Traditional Catholic Teaching - Lesson 13

Lesson 13 - The Sacrament Of Penance

Confession

No doubt one of the hardest things for the non-Catholic to understand about the Catholic Faith is the need for confession. It is one of the biggest obstacles on the road to the Catholic Church. It is also one of the hardest duties for a Catholic. And yet it is true to say that no matter how hard he finds it, no Catholic would want to see confession abolished because he knows that in fact it is one of the greatest gifts of God.

A Catholic may say: "I hate going to confession". Who doesn't? But ask him what he feels like coming away from confession and he will have a very different answer.

The difficulties may be summed up in three:

1. Why to a priest?

2. How can it be sincere?

3. Isn’t it embarrassing to the point of impossibility?

If we take these three difficulties in turn we shall see both the need for confession and the great boon it is.

1. Why To A Priest?

Notice first that confession to a priest is not the only way to forgiveness. We are encouraged always to ask forgiveness of our sins in our private prayers. When we fall into sin we should immediately turn to God and beg His pardon. And it is Catholic teaching that venial sins (see above Lesson 12) are forgiven by God immediately we turn to Him in sorrow.

But mortal sins must normally be forgiven in the confessional. It would indeed have been strange if Our Lord had not left some definite means for forgiving sin. Something which would give us the assurance of pardon without it being left to our own private surmise.

The words of Christ which His hearers remembered most vividly were phrases like (Matt. 9:
Luke 23).

Go in peace: thy sins are forgiven thee.

Be of good heart son: thy sins are forgiven thee.

This day thou shalt be with Me in Paradise.

It would indeed have been surprising if He had not made provision for this aspect of His ministry to be carried on. He did make provision in the Sacrament of Penance. He said to His Apostles:

As the Father hath sent Me, I also send you. When He had said this He breathed on them, and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain they are retained. (John 20)

He told them therefore they must make a decision — are the sins to be forgiven or not? Now they were not to make that decision at their own pleasure. They must make a judgment. And if they are to judge they must hear the case. The only one who can make the case is the sinner. And so it has been the practice of the Church since the death of Our Lord that the penitent should tell his sins to a priest, express his sorrow and promise that he is determined to make a fresh start. Whereupon the priest gives him absolution. That is, he forgives the sins of the penitent by the power of God in fulfilment of Christ’s command.

2. Can it be Sincere?

How can I honestly say I will not sin again when I know very well I’m going to sin again? In fact this can be perfectly sincere. Suppose a man has a quarrel with his wife and then the quarrel is made up and he says:

"I’m sorry. It won’t happen again."

He knows very well that before he dies it will almost certainly happen again. And yet he is not insincere. What he means is — "Here and now I am sorry for what I did. Here and now I do not want to do it again." He can’t tell what may happen in the future. Nobody can. But he can tell what his state of mind is here and now.

And so when a man says in confession "I will not sin again" he means "Here and now I am sorry for what I have done. Here and now I don’t want to give way again in the future." And that can be perfectly sincere.

There must be a real resolution, however, not to sin again. What we call a firm purpose of amendment. And to obtain this state of mind and heart we have a certain method of procedure.

How A Catholic Prepares for Confession

Here is a Catholic about to go to confession. What does he do?

a. First of all he prays for God’s help to make a good confession. He may use a prayer book to help him. He may simply speak to God in his own way. But whatever method he uses the gist of his prayer will be:
" O my God, give me Your help to know my sins, to see clearly what I have done wrong against You, against my neighbour and against myself — without deceiving myself or making excuses. Give me Your help to realise how vile a thing is sin, to be sorry for my sin. Give me Your help to tell my sins truthfully and fully to the priest, give me Your help to resolve not to commit sin in the future."

Then he will ask Mary the Mother of Christ and probably his own patron saints to help him with their prayers also.

b. Now having asked God's help and grace he begins, as we say, to examine his conscience. What sins has he committed since his last confession? Everybody has his own way of examining his conscience. Most prayer books have a method which may help, a list of questions we can ask ourselves.
Have I been neglectful of my duty to God? Have I given way to anger? Have I been uncharitable, taking away another person's character? Have I been impure, lying, dishonest, given bad example, taken too much to drink? Have I failed in my duty anywhere to my children, my parents, my wife, etc., and so on through the catalogue of sins . . . In short have I sinned by thought, word, deed or omission?
This may sound very complicated. But in practice it is much simpler because we are used to examining our conscience. We all know what are our most common failings and we shall examine our conscience about them first. We are not expected to worry ourselves sick trying to remember every sin. The only sins we are absolutely bound to confess are mortal sins, although we are recommended also to confess the others.
We must give to the examination of conscience the same ordinary attention and care that we would give to any important matter in our ordinary lives. If we then make our confession and happen to forget some sin, that sin is forgiven also. Though if it is a mortal sin we must tell it in confession later if we remember it.

c. Next, the penitent has to make what we call an Act of Contrition. He has to be sorry for his sins. He thinks first of the goodness of God Who has given him everything and to Whom he has shown his ingratitude by sin. He thinks of Our Lord, God-made-man for us, weeping as a baby in His mother’s arms, scourged, crowned with thorns, dying on the cross. He thinks of the punishment which mortal sin deserves and very reasonably is moved by the fear of losing God and deserving hell. For if God is merciful He is also just. But while not forgetting the punishment which is due he will first and foremost arouse in himself sorrow for sins because they are an offence against the love of God.

d. The test of his sorrow will be the sincerity of his good resolution.

Having thus prepared the penitent goes into the confessional. Priest and penitent are separated by the wall of the confessional, the only way they can speak is through a wire mesh and the secrecy is usually helped by a curtain which prevents either from seeing the other. Now he tells his sins to the priest. And here comes our third difficulty

3. Isn’t It Impossibly Embarrassing?

Notice that the Church goes to great pains to preserve the anonymous nature of the confessional. No names must ever be mentioned. Normally the penitent is not even seen by the priest (though a man, if he chooses, may go to the priest outside the confessional "box").

Moreover the priest must keep the secret of the confessional even at the cost of his life. Without the consent of the penitent he may never reveal that person’s sins to anyone at all. There are cases in history of priests who have been put to death because they refused to reveal what had been told to them by a penitent. The priest is not even allowed to refer to what he has heard in confession, even in conversation outside the confessional with the penitent, unless the penitent gives him permission to do so.

Now how does the penitent tell his sins? He kneels down and says:

"Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It is so many weeks/months/years since my last confession. Since that time I have ..."

Then he tells his sins. But he does not and must not go into useless details. He simply tells his sins and anything which may make it more or less serious. For instance, he says:

"I spoke evil of another."

He must give some idea of whether he means he ruined the other’s character completely or whether it was merely a mild criticism. He also gives the priest some idea of how often he has committed the sin. But dramatic or colourful details are quite unnecessary.

The thief says:

"I have been dishonest to the extent of so much."

He doesn’t describe the details of the burglary or the swindle unless lie is doubtful about the case and wants advice. The adulterer says:

"I have committed adultery."

And leaves it at that.

In short the priest needs to know: What was the sin? Was it by thought, word or action? Was it alone or with another? (Because if it were with another that increases the guilt in so far as he has led another into sin.) How serious was the offence? And no details except such as might make a difference to the seriousness of the offence. If it is a question of dishonesty, he must express his readiness to make restitution. There is no question of Confession being permission to keep ill-gotten gains.

Clearly then, the confessional is no more embarrassing than an interview with a doctor. In fact it is a good deal less.

Penance

When the priest has heard the confession he gives the penitent some penance to perform. Time was when the penances were long and often very hard. Nowadays they usually take the form of some extra prayers to say.

Do Catholics pay for Confession? A priest who requested or accepted money for the forgiveness of sin would be guilty of the grave sin of simony. So – called after Simen Manic who offered the Apostle money in an attempt to buy spiritual powers.

The penitent clearly realises that he has not made up to God completely for his sins. His guilt is forgiven. He is once more a friend of God. But something remains to be done, Suppose you had injured a friend grievously, let us say by defrauding him of a large sum of money. You are later reconciled with your friend. But you realise very well that although you are friends once more you still have a duty of making up the sum you have taken from him.

So when we sin. Even if we have not taken money or goods yet we have taken some pleasure, some satisfaction to back that unlawful pleasure or satisfaction which we took.

There still remains, in fact, a debt which we must pay in this life by voluntary acts of self-denial or in the next life in Purgatory. (Lesson 19.) We still have to take our punishment.

Absolution

Finally the priest gives him absolution. He says:

"May Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve thee, and I, by the authority given to me, absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."

That is the Sacrament of Penance — Confession as it is more frequently called. Every Catholic from the Pope downwards kneels in the confessional and confesses his sins to a priest. He is urged to do so as a constant practice. He is commanded as a duty whenever he is in mortal sin.

Those are our standards. The Church makes us realise that we are sinners, No place for self-deception here. We must repent of our sins, be continually making the effort to repair the evil we have done and to do better for the future.

But we are assured of the loving mercy of God, His readiness to welcome us to His friendship again. Even on the natural level one can see how marvellous a thing confession is for bringing souls to maturity, for teaching us to see ourselves as we are, to prevent us from the hypocrisy of judging others.

The Priest

The priest who hears confessions must himself kneel to another priest and confess his own sins. For him the confessional is a great school of humility. But most of all he learns in the confessional compassion and understanding for the sinner. The priest remembers that he is taking the place of Our Lord Who said of Himself (Matt. 12)

"The bruised reed he will not break and the smoking flax he will not extinguish."

So long as there is one thread of good will unbroken no hard word or gesture from God, or from God’s minister the priest, will snap it. So long as there is one spark of love left in a soul it can be kindled to a flame.

Most important of all, in the confessional we have a guarantee of God’s grace and help for the future. We are not left to ourselves in our effort to improve. God in the Sacrament of Penance wipes out our sins and gives us strength and help to resist temptation in the future.

What from the outside seems to be the greatest obstacle to the Faith is seen from the inside as one of the greatest gifts that God has given us.

Note - Indulgences

An Indulgence is not forgiveness of sin. Sin is only forgiven by God for sorrow and confession.

An Indulgence is a remission of some or all of the temporal punishment which still remains due to sin after the guilt has been forgiven.

It is like an amnesty—as when the Home Secretary remits all or part of a prisoner’s sentence.

The Church grants these indulgences on condition that we are truly sorry for our sins, have confessed them if they are mortal, and do whatever good work the Church prescribes; for example saying certain prayers. Indulgences are not now granted for almsgiving.

The Church has power to grant these remissions from Christ Our Lord Who said: Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven — whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven. (Matt. 18: 18.)

How much remission we gain depends on the depth of our sorrow and the genuineness of our prayers.

End of Lesson 13

Supplement A

Supplement B "He Who Humbles Himself Shall Be Exalted"

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