Confession, Take Three

This question came up during our reflection this morning:

Why can't I just confess to God directly? Why do I need a priest?

Of course you can confess to God directly, and the Church encourages you to do so regularly. But confessing to a priest is a different human experience. We're made to connect with others. Hearing "God forgives" from another person is simply more powerful than saying it to yourself. In addition, the priest represents the community that has been hurt by your sin. Just as you'd apologize to someone you had hurt rather than just think about it in your mind, confession to another person is the proper human response to doing damage to others.
As Catholics we believe that God works in us through physical, material signs that touch us as embodied beings. The sacramental absolution given by the priest in the name of Christ reflects our belief in how God works most powerfully in us.

Confession: Part 2

It used to be that certain things—like skipping Mass—were mortal sins. Now it seems as if they're not. What happened? How can I trust what the Church says is sinful if it keeps changing its mind?

You probably taught your young children rules like, "Don't ever try to cross the street without holding Daddy's or Mommy's hand." That's the way children learn things.

But what you meant was, "Cross safely," and you do that as a grownup. Most of us learned moral rules as children, but we didn't always grow up to understand their points A habit of skipping Mass does spiritual damage to the person who skips and thus fails to deepen their friendship with God. It also affects the community, which misses out on that person's participation and gifts. Missing very occasionally with a good reason is a whole different thing and is harmless or
perhaps even necessary.

Think of the Mass as an important family dinner You can miss, say, one Thanksgiving with the family if you have a good reason. But just to blow Thanksgiving dinner off again and again and then come back without offering any apology or explanation—well, that's something else.

"We are as sick as our sins."

After 22 years as a parish priest, I'm convinced that the twelve-step groups got it right.
To become spiritually healthy we need truth-telling in our lives.
The Sacrament of Penance is a way to tell the truth to ourselves God doesn't need it to forgive us.

But I think I'm like most people in that, unless I tell the truth about myself to someone else, I can't be confident that I'm really telling it to myself.
Confession isn't magic; it's hard work, made even harder when we don't have the information we need—or have bad information.

I've been asked a lot of questions about this sacrament. Many of you may have some of your own. If so, either e-mail me at rcummins@sttheresechesva.org or right a comment on this blog.
Here’s one question I hear frequently:

What's the right name for this? I used to go (or not go) to "confession." Then it was "penance;" and now I hear "reconciliation."

We call things by names that make sense to us.
The sacrament always involves three elements: the confession of one's sin, reconciliation with God and the Church community through absolution, and the doing of some action (prayer or deed) to repair the damage sin causes.
Since naming one's sin out loud is the most emotionally charged part, "confession" was the name most people used in the past, and many still do.
When the ritual was reformed forty years ago at Vatican Council II, Church leaders tried to get people to use what was always its formal name: "penance."
And more recently, in order to stress its effects, sometimes people now say "reconciliation" ("with God and one another" understood).
It doesn't matter what you call it; all the names are correct.