Why should I confess my sins to a priest?

[sousley]

So… How do you explain Jesus granting His Apostles the ability/authority to forgive sins in John 20:23? This gift/authority that has been handed down through valid Catholic priestly ordination through the centuries (the Catholic Church was founded by Christ Himself 2,000 years ago; your Baptist church was founded less than 400 years ago by John Smyth).

Of course, I agree with your thoughts on the topic, but just an FYI. The American Baptist Church actually has no historical tie to the Baptist church Smythe started in Europe. The first Baptist Church here was founded in Salem, Mass by Roger Williams in 1631, who was a minister in the CofE and got in hot water for his views. He fled CofE and sailed here, looking for religious freedom. After getting in hot water with the Massachusetts colony, he fled to RI and built his church there, founding the city of Providence.

Interesting, huh?

 

[Avila123]

Why do I want to confess my sins to a Priest? Some of the reasons have already been well explained e.g. confessing to Jesus and the apostles receiving the gift from Jesus. But for me, there is so much more, I am needing reconciliation with God and the Body of Christ. When I fail, I step away from God and separate myself from the Body of Christ, therefore, I have sinned, offended God and hurt the Body of Christ (my fellow believers). Repentance is the first step, then reconciliation. The prayerfully listening Priest (through the Grace of God) provides me with the spiritual guidance needed to as part of the healing process. I need (but don’t want) to bring the nasty bits out into the daylight, it somehow diminishes the hold that the sin has on me, enables me to work through the guilt and hopefully grow more deeply in love and faith.

I am grateful beyond words that Jesus gave us this Sacrament as I would be so lost without it. I wish I could explain it properly but perhaps it is only when we know we need, seek and receive reconciliation, that we appreciate this gift that has been given to us and our Priests.

 

[Abba]

Well first the Bible talks about how we should confess our sins to one another.

Then we find out that Jesus breathed on the Apostles
and said that whose ever sins they forgive are forgiven
while those they retain are retained.

So on the one hand, we are told to confess, on the other,
we are made known that there are certain individuals with
the authority to forgive/retain sins.

Who today has this authority? Obviously the successors of the Apostles, those
who are charged to watch over and minister to the Church and the people in her.

Also, recall what I said earlier**:** “Jesus breathed on the Apostles.” That’s
very much like when God gave Adam the Breath of Life. Oh Also, Jesus
told the Apostles to “receive the Holy Spirit.”

So confession involves everything I said above and probably a lot more,
Christ-given authority to the Apostles, authority handed down from the
Apostles to today, instructions to confess to one another, “receive the
Holy Spirit…”

Nice post.

 

[cguerber]

It’s called apostolic succession. We recite it every Sunday in the Mass during the Nicene Creed. The ordained priesthood in the Catholic Church is traced back to the original 12 Apostles. Pope Francis traces his lineage back to St. Peter. That’s where the authority you mention has been handed down from generation to generation. It is instituted in the sacrament of “Holy Orders.”

One problem with using John 20:19-31 is that there were more than just the apostles present when Jesus spoke those words. Please review Luke 24:33-36 etc. Actually, start at the beginning of Luke 24 and you can clearly tell that this is the same event as John 20. but that there were more than just the apostles present.

 

[Abba]

Hi “Abba” – I ask a lot of questions, too.

Hello crochet lady,

I am asking questions I know people have but I am also learning.

 

[KP3243]

Re: Why should I confess my sins to a priest? I can confess to God directly. A priest is just like any other man.​

By receiving Holy Orders a priest can do things any other man cannot do. I am pretty sure the Exorcist was based originally on a Methodist family and their pastor finally had to tell them to call a priest.

 

[MJCamp]

One problem with using John 20:19-31 is that there were more than just the apostles present when Jesus spoke those words. Please review Luke 24:33-36 etc. Actually, start at the beginning of Luke 24 and you can clearly tell that this is the same event as John 20. but that there were more than just the apostles present.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Abba]

Re: Why should I confess my sins to a priest? I can confess to God directly. A priest is just like any other man.​

By receiving Holy Orders a priest can do things any other man cannot do. I am pretty sure the Exorcist was based originally on a Methodist family and their pastor finally had to tell them to call a priest.

Interesting point.

““The Exorcist” was based on the 1971 novel of the same name by William Peter Blatty, which was in turn inspired by the exorcism case of Roland Doe, a pseudonym given to the victim by the Catholic Church. Most of the details surrounding Doe’s alleged possession and exorcisms come from a diary kept by the attending priest, Fr. Raymond Bishop, and from newspaper reports that came from an at the time anonymous source, which was later revealed to be the Doe family’s former pastor, the Reverend Luther Miles Schulze. Later, Thomas B. Allen wrote a book about the case, “Possessed: The True Story of an Exorcism” (published in 1993), which was based on two sources: Bishop’s diary and the testimony of Fr. Walter Halloran, one of the last surviving eyewitnesses of the events and a participant in the second leg of exorcisms.
Roland Doe was born circa 1936 into a German Lutheran Christian family, who lived in Cottage City, Maryland, during the 1940s. Roland was an only child and was particularly close with his Aunt Harriet, a spiritualist who introduced him to a Ouija board. When Harriet died in St. Louis when Roland was 13, it is assumed that the boy tried to contact her via the Ouija board.” movies.yahoo.com/blogs/movie-talk/exorcist-real-life-story-behind-40-old-horror-225110306.html

“Reverend Luther Miles Schulze (born on 30 July 1906) was a Lutheran clergyman who served as the pastor of St. Stephen’s Evangelical Lutheran Church located in Washington, D.C. In a famous case, in January of 1949, one of Schulze’s parishioners named Robbie Mannheim, a thirteen-year-old Lutheran boy, living in Mt. Rainer, Maryland became involved in satanic possession after trying to contact his diseased aunt (with whom he had been very close) via an oujia board.” wikibin.org/articles/luther-miles-schulze.html

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Why can a priest do things no other man can do? Is their spiritual essence different? What and who made them different? Do you have proof for this claim?

 

[cmodrmac]

Re: Why should I confess my sins to a priest? I can confess to God directly. A priest is just like any other man.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Abba View Post
I get this objection a lot from non-Catholics. It is actually an obstacle for many non-Catholics who are considering converting to the Catholic Church. I thought to pose the questions a fresh here.
I hear the Anglicans and Lutherans are now looking into expanding confession within their churches.

as for the above I have not heard a word about this-not sure how we can “expand” Confession as it is a general confession as part of the liturgy-Episcopaleans can request a private confession but is rarely done and the Priest does not “stand in for Jesus” I can not imagine our Presiding Bishop encouraging this-she just encourages schism

 

[cguerber]

Care to elaborate?

When Christ spoke these words in John 20:23 - "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”, He wasn’t just speaking to the apostles. There were others in the room. That becomes evident in Luke 24:33. It’s the same event in both gospels. So Jesus didn’t only speak those words to his apostles, He spoke to all in the room.

Blessings,
CG

 

[MJCamp]

When Christ spoke these words in John 20:23 - "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”, He wasn’t just speaking to the apostles. There were others in the room. That becomes evident in Luke 24:33. It’s the same event in both gospels. So Jesus didn’t only speak those words to his apostles, He spoke to all in the room.

Blessings,
CG

Ok. How would you interpret Luke 24:49?
“And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Seems to me The Spirit has not come yet and they are instructed to wait until that time

 

[The_Reginator]

Catholics and Orthodox confess their sins to one another - but not simply for drill - we confess to him who has authority to bind or loose our sins (John 20:23). This ministry was practiced before a single line of the New Testament was ever written.

How utterly tragic that one of the fruits of the reformation was the rejection and elimination of Paul’s ministry of reconciliation!

 

[Abba]

When Christ spoke these words in John 20:23 - "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”, He wasn’t just speaking to the apostles. There were others in the room. That becomes evident in Luke 24:33. It’s the same event in both gospels. So Jesus didn’t only speak those words to his apostles, He spoke to all in the room.

Blessings,
CG

Hello CG,

But, didn’t the event on Luke 24:33 happened before that of John 20:23? Jesus’s body was still not glorified in Luke 24:33, He had not yet gone to heaven. He had told the apostles in John 16:7, 8,that He had to go to Heaven in order to send the Holy Spirit to them.

John 16:7, 8, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

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Now that I wrote that Jesus’s body was not yet glorified I wonder. What does the Church teaches?

 

[cguerber]

Ok. How would you interpret Luke 24:49?
“And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Seems to me The Spirit has not come yet and they are instructed to wait until that time

The two gospels are talking about the same event when Jesus showed himself to them for the first time.

 

[Abba]

The two gospels are talking about the same event when Jesus showed himself to them for the first time.

No, because right before John 20:23, exactly at: John 16:7, 8, Jesus said that He has to go in order to send the Holy Spirit.

John 16:7, 8, “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away; for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you. And when He is come, He will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment.”

 

[cguerber]

Ok. How would you interpret Luke 24:49?
“And behold, I am sending forth the promise of My Father upon you; but you are to stay in the city until you are clothed with power from on high.”

Seems to me The Spirit has not come yet and they are instructed to wait until that time

The above would be a discussion for when they received the Holy Spirit. Was it then or at Pentecost? That’s not what we are discussing.

 

[Abba]

The two gospels are talking about the same event when Jesus showed himself to them for the first time.

This is not evident.

They seem to me to be referring to two different events as in one Jesus says that He must leave to empower them and asked them not to leave the city and in the other He actually empowers them.

 

[The_Reginator]

When Christ spoke these words in John 20:23 - "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”, He wasn’t just speaking to the apostles. There were others in the room. That becomes evident in Luke 24:33. It’s the same event in both gospels. So Jesus didn’t only speak those words to his apostles, He spoke to all in the room.

Blessings,
CG

I want to jump in here briefly with a side issue: This post is an example of the problems of trying to learn God’s Truth but relying solely on English bible readings.
Never forget that the (Catholic) Church predates the New Testament. One must refer to the early Church fathers, and to the Tradition and doctrines passed down through the ages.
A bible passage may seem to be saying one thing, but in light of how things were originally written and in light of the Tradition of the Church, the meaning can be different. The classic example I find is the insistence among most protestants that Jesus had blood brothers and sisters. That is a modern interpretation, largely based on reading the Gospels in English, divorced from their original context and the teaching of the Catholic Church.
Now back to the OP:
The basic problem is with a lack of understanding, or a misunderstanding, of what the priesthood is.
As KP3243 said: “By receiving Holy Orders a priest can do things any other man cannot do.”
Through the laying on of hands and Apostolic Succession a priest, though a mere man, has been given the authority to ACT in the person of Christ.
From the Catachism of the Catholic Church:

In the person of Christ the Head . . .

1548 In the ecclesial service of the ordained minister, it is Christ himself who is present to his Church as Head of his Body, Shepherd of his flock, high priest of the redemptive sacrifice, Teacher of Truth. This is what the Church means by saying that the priest, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, acts in persona Christi Capitis:23

It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents. Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecration which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself (virtute ac persona ipsius Christi).24 Christ is the source of all priesthood: the priest of the old law was a figure of Christ, and the priest of the new law acts in the person of Christ.25

 

[Reuben_J]

Is a priest like any other man? What makes him different?

Yes, a priest is like any other man in everything a man is but he is an ordained minister of God which not all men are. A priest therefore by the authority vested in him in his priestly ordination can hear confession and to absolve sins. He is acting in persona Christi, in the person of Christ.

 

[MJCamp]

The two gospels are talking about the same event when Jesus showed himself to them for the first time.

These could be different events. In Luke 24 Peter and Cleopas are on their way to Emmaus and Jesus first appears to them. They don’t recognize him until the “breaking of the bread” (Eucharist). Following the trip in Luke 24:33 they find the other 11. Wouldn’t this make 12 with the addition of Peter?
If you go to John’s Gospel Chapt 20:24, It says that Thomas was not there when he breathed on them.