Most protestant faiths do not believe in the concept of confessing sins to another person to receive forgiveness like we do in the Sacrament of Reconciliation as Catholics. They completely ignore John 20:22-23 and confess their sins directly to God. This might be fine in the eyes of God, but there’s a definite benefit that they miss out on of having that person-to-person interaction and having someone challenge you and hold you accountable in your life like the priest does in confession. James 5:16 says, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.” Why ignore that??
There’s also the fact that Jesus probably wouldn’t have bestowed the power of forgiveness of sins on his apostles if he didn’t want them to actually forgive sins. By not taking advantage of that ministry that Jesus, himself, instituted, you’re missing out on a gift from God. Like St. Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation.” Why would anyone CHOOSE to ignore a free gift from God? Don’t know…but that’s one reason I’m a Catholic.
Protestants have any number of reasons (a.k.a. “excuses”) for not receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Catholics, on the other hand, have hundreds of excuses for not receiving the sacrament. Here are my top 3:
1. I don’t think what I did was that bad.
Deciding whether a sin you committed is a mortal sin or a venial sin is sometimes really difficult to decide. Please Forgive Me, If I Can’t Stop Lovin’ You can give you an overview of the two types of sin if you’re fuzzy on them. Instead of making excuses and justifications, just go. It’s better to confess them all than purposefully leave something out.
2. I think what I did was too bad to be forgiven.
In Matthew 12:31-32, Jesus tells us that every sin will be forgiven except “blasphemy against the holy Spirit.” The obvious question is, “What is blasphemy against the holy Spirit?” The Catholic Encyclopedia references St. Augustine who explained (and I’m paraphrasing here) that blasphemy against the holy Spirit is refusing to accept God’s forgiveness for sins we’ve committed, essentially refusing to believe that God can forgive us. God’s perfect and all-powerful. God could even have forgiven Hitler, had he asked for that forgiveness and been willing to accept it. Nothing we do is beyond the forgiveness of God, other than refusing to accept that forgiveness, but even then, it’s not God’s fault—it’s ours.
3. I’m embarrassed that the priest will tell someone or treat me differently.
Three words: Seal. Of. Confession. Canon 21 of the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 says very bluntly:
“Let the priest absolutely beware that he does not by word or sign or by any manner whatever in any way betray the sinner: but if he should happen to need wiser counsel let him cautiously seek the same without any mention of person. For whoever shall dare to reveal a sin disclosed to him in the tribunal of penance we decree that he shall be not only deposed from the priestly office but that he shall also be sent into the confinement of a monastery to do perpetual penance.”
The priest won’t say anything. If he does, he essentially won’t be a priest anymore. Even if you’ve committed a crime, he can’t tell the police. He’ll probably try to convince you to turn yourself in so that you can “do your time” and be “forgiven” by the general public in addition to your forgiveness from God, but he can’t rat you out. What’s even better is that most priests will tell you that by the grace of God, they generally forget everything you told them by the time the next person comes in for confession. They won’t judge you, they won’t criticize you, they won’t treat you differently. Nothing you say can shock them…they’ve most likely heard MUCH worse.
Then of course, there’s the excuse of people who say that they don’t go to Confession because they don’t know how. Well, luckily for you, these past few posts have totally gotten rid of THAT excuse!
Finally, I’d be doing you a disservice if I didn’t point out and answer one of the questions I get asked most often about the Sacrament of Reconciliation: What if I forget to confess something? St. Thomas Aquinas tackles this question in the Summa Theologica. I wish you the best of luck trying to read it, because this guy was so brilliant, he didn’t even realize that he was writing in a way that you need a PhD. and a PRAYER to understand. Essentially, though it comes down to the fact that God recognizes our contrition—our apology for what we’ve done wrong and our sorrow for realizing the damage we’ve caused—and we accept his forgiveness because of the sincerity of our hearts…not because of the fact that we didn’t leave out a single thing that we did wrong. This only applies, though, for sins that we TRUTHFULLY “forget” to confess. If we consciously think of something that we did wrong, and purposefully leave it out of our confession, that sin is NOT forgiven. You can’t be forgiven for something you purposefully don’t ask for forgiveness from. God wants us to “own up” to what we’ve done. Remember, God knows what we’ve done, and the priest doesn’t care what we’ve done. Saying it in the sacrament is not going to surprise God, and not going to shock the priest. They’re both there to make sure that we know we’re forgiven and ready to start over on our journey.
Next post we’ll quickly touch on the Eucharist. We’ve spent a majority of this blog talking about the Eucharist, in the context of the Mass, that is, so we’ll also hit on concepts like Eucharistic Adoration and the really cool ministry that involves bringing the Eucharist to the sick who can’t attend Mass.
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