AN ALTERNATIVE CONFESSION MEDITATION

The sacrament of Confession has made a comeback in recent years. And it is becoming more common to hear of conversion-like stories of Catholics who have rediscovered the sacrament after years - and even decades - away from it.

The hiatus from the confessional was perpetrated by a post-Vatican II positivism which diminished sin - a fact made manifest in the disappearance of the once ever-present (and ever-in-use) confessional booth in most churches.

The re-emergence of the sacrament is due much to its promotion by Pope John Paul II and his personal example of weekly confession, and to a rediscovery of it by a new generation of Catholics to whom John Paul II was a personal hero.

Today, there are many books and audio programs featuring warm stories of how people feel re-born, washed clean, renewed, like a weight had fallen from them, etc. And of course, it's all true, and it's all good.

However, there is a need for a post-confession catechesis. With so many now returning to or discovering the sacrament - often encouraged by the stories of others - there is the potential for great spiritual danger.

The "born-again" experience is powerful -a high. And with highs come lows. The truth is that the warm feelings of that first return to the confessional will be diminished when the penitent finds him or herself back in the confessional needing to confess the same sin in a week or two. With the loss of feeling will come doubt about true contrition, and, without catechesis, the potential for despair and a departure from the sacrament once again.

What the penitent needs to know is that we go to confession to confess our sins not because we feel sorry for them or because we "feel" anything, but because, first and foremost, we have offended God. Personal sorrow is a grace which we pray for and is sometimes granted, but feeling sorry is not a prerequisite for confession.

This is important because the new "hype"- the born-again like confession stories - are, as expected, filled with good feelings. And the business of maturely confessing ones sins must necessarily transcend the initial romance and get on with the business of routinely dealing with a dirty soul.

In fact, contrary to what is so often perpetrated in the new pop-Catholic culture found in books, audios, and seminars, one is probably more prone to an attack of the devil immediately after confession.

What could be more delicious to Satan than felling a fresh soul? 

What a delight to make a penitent, fresh from the confessional, fall within hours to the same sin he or she just confessed! What quicker way to despair than this?

As always, knowledge of the enemy is critical in battle, and in spiritual warfare, the battle never ends. In fact, it intensifies as a soul grows in personal holiness. This is a fact often left out in the education of the JPII generation - a generation brought into or back to the Church largely via the soaring personality of the pope and the surrounding resurgence of things Catholic.

But, as with any romance, it serves only to bring one into a relationship which must necessarily mature and get on with the real business which that relationship is designed to serve, and often without feeling, for truth is beyond feeling - which is why so few go there.

Go to confession....and come out ready for war. For there it starts.

RESPONSE TO: "CONFESSIONAL NOT A DRY CLEANER", SAYS POPE

"Confessional not a dry cleaner," says pope - National Catholic Register

The problem is not that we do not want to avail ourselves of this sacrament. The problem is that many priests are so out of practice from having not heard confessions for so many years - or were never properly trained that they simply do not understand the difference between hearing confession and counseling or spiritual direction.

For any priest who is reading this, may I humbly suggest that if you feel counseling is needed, to please invite the person - if he or she feels the need - to come and speak with you at another time, but otherwise stick to hearing the confession - unless of course the confessee prefers to talk....but even then, confession may not be the best time for that especially if others are waiting.

Also, may I request that you please do your best to respect the anonymity of the confessee if he or she has chosen to confess anonymously. Sometimes the questions are an infringement on the right to anonymity. I once had a priest who began asking me questions about the size of my family. I answered, and he said "ah-hah"...and then proceeded to take liberties to speak to me personally. I felt violated. I was behind the screen for a reason.

Why Do I Have to Go To Confession?

That question is usually followed by the words “I go directly to God”. 

While you are welcome to think you can go "directly to God", the problem is, Jesus nowhere says to do that. In fact, the Bible instructs us to confess our sins, not to God, but "to one another”:

"Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:16)

But who is the "one another" to whom we are to confess? Shall we just pull someone off the street and confess our sins? Of course not.

The directive to "confess your sins to one another" occurs within the context of an instruction on the Sacrament of the Sick in which James instructs the Christian community to call the "presbyter", who is to anoint the sick person and hear his confession:

“Is anyone among you sick?" He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” (James 5:14-16)

It is clear, in this passage, that the main agent of anointing and forgiveness is the "presbyter". In the early Christian communities, a presbyter ("overseer") could have been a bishop or another man authorized to act in his place, much as the parish priest does today.  In any event, the presbyter is distinguished from the rest of the community because he is to be summoned by the others, and he appears to have certain powers that the other Christians do not.

"But", you may say, "only God can forgive sins". This is true. It is also true that God can do anything, including authorize others to forgive sins. And this he does in John 20:19-23:

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. [Jesus] said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.’” (John 20:19-23)

Given that the Resurrection is the central act of all history, it is quite profound, when you think about it, that Christ's first order of business upon rising from the dead is to give the apostles the power to forgive sins. This should strike us with a rather terrible significance. He has just risen from the dead. He has just walked through a wall (the doors were locked). The apostles are probably beside themselves. And the very first thing he does is to make them new men (he "breathed on them") and give them the power to forgive sins!

In fact, the forgiveness of sins is their primary mission. This is what they are sent to do ("so I send you"). And the very fact that Christ empowers these men to forgive sins and sends them forth to do so automatically makes it incumbent upon the rest of us to seek this forgiveness of sins from those men who are authorized to grant it: our priests and bishops. Given that this is Christ's desire, it is the height of disobedience and sinful obstinacy to not seek forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession.

Some think that Christ simply intended a general spirit of Christian forgiveness and not the on-your-knees-in-front-of-the-priest type of confession. However, the fact that the apostles were granted the power to both forgive and "retain" sins tells us that the power is juridical, that the apostles (and those authoritatively descended from them) are to sit in judgement on the penitent's sins. And in order for there to be a judgement there must first be a hearing - thus, the confessional and the oral accounting of our transgressions (and preferably on our knees).

We also know that the power to forgive sins was not meant just for the Apostles but was intended to be passed on to those whom they would ordain. We know this because the presbyters mentioned in James are not Apostles, but specially authorized (ordained) members of the Christian community who are obviously authorized to hear and forgive sins as the apostles were. Today, that power has descended through the Sacrament of Ordination to the bishops and priests who walk among us today.

Given the timing of the institution of the Sacrament and the centrality of the forgiveness of sins in the apostolic mission, there can be no doubt about the critical importance of the the Sacrament of Reconciliation and the necessity of our availing ourselves of it. And we must no longer fool ourselves about "confessing directly to God". It is simply not his will that we do so.

Now just a couple of practical matters. The Sacrament of Confession demands that there be a place for it, a confessional. Church Law (Canon 964) requires that confessionals be in a church or oratory, 2) that there be “a fixed grate between the penitent and the confessor...”, 3) that the confessionals be “in an open place so that the faithful who wish to can use them freely”, and 4) “Confessions are not to be heard outside a confessional without a just cause.”

In other words, we shouldn’t have to hunt for the confessional, we must have the option of an anonymous confession (a fixed grate), and sitting out in the open hearing confessions - a practice that has been in vogue for several years - is not the norm.

Also Canon 986 requires that confession be scheduled so that penitents “have the opportunity to approach individual confession on days and at times established for their convenience.” Regularly scheduled times for confession are critical to the right to an anonymous confession since having to seek out a priest to hear one’s confession precludes anonymity.

And speaking of anonymity, I personally always go to confession behind the grate, even if the priest knows me. I do it out of consideration for the priest. The priest is bound not only to never reveal the sin of a penitent, but to forget the sin once the confessional encounter is over. How much harder is it for him to do - as a man - when he has a face to go with the sin.

Why Confess Our Sins to a Priest

"I don't need to confess my sins to a man, I confess my sins directly to Jesus."

It's a common retort from those who reject the Catholic teaching on the Sacrament of Confession. And it sounds logical. Since only God can forgive sin, then it would seem reasonable not to bother with anybody in between. Might as well go straight to God.

The problem is that Jesus never tells us to confess our sins to him. As a matter of fact James tells us to "confess our sins to one another" (James 5:16). Now, James, we believe, was one of the Apostles. He was either passing on what he knew Jesus wanted, or he was telling a lie. If he was telling a lie, then all Scripture would be suspect. Obviously we cannot accept that.

So the next question is "who is the one another?" that James is referring to? On the face of it it could mean just anybody off the street. Obviously he didn't mean just anybody, so who he did he mean?

Like so many questions about the Scriptures, the answer is easy when put into context of the neighboring verses. Two verses before, James is advising the physically sick to seek out the "presbyters". Two verses later he is addressing the spiritually sick, those who need to confess sin. It's easy to see who James was referring to. But who were the presbyters?

In short they were overseers, men especially delegated to overseeing and ministering to a local Christian community. In any event, they were granted a special authority to stand in place of the bishop, who then, as today, had the full authority that was granted to the Apostles.

So let's review. 1. We are not told to confess our sins to Jesus. 2. We are told to confess our sins to "another". 3. Since it can't be just any other, we see in context that the other is a "presbyter".

But if only God can forgive sins then what's up with confessing to another human?

It's a simple matter of taking Jesus at his word in John 20:23 where he says to the Apostles gathered in the upper room "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven and whose sins you shall retain are be retained."

Here Jesus gives the Apostles the power to forgive sins. It's interesting to note that, at least in this Gospel, this is Jesus' VERY FIRST action upon rising from the dead, which should give us a clue as to how important the power given to the Apostles was and still is.

If Jesus had wanted us to only confess our sins to himself he wouldn't have given the power and the command to the Apostles that he did. We should also note that the sins must be confessed audibly since only then would the Apostle know whether the sin should be forgiven or retained.

There is no doubt from Scripture that Jesus gave the power to the Apostles to forgive sins. The question is did that authority to forgive or retain sin pass on or did it die with the Apostles? The fact that James is instructing his audience to confess sin to one another indicates that the authority had descended from the Apostles and had been granted to others.

Today, by virtue of his ordination and the laying on of hands,that goes all the way back to the Apostles, the priest, the descendant of the "presbyter", has the authority to forgive or retain sin in the name of Jesus Christ who first gave that authority to a group of specific men.

Here is an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the Church's teaching on the Sacrament of Penance.

VI. THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION

1440 Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.³⁸

Only God forgives sin

1441 Only God forgives sins.³⁹ Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, "The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven."⁴⁰ Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.⁴¹

1442 Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation."⁴² The apostle is sent out "on behalf of Christ" with "God making his appeal" through him and pleading: "Be reconciled to God."⁴³

Reconciliation with the Church

1443 During his public life Jesus not only forgave sins, but also made plain the effect of this forgiveness: he reintegrated forgiven sinners into the community of the People of God from which sin had alienated or even excluded them. A remarkable sign of this is the fact that Jesus receives sinners at his table, a gesture that expresses in an astonishing way both God's forgiveness and the return to the bosom of the People of God.⁴⁴

1444 In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's solemn words to Simon Peter: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."⁴⁵ "The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head."⁴⁶

1445 The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his. Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.

The sacrament of forgiveness

1446 Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church: above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin, and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of Penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as "the second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck which is the loss of grace."⁴⁷

1447 Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example, idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this "order of penitents" (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only rarely admitted and in certain regions only once in a lifetime. During the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the "private" practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance that the Church has practiced down to our day.

1448 Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements: on the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit: namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction; on the other, God's action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re-established in ecclesial communion.

To read more, go here.

The Belly of a Whale

First published in the Umatuna, the newspaper for the Archdiocese of Agana, Guam, November 14, 1999.

I stayed away from the Sacrament of Penance for 20 years. Somewhere in the 70's I had picked up the teaching that confession was only for serious sin. And thanks to Vatican II (or so it seemed) very few people, if any, actually had serious sin. As a matter of fact there were so few serious sins being committed by the mid-70's that confessionals were closed or torn out altogether. What a relief to a young guy in his early twenties who was looking to rationalize his hormone-driven behavior.

Like others of my generation, I was further aided in distancing myself from any consciousness of sin by the fact that I didn't hear about it anymore, at least not personal sin. Sin was now the domain of society in general. The social sins of injustice, homelessness, world hunger, poverty, & war were the topics in vogue from pulpit, podium & pen.

Wow, this was great, man. No reminder of personal sin, no confessionals, no confessors (visible anyway), no confession. What a relief. No guilt. It was a new world and I was a new "man" . (Note: obviously not the new man Paul had in mind). Boy, I'm sure glad they got together on that Vatican II deal. Of course, Vatican II, the real Vatican II, had nothing to with this new consciousness or a multitude of other aberrations committed in its name.

Our generation forsook confessionals for college cafeterias and campus ministry centers where we sat in comfortable chairs and flailed against the evils of America and capitalism. Instead of saying "3 Hail Mary's, 3 Our Father's, and 3 Glory Be's" we waived anti-nuke signs, walked in "Tortilla Marathons", and marched for peace and justice in El Salvador. 

And the Enemy smiled. For all the while, our bodies and souls were being torn asunder by the personal sin we no longer thought was there. How much easier now was his work on my soul. For the road to hell is....

I was an easy mark to be sure, the kind Satan instructs his minions to look for.  I was the leader of the much-applauded Sunday night folk group. I taught Marriage and Morality to Catholic high school seniors. I was head of the University Campus Ministry and much sought after youth group leader. I wrote weekly articles for the college paper defending the faith. 

How softly and comfortably the "great seducer" of Revelation 12:9 slips one into hell, the very fires of which he disguises as flames of  fervor for our imagined just cause. If I had just been a regular slothful sinner I might have been easier to save. 

Fulton Sheen once said that not going to confession is like walking around with a dirty diaper. Is it any wonder that many of us are sick of ourselves? But I had not come to this recognition yet. I mistook the stench in my soul for the social sewers I was taught to condemn. (Oh, how clever is the evil one.) So for years I continued on my merry way, on my own private road to hell, all the while whistling "Be Not Afraid" and "Here I Am, Lord". 

I can't put my finger on any actual moment where the Holy Spirit turned the light on. But once baptized, the "Hound of Heaven" never really leaves you alone, and even amidst the swirling sea of stupidity in which I was happily drowning, the Lord somehow rescued me from myself.

It would be easier to recount the story if it had been a whale or something, but nothing so dramatic.  I'm not sure how I found myself on my knees in a dark confessional once more. I do know though that it was not Jesus who pushed me in, but His Mother who carried me in. After all, there was this problem with the diaper. 

There were no spiritual gushings, no beating of the breast, no dramatic mea culpas or tearful resolutions, just "I confess to almighty God and to you, Father, that I have sinned. My last confession was 20 years ago..." and the deep knowledge that I was right where God wanted me.

And here is a good place to thank Sr. Paul, the Benedictine nun who drilled the confessional formula into my head in the second grade. I believe she's in heaven now and probably had something to do with me remembering what to say when the time came so many years later. And I also want to thank that priest on the other side of the confessional screen who did not know that he had been waiting 20 years for me.

To be continued......

Tim Rohr

November 14, 1999