“I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest when I can communicate directly with God.” This used to be a classic Protestant objection to the Sacrament of Confession. Such is the state of catechetical formation today that you might well hear exactly the same sentiment being expressed by a Mass-going Catholic, unfortunately. It is based on the notion that in the confessional, the priest is somehow a hindrance to a direct relationship with God. And this is really to misunderstand the nature of the Christian religion quite seriously. An object can stand between two things in different ways. Yes, it can be an obstacle that separates them, but it can also be a bridge which unites. The highest priest in pagan Rome was called the Pontifex Maximus, “pontifex” meaning “bridge maker”. Our Lord and Saviour is the bridge builder supreme, because He unites divinity and humanity within His own sacred Person. The Incarnation is therefore the bridge by which we are able to be perfectly united with God.
The whole sacramental economy is rooted in the Mystery of the Incarnation. Other Christian denominations actually realise this in so far as they recognise Baptism as the divinely appointed means of rebirth into the life of the Resurrection. No Christian worthy of the name would suggest that the baptismal water is an obstacle between a Christian and God. It is a visible sign which actually brings about, supernaturally, the invisible grace that it signifies when it is applied in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, washing away our sins and inserting us into the very life of the Blessed Trinity.
The institution of the Sacrament of Penance is beautifully described in the Gospel of St John, in chapter twenty (vv.19 ff.). It occurs when Our Lord appears to His disciples in the upper room after His Resurrection. They are huddled together behind locked doors, in fear for their lives. Jesus appears and says “Peace be to you.” He shows them His wounds, and they are glad to see Him. He repeats: “Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.” He then breathes on them, saying “Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain they are retained.” And so begins the extraordinary transformation of the disciples from terrified fugitives to tireless evangelists who will preach the Gospel with irrepressible zeal unto the shedding of their own blood.
It is of the greatest significance that the institution of the Sacrament of Penance took place on Easter Sunday. While in Baptism we are made dead and buried with Christ so that we might rise with Him to everlasting life, in Confession we are raised up from the death of sins committed after Baptism and restored to the state of Sanctifying Grace which is life in the Resurrection. Confessing our sins and receiving sacramental absolution, meanwhile, prepares us for the ultimate encounter with the Resurrection that we can ever experience in this life, the reception of Our living and risen Lord Jesus in the Sacred Host in Holy Communion.
It is a sign of Our Lord’s love and care for our souls that He calls us to Confession, not only to forgive our sins, but also to bless us and to give us the assurance of His enduring friendship and His assistance in our lives. Through the Sacrament of Holy Orders, that divine breath which Our Lord breathed on the Apostles in the upper room is transmitted throughout the Church in all ages so that it may be infused to this day into souls that are weary and heavy-laden. Like the breath that hovered over the waters at the beginning of the universe, and the breath that God breathed into Adam’s face as He formed the first human body from the slime of the earth, this breath is creative and life giving.
It is surely one of the greatest privileges and joys of his vocation for a priest to know that he has been called to participate in the transmission of that creative, life-giving, restorative breath of God, and that he, a sinner, has been appointed to forgive sins and to raise souls to life in persona Christi. Any priest who understands his calling enters the confessional eager to lift burdens, and never to impose them. Sometimes he will find himself hearing the confessions of penitents who for one reason or another are not sure how to make a confession, but who have had the courage to come to the Sacrament. He will be happy to guide and encourage them.
“I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest when I can communicate directly with God.” There is, actually, some truth to this annoying refrain. To paraphrase St Augustine, God binds us by His Sacraments but He himself is not bound by them. Just as there is a “Baptism of desire” and a “Baptism of blood” by which those who have not been sacramentally baptised with water may be saved, so the Church teaches that even the gravest of sins are forgiven by means of “perfect contrition” if we are somehow prevented from confessing to a priest. A perfect act of contrition requires the purest of motives, “sincere sorrow for having offended God, and hatred for the sins we have committed, with a firm purpose of sinning no more” [The Baltimore Catechism]. As it is difficult to discern our own motives thoroughly (only God has access to the hidden secrets of our hearts), the Church insists that we should confess our mortal sins anyway when the opportunity arises, and definitely before receiving Holy Communion. The Sacraments give us certainty. The Sacrament of Penance gives us the confident assurance that we are forgiven, blessed, restored, and ready for the mission of building the Kingdom of God on earth. If it’s a while since you have availed yourself of this wondrous Sacrament, please return.
Father Julian Large