Dear Donna,
You ask how important it is for us to confess our sins to a
priest. In this and all other questions about our Faith, its
doctrines, and its practices, I hope that you and all our other
correspondents will obtain and read prayerfully and often the
"Catechism of the Catholic Church"* (CCC). It will answer most
of your questions with a depth and breadth I cannot equal. About
the Sacrament of Confession, you should also read Pope John Paul
II's exhortation, "On Reconciliation and Penance"* (RP).
We confess our sins to the representative of God and the Church,
our bishop or one of our priests, the bishop's collaborators,
because they are the successors of the Apostles, to whom the
power of forgiving and retaining sins was first entrusted by
Christ our Lord: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven; if your retain the sins of any,
they are retained" (John 20:22-23). By confession of sins, the
sinner enables the priest to know what he has done and what his
dispositions are. Only in the light of this knowledge can the
priest decide whether to absolve the sinner or to defer
absolution (to "retain" the sins) until the sinner is properly
disposed.
In this sacrament, as in all the other six sacraments, Christ is
the agent. It is he who forgives. He does so through his chosen
and Spirit-empowered instrument, the confessor. Read again the
empowerment-language of John 20:22-23 --- the promise given the
apostles is clear, emphatic, and prophetic. The happy result for
us is that, in receiving absolution, we receive ASSURANCE that we
are forgiven. This greatly contributes to our inner peace.
The advantages of the sacrament are many and great. Confession
produces humility and self-knowledge, honesty and courage (cf.
CCC 1455). The Pope tells us: "The individual confession has the
value of a SIGN: a sign of the meeting of the sinner with the
mediation of the Church in the person of the minister ... of the
person's revealing of self as a sinner in the sight of God and
the Church, of facing his own sinful condition in the eyes of
God" (RP, 31, III)
In this way, also, the sinner complies with the directive of Holy
Scripture in James 5:16 "Confess your sins to one another, and
pray for one another that you may be healed."
In receiving sacramental absolution from our confessed sins, we
also receive God's special graces to turn firmly away from these
and all other sins, and so to move forward in our spiritual
journey. The confessor can give us excellent advice about
fighting temptation and growing in the love of Jesus Christ.
Confession at least once a year (normally during the Lenten and
Easter season) is obligatory if one has had the unhappiness of
committing a mortal sin. The Church also urges us, though
without obligation, to go to confession regularly and frequently
and to confess our venial sins and daily faults, "for we all make
many mistakes" (James 3:2).
You further asked: "Can we not just go to God in prayer and
confess our sins and be forgiven?" The Pope writes: "Though the
Church knows and teaches that venial sins are forgiven in other
ways too --- for instance, by acts of sorrow, works of charity,
prayer, penitential rites --- she does ot cease to remind
everyone of the special usefulness of the sacramental moment for
these sins too. The frequent use of the Sacrament ...
strengthens the awareness that even minor sins offend God and
harm the Church, the Body of Christ" (RP, 32).
Certainly, we prepare for confession with prayer to God; and
certainly, the intensity of sorrow the sinner feels may be a
perfect contrition, which "remits venial sins; it also obtains
forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to
have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible"
(CCC 1452, Council of Trent).
"The Sacrament of Penance is the ordinary way of obtaining
forgiveness and the remission of serious sins committed after
baptism ... The same Savior desired and provided that the simple
and precious Sacraments of faith would ordinarily be the
effective means through which his redemptive power passes and
operates. It would, therefore, be foolish as well as
presumptuous, to wish arbitrarily to disregard the means of grace
and salvation which the Lord has provided and, in the specific
case, to claim to receive forgiveness while doing without the
Sacrament which was instituted by Christ precisely for
forgiveness" (RP, 31, I).
As you have been a Catholic now for four years, it would be both
salutary and enjoyable, I'm sure, for you to treat yourself to a
complete review of Catholic teaching. For this, I recommend you
buy and read "The Teaching of Christ"* by Wuerl, Lawler, and Lawler
(3rd edition), ISBN 0-87973-850-2.
Sincerely in Christ,
Father Mateo
- Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit -
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