OnlyAmbrose wrote:Alright, as a result of Jehan's request for an explanation on confession (known more formally as the Sacrament of Reconciliation), I'm here to deliver.
This took me well over half an hour to write, so if you're going to respond to it, I'd appreciate it if you'd read the whole thing.
It's a well-known fact that Catholics believe that the proper means of forgiveness from sin is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which involves the
confession of sins to a priest from a
contrite heart, so that the priest may then give
penance and administer
absolution .
Now, those words were bolded for a reason, and that's because they are the four parts of the Sacrament of Reconciliation- I figure that before I start explaining why we believe in it, it would be good to understand what exactly it is. Each part has a purpose, but again, before I go into that, a simple definition of each process will be useful.
So I'll go through each part, starting with the
Confession.
This is an easy one, it's exactly what it sounds like. You tell the priest all the sins you have committed since your last good confession that you can remember.
This next part of a confession is not one of the four bolded words, but it is infinitely useful- most priests, after hearing the confession, will then offer advice on how to avoid the sin in the future. Many sins, most especially sins of impurity (pornography, masturbation, premarital sex, etc) and drugs/alcoholism, are addictive and habitual in nature, and need some practical methods to get rid of them in addition to the ever-useful prayer which we all hopefully partake in.
Once the priest has offered this advice, he will ask the individual making the confession to make an Act of
Contrition. This is a prayer which takes many forms, but in it's essence it is this:
Act of Contrition wrote:Oh my God, I am sorry for my sins, for they have offended you. I detest them, for I dread losing heaven and suffering the pains of Hell. Not only this, Lord, but most of all because they have offended you, my God, who is all good and deserving of all of my love. I firmly resolve, with your help, to sin no more, to make up for what I have done, and to amend my life.
The words aren't really important. What's important is that the meaning of the words is somehow contained within the sinner's heart. It is not enough to go to confession to receive forgiveness of sins- one must be truly sorry for them, and have every intention of never committing them again. If you're not sorry, or you plan to commit the same sins again, the confession is meaningless. It should therefore be made clear that confession doesn't just automatically relieve you of your sins- there must be conscious and humble sorrow in your heart.
Next was
penance. A common misconception about penance is that it is soley punishment- though in a way, it is punishment. But it is far more profound than that- it is a way of healing oneself in a constructive manner. Usually it will involve something which will help the sinner prevent himself from sinning in the future.
Say, for instance, someone has committed the sin of adultery. After confessing it, a priest may give the penance of praying to God for the virtue of fidelity. Constructive and helpful. Healing, in a word.
Next on my list was
absolution. This is the part where the priest wields the power granted to him by Christ himself (I'll get to why we believe he has this power and how/when/why Christ gave it to him later on in this post) to cleanse the soul of the sinner from sin. The Rite of Absolution sounds like this:
Rite of Absolution wrote:God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Then it's over. You're clean. You leave the confessional with the most amazing feeling in your heart which you really have to experience to understand.
Now that we understand what a confession is, I'll go into why we believe in it. I've never tried explaining it this way, but I think I'll go into explaining each part individually.
So, starting again with
confession, as in the specific act of telling someone your sins. Why is it important that we don't keep our sins private?
There's actually a very biblical reason that your sins be confessed. It's written right there in scripture.
James 5:16 wrote:Therefore, confess your sins to one another, that you may be healed.
James then goes on to say that it is useful to have prayers on your side to heal you from your sins as well, but the point in this particular verse is clear:
Confessing sins to another human being is a healing experience. Which it is. It really does feel good to say these things out loud, to get them off your chest. Not just that, but they allow the person you're confessing to to give you advice on how to prevent this sin from occurring again. All in all, confession of sins IS a healing experience.
That being said, there is absolutely no weight behind the oft-held Protestant viewpoint that "your sins are just between you and God." James is pretty clear that they're not- he commands us to confess to one another.
Another reason why we confess to other humans is that our sins don't only hurt God- they hurt the community. They hurt the CHURCH here on earth. No sinful act, big or small, is without its effects on the Church here on earth. The priest is a representative of that Church. In the very early church, confessions were public and in front of the entire community, but eventually it was determined that a priest could represent that community well enough.
Now granted, James does not specify to whom you must confess. He simply says to confess. I'll get to why we confess to priests later. But in the meantime, the point I'm asking you to take from this is that the Bible clearly states that confessing to others is a healing thing to do.
That is why we
Confess. But why must we be
contrite?
Common sense. I think we can agree that you have to be sorry to be forgiven. So moving on...
Why do we practice
penance?
This one's also common sense. It's good for you. You can never pray too much, and the prayers given to you in penance are always geared toward your particular needs. I don't think we have much to disagree on in this point either, so moving on.
This is the big one, which is where we probably differ most. Why do we need a
priest for
absolution?
This one is also scripturally based.
I'll be discussing John 20:21-23. Again, some context is useful. This is after Jesus has died- he's appearing to His disciples as the resurrected Lord. Here's the passage:
John 20:21-23 wrote:21Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." 22And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
Pretty straightforward, eh? Seems to me that Jesus is telling the disciples that if they forgive anyone their sins, they are forgiven; if they do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. How do I know that? Well... it's right out of the Bible...
I'd say it's as clear as anything that there's very little room to misinterpret this passage. But since Protestants can't really interpret around the passage, they generally say that the power to forgive sins died with the apostles.
Unfortunately, the apostles thought otherwise. As in the "authority" thread, I'd draw your attention to Acts 1, when the apostles appointed a successor for Judas to "fulfill the ministry he left behind". That ministry, of course, included the all-important ministry of the forgiveness of sins.
And let's once again use common sense. Why would Jesus just give the ability for someone to forgive sins a human lifespan? Why wouldn't he make it last? It's ludicrous to suggest he wouldn't.
But GASP! That removes God from the equation!!!
No it doesn't, incidentally. Remember, for forgiveness to occur one must be truly sorry for having wronged GOD. What's more, check out the rite of absolution: "sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins"- we believe that it's the Holy Spirit who is present in that confessional. not only that, but "through the ministry of the Church." This has dual significance. Firstly, as Paul points out, the Church is the Body of Christ. It is through Christ's ministry that we were forgiven. Not only that, but Christ himself INSTITUTED that very ministry in the Gospel of John.
Now, for a look at the Protestant side of the argument. While there are several pieces of scripture which support the Sacrament of Reconciliation (which I cited), there is absolutely no scripture which indicates that it is invalid. At least, none of my various Protestant friends with whom I've had this discussion have ever managed to find any.
Anywho, thanks for reading that, God bless
