesus for the Holy Priests, I thank my priest everytime I see him.
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R_C
Guest
Jesus died so that, if we repent and ask for forgiveness, we will be forgiven.
Consider the following: God Almighty is by definition omnipotent. Jesus Himself told the Father: “you can do anything. Take away this cup of sorrows from me. Yet, not what I want but what you want.”
And He had to drink the cup of sorrows until the very last drop.
God Almighty gave a special role to the Blessed Virgin, and Christ gave a special role to the Apostles - despite the fact that God does not need the help of any creature: all He has to do in order for something to be accomplished is to will it.
That being said: it is beyond our understanding why God, in the words of Christ, willed that we may receive forgiveness of sins not simply from Him, but through His apostles. It is a mystery why, after teaching us to pray to the Father to “forgive us our sins”, He gave authority to the Apostles to forgive and to retain sins, and told them “I do not judge anyone …] you will sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel”.
If the beloved Lord had not died for our justification, then no prayer to the Father and no sacrifice would have sufficed: humanity would have never received sanctifying grace.
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johnthebaptist1
Guest
I go too confession,because I feel better when the priest for give me for my fault,s, for I wish to be in the state of Grace all the time, so I will be weclome in the Kingdom of Heaven.
I know that Jesus came to save us sinners, but he gave his twelve Apostates the power to give those thst wanted forgiveness.
I know that Jesus came to save us sinners, but he gave his twelve Apostates the power to give those thst wanted forgiveness.
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littlesoul
Guest
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R_C
Guest
He merited forgiveness of sins, something we could have never done on our own, even if we had experienced the most perfect of all contritions.
Since God is in eternity, outside of time, I think we can say that He died that our sins would be forgiven.
But as far as we are concerned, we live day by day (according to the instruction of Jesus) and we do not take salvation for granted - Christ has merited our salvation and our forgiveness, but there are things we need to do…we need to “run as to win the race”. And if we imitate our forefather Adam and sin mortally, losing sanctifying grace, we can run to Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, after experiencing the necessary repentance and contrition (that is, in humbling ourselves in imitation of the “new Adam”), that by His merits we may receive sanctifying grace again.
So, in a nutshell: I think that, inasmuch as we are concerned, it is indeed a matter of opportunity: “not seven times, but seventy times seven, or as many times…”
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Cristiano
Guest
Look at it from a different perspective. This metaphor might help you. You are sick and the doctor has the pill that will cure it but if you choose not to swallow it then you die. The cure exists but if you do not accept it then you die. God, sin, forgiveness, heaven and hell are a similar scenario.
God (the doctor) has the forgiveness (the pill) that will save you but if you choose to reject it then you go to hell. Forgiveness (the cure) already exists but if you do not accept it then you go to hell (you die). We still need forgiveness as in “forgiveness only works for our salvation when we accept it”.
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littlesoul
Guest
great way to word it, thank you, but I guess my question then would be, if the doctor already gave us the pill, and we accepted it, why do we take more pills?
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Cristiano
Guest
We can still look at the example of the doctor and of the pill. If we get indigestion then we are offered some antacids if we accept them then we feel better otherwise we get a terrible heartburn. Now if we pig out (mortal sin) again we need antacids (confession) one more time and so on, time after time. After a while people could become prone to acid reflux (concupiscence) and so taking antacids (frequent confession when no mortal sin is present) could prevent damage of the esophagus (sanctification).
The good problem is that we have free will and so we can sin over and over but once we become consistent with our trust in Christ and in following him, then we will need less and less of the cure because our spiritual immune system improves and makes us impervious to temptations.
BTW I am not a physician and so when I talk about medical things like antacids I really refer only to what I learned from watching commercials.
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thesmiter1
Guest
You seem to think that we were sick only once. If this were true, we would sin no more. Yet we do. If you are sick, are healed, and then get sick again, would you refuse medicine on the subsequent occasions? I hope not.
ONLY Christ’s action in our salvation was a once-and-for-all event (yet it did transcend all of time and His sacrifice is made present in the Mass, so it’s a one time event that happened eternally, I guess?). OUR action is NOT a one-time event. We are limited by time, our fallen state in which we are not perfectly united to God, and our adherence to sin. We are not fully cured of the ‘sickness,’ so to speak. If we were, we would sin no more.
Because we are still stuck in a world of sin, we must continually seek to return to the Doctor (Christ), because we are still attempting to be healed from our sickness (sin). Christ died for ALL sin, but we still sin, and so must continually seek more medicine (renew our part of the covenant). After all, how can the Doctor heal us when we get sick again if we do not seek His help? We must accept His mercy, and NOT only by a one time event, but by our lives. The day we are made perfect is the day we have been cured. And that day will not be until we are with Him forever.
I know it can be difficult to understand that we are in a state of ‘sickness’ even after we have been given a cure (our adherence to sin even after forgivenss). But if we keep on getting sick by our actions, we need to keep taking medicine to avoid death, and listen to the Doctor’s advice on avoiding actions that will lead to death. Don’t look at it as a chore; look at it as a gift. We have been forgiven! Now go, and sin no more! And if you do, go see the Doctor (through a physician’s assisstant, otherwise known as a priest, and then in person in the Eucharist)
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Cristiano
Guest
Just a as a correction the priest is the physician in person because he is in Persona Christi. That is because of the ontological change of the Holy Orders, and that is why the laity cannot offer absolution.And if you do, go see the Doctor (through a physician’s assisstant, otherwise known as a priest, and then in person in the Eucharist)
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