Who Needs Confession - Part 3

Gosh, I guess am a little slow at updating this blog. Well slow is better than never I guess.

Let's wrap this series up on confession. If you missed part 1 and part 2 please read them first.

Rather than getting all technical and sounding like a walking Catechism I wanted to keep this post as down to earth as possible tonight.

Confession is one of the greatest gifts our Lord left us. And sadly it is the one sacrament most people miss out on. I don't want to generalize or judge but I sometimes wonder if everyone walking up to communion is in the state of grace. I pray they are as receiving our Lord in the Eucharist in an unworthy manner is serious sin.

But what do we do if we fall from grace and commit mortal sin? The answer is easy. Tell God you are sorry and mean it. Don't wait until Wednesday night at 7:00 PM since that is when confessions are heard. Say it now. In fact, if you are in the state of sin as you read this please stop and close your eyes and tell God you are sorry and ask our Lady to pray for you.

Once this is out of the way you need to stop receiving communion until you reconcile yourself with the church via confession. I am here to tell you on this blog that I sin about as much as anyone and there are many times when I walk up to communion and place my finger over my mouth in order to receive a blessing.

Funny story along these lines. There was one Sunday when I was carrying my now 4 year old daughter Kileigh up to communion. When I reached the Priest I placed my finger in front of my mouth as I needed to go to confession first. After church, when we were walking to the car Kileigh asked me, "Daddy, why didn't you take the chip?" I laughed so hard I almost cried. I simply replied, "Because, baby, I need to tell Jesus I am sorry first."

So here is the deal about going to confession. If you haven't been for a long time (even 40+ years) fear not. When I came into the church I had 30 years of sin to confess! No matter how long it has been you simply need to follow a few steps to prepare.

1. Do a thorough examination of conscious. The easiest way to do this is to think of how you may have broken any of the ten commandments.
2. You also need to actually be sorry (have contrition) for sinning against God. If you are not sorry and simply say the words to the Priest, who sits in the person of Christ (in persona Christi), this is not a valid confession.
3. Find out when confessions are heard or schedule a private confession.
4. Confess your sins to the Priest.
5. Receive absolution and any instructions from the Priest.
6. Do pennance as prescribed by the Priest.
7. Fight sin with all your might and pray to our Lady and St. Michael to help protect you.

Now, number 4 (confess your sins) is the tough one for many. For me, I must admit I love confession and get this amazing feeling of anxiousness before going in. But for some the minutes leading up to confession can be scary.

All you have to do when you go in to see the Priest is kneel behind the screen or in most cases you can sit face to face. I like the screen.

Then the Priest will usually start off by saying, "In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Sometimes they don't.. in which case you just get on with it!

Now it's your turn.

You should start by saying, "Bless me Father for I have sinned. It's been (insert time) since my last confession."

Normally the Priest will sit silent at this point. Then you simply tell the Priest the sins you committed and in some cases how many times you committed them. If you are not sure where to start just say, "Father, it's been awhile and I am not sure where to start." Trust me they know how to help you through this.

Don't be ashamed or leave anything out. For one, it can make the confession invalid if you purposely leave sins out. For another, God already knows your sins... He just wants to hear you say your sorry to the Priest, who again sits in the person of Christ. So don't leave anything out!

Finally, I usually end my confessions with this saying. "I am sorry for these sins Father, and for any sins I may be forgetting."

Now at this point the Priest may talk to you about some things. They may not. They will then give you absolution from your sins and state your pennance. I have had all kinds of pennances... everything from take your kids to McDonald's for a special treat to saying a certain amount of Hail Mary's. Whatever the pennance is do it with a cheerful heart!

It comes down to this. Either the church is dead wrong about confession or completely right. There is no in between.

If you bet for the church and go to confession on a regular basis what harm can come of it? Even if the church is wrong about confession there can be no harm in confessing our sins.

On the other hand, what if you bet against the church and don't go to confession and the church is right. This will result in infinite loss (hell).

It's time to place your wager. Where will you lay your chips? My bet is on the Holy Roman Catholic Church.

Who Needs Confession - Part 2

Tonight I will discuss part 2 of the confession series. Please read part 1 here if you haven’t already.

There are 3 things we need to understand about confession:

1) The ability to forgive sins was in fact given to men by Christ
2) Initially, Christ gave this ability to a handful of men
3) That authority is passed on to more people

Let’s start with the words of St. John to demonstrate that the ability to forgive sins was in fact given to men by Christ.

First though, let’s set the stage a bit. Jesus had been crucified and his apostles were scared stiff. Mary Magdalene learns that Jesus was not in the tomb and thus did what any good Catholic should in cases such as this – she went and told the Pope! I am not kidding; she went and told St. Peter. So our first pope and his pal St. John go to the tomb and see that it is empty… and the scripture says, “For they did not yet understand the scripture that he had to rise from the dead.”

OK, now that the scene is set let’s go to the Gospel of John and read what happens next.

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).

The first thing Jesus says to them is peace. More specifically he uses the Hebrew word shalom, which is the deepest peace God can give someone. Jesus also clearly gives the authority to forgive sins to his disciples as we read in the last verse.

Some non Catholic bibles will actually place a footnote for these verses which say something to the extent of, “Obviously Jesus is not permitting the apostles to forgive sins since only God can forgive sins – see Mark 2:7.” If you have a non Catholic bible open up to these verses and check.

Let’s read Mark 2:7 to see if argument holds any validity. It reads, "Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming. Who but God alone can forgive sins?"

Wow! They may be onto something… it clearly says only God can forgive sins. However, if you read Mark 2:7 carefully you will learn that the person that makes this comment is a Pharisee! In fact this Pharisee rebukes Jesus here in this verse. The absolute worst way one of our non Catholic brothers and sisters could begin their debate is to start quoting a Pharisee who rebuked the God man himself!

Now let’s examine the second point, that Christ only gave this authority to a handful of men. Let’s visit the Gospel of Matthew to help us understand this point.

In the 10th Chapter of Matthew we read, “Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness (Matthew 10:1).” So here we see how Christ gave his disciples authority over unclean spirits.

Next, let’s look at how our Lord gave St. Peter powers to bind and loose sins which is another way of saying to forgive (loose) or not forgive (bind).

“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:18).

A few chapters later we nearly read the identical words. Only this time our Lord is giving this power to bind and loose to the other disciples. Note though how he gave this power AND the keys (Papacy) to Peter first.

“Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18).

The book of Matthew is all about authority. Again and again we see our Lord building His church. He is also setting up how He expects His church to be run once He is no longer on earth.

Now, let’s discuss the third point - that this authority to forgive sins is actually passed on to others by the apostles, even to this present day.

After Judas killed himself the disciples needed to replace him. And we read, “Then they prayed, "You, Lord, who know the hearts of all, show which one of these two you have chosen to take the place in this apostolic ministry from which Judas turned away to go to his own place" (Act 1:24, 25).

Then again in Acts we read, “They presented these men to the apostles who prayed and laid hands on them” (Acts 6:6).

More examples of this apostolic succession can be found in the following verses.

• Acts 13:3
• Acts 14:23
• 1 Tim 4:14
• 2 Tim 1:1
  

We see these examples of laying on of hands all over scripture. And the amazing thing about our Catholic Bishops, Priests, and Deacons is the fact that their apostolic succession can be traced all the way to the apostles. This also means it can also be traced all the way to Jesus himself. How cool is that!

In the third and final part of this series we will examine the specifics of this awesome sacrament. If you have not been to confession lately and are perhaps nervous or scared I hope to reduce your anxiety helping you get back to the confessional!

Who Needs Confession - Part 1

The sacrament of Reconciliation is an amazing gift from our Lord. Sadly, many Catholics and non Catholics are confused as to why we tell our sins to another human. I mean can’t we just go straight to God?

I will break this series up into 3 parts. Here is how I will approach things.

1. First I am going to talk about sin. Specifically, I want to discuss the differences between mortal sin and venial sin.


2. Secondly, I am going to cover the reason we Catholics go to confession. Scott Hahn once said that when he is asked why Catholic’s go to confession he explains, “Because the instruction manual God left me tells me too!”


3. Finally, I am going to discuss the rubrics of the sacrament. What do you need to do before going to confession, during confession, and after confession?

Sin

To understand sin we need to head straight to the Bible. Specifically, let’s start with the words of the beloved Disciple himself.

If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly (1 John 5:16, 17).

St. John is telling us that not all sin is created equal. There is such a thing as “deadly” or what we refer to as “mortal” sin. Patrick Madrid wrote in his book, “Where is that in the Bible” that mortal sins, by their very nature, literally kill the soul by purposefully eradicating sanctifying grace. In other words, mortal sin kills grace. Grace has been taken away.

OK, so let’s talk in a little more detail about the difference between a venial sin and mortal sin.

For a sin to mortal (deadly) three conditions must be met.

1. The sin must be “grave matter” meaning serious. God’s top ten (10 commandments) are great for helping discern whether sin is grave.


2. The sin must be made with full knowledge. In other words we know something is sinful and do it anyway.


3. The sin must be committed with deliberate consent. This means I was not forced to commit this sin against my free will.
   

Paragraphs 1857-1859 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church offer more insight if you want to read more.

I have actually seen lists of sins… in this column are the venial sins and in this column are the mortal sins. And those lists are all fine and dandy. The thing is, besides God, only you know your heart. So my recommendation is to simply do a thorough examination of your conscious and bring all your sins – venial and mortal to the confessional.

Venial sins do not need to be confessed but I personally confess them anyhow. I heard a very troubling story once explaining how venial sin can lead to deadly sin. It went something like this.
A hunter was trying to catch a wild animal so he took some bloody water and froze it. Embedded in the frozen ice were razor blades. Once the wild animal tasted the bloody water it couldn’t stop licking even though it would soon mean its death. So it licked and licked and eventually fell over to its death. The hunter succeeded.

This is what venial sin can become. First it starts with a young boy looking at his Dad's swimsuit issue of Sports Illustrated. Then the young man graduates to another magazine that is even more provocative. Eventually the young man is addicted to Internet pornography which ruins his marriage and if left alone will likely send him to hell.

So confess all sins, venial and mortal, and fight them with all your might. But realize you cannot defeat Satan alone. You need the grace dispensed from confession and all the sacraments in order to defeat the dark one.

Full of Mercy!

Today’s Gospel is some of my favorite scripture. I especially love the following two verses:

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, 22-23).

It is at this very moment our Lord instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). If you were not sure why it is we Catholics confess our sins to a Priest, who actually sits “in the person of Christ,” this verse goes a long way to explain things.

I will blog more extensively on confession in the future… but for now let us just meditate on these awesome words from our Lord.

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