A Defense Of The Sacrament of Confession: God’s Mercy Through The Priest

The sacrament of confession is the means by which God forgives sinners and infuses grace into their soul. It prepares us for the Eucharist! Trust in the Lord Jesus!

I’ve talked about him different times before in some of my posts, but I have this good friend named John who converted with me during the fall of 2021 through the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) Program of a Catholic parish where we went to high school, he goes to the same Latin Mass Parish and community college as me, and we hangout very frequently. A month or so ago we were driving back from a Low Mass up north from where we live and I asked him: “If you could give a talk to a crowd of people on any faith topic, what would it be?” He’s very knowledgeable about and fervent in the Catholic faith, and he told me: “I would talk about the nature of the mass.” He’s very passionate and knowledgeable about that (the nature of the mass and it’s history) for sure, and while he’s very good with children that hang around us at our parish during different events and activities, I think he has great potential in him to be a very holy and devoted priest. Of course, God’s Will be done; He alone knows what He Wills for John’s life, and John has to discern that for himself. Of course, I hope you’ll pray for him in that regard as well as his desire to grow in holiness regardless. But, I reflected on this question myself about what faith topic I would choose to give a speech on to a large number of people and I realized God was calling me to talk about this: the sacrament of confession. Within this talk, I feel He wants me to talk about how we should never despair in the spiritual life & we should always trust in the Divine Mercy of The Lord Jesus Christ. In this post, I will do just that.

As I’ve explained countless times before: the study of theology was very critical in my conversion process and my spiritual journey. I have always had a passion for reading and writing, an interest in intellectual reflections and debates, and since becoming Catholic: I’ve tried to focus my energy on explaining the faith to others as best I can, even though I am still wholeheartedly seeking to Make America Great Again! The study of theology has made me even more in awe of the Lord Jesus and in love with my Catholic faith- and with a more confident belief that it is the fullness of truth. The Church gives sound, well-supported, logical reasons for everything that She believes and teaches, and if there’s a teaching that I struggle to understand: I can rest assured knowing that Jesus has given the Holy Spirit to the Church to teach properly on matters of faith and morals. He promised the Church would never be overcome by the gates of Hell, and knowing that Jesus is the “Way, the Truth, and the Life” (John 14:5) who rose from the dead to prove His claims were true about being the Messiah and the Son of the Living God, why would anyone doubt these promises for His Church?

I was staring at the image of Our Lady on my Miraculous Medal in the shower, and, of course: I’m very devoted to Our Lady through the Rosary and under the particular title of Our Lady of Sorrows- the title by which she desires to unite our sufferings to her own and provide us spiritual guidance in the process, and it just kind of struck me… perhaps it was God permitting or instilling such a thought in my head: “Without the intercession of my Mother, the Virgin Mary, who is so very merciful, God would’ve stopped giving me the grace to be a Christian and go on in life due to my sinfulness during the last year.” I’m really very grateful to Our Lady for her spiritual consolation and intercession in my life- especially this past year; I can’t even tell to the extent she has watched over me because I’m a finite human being still on earth, and yet: I can see many fruits produced from turning to her, though I still need to grow in holiness and humility, to be sure.

When I was baptized and confirmed at the Easter Vigil, for some reason: I felt around in my pocket and held my Rosary out in my hands as they had me walk around the Church before receiving my first Communion. I can’t really explain why, but ever since: something had called me to draw closer to her; I believe it to be God’s Will. The story of Our Lady of Fatima touched me most profoundly in the initial stages of my journey with Our Lady; the idea and reality that she would go so far to help the fallen and ungrateful race of humanity to appear before three children, teach them several key prayers and numerous prophecies about the future, and the need for prayer and penance to atone for the sins of others and save sinners in the world… it touched me.

I learned from studying her apparition at Fatima that God calls us to partake in the Catholic faith and strive for holiness regardless of our background. Ever since then, though I will always appreciate and believe that, something slightly shifted and a devotion to Mary under the title of Our Lady of Sorrows became more prevalent in my life. One of my intentions this Lenten season is to pray the Seven Sorrows Rosary each Wednesday and Friday. As all the saints, especially Saint Louis de Montfort taught, there is no better way to go to Jesus than through His Immaculate Mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary! Our Blessed Mother wants us to go to confession to grow in holiness, have a contrite heart for our sins, and be reconciled with and make reparation to her Divine Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, who instituted the sacrament of a confession out of love for us as His children. Jesus is infinitely Merciful!

Now, allow me to briefly explain my experience with the sacrament of confession without getting too personal in the details. The first time I went to confession was in December 2021 with the priest who also was the pastor of the parish in which I was undergoing the RCIA conversion process. This confession was at an Advent ceremony where numerous priests were hearing them throughout the church, while the other people stood in various lines around the different pews until their turn came. For the record: this is different from ordinary confessions by which there is a booth for you to enter where you can either face the priest while sitting or kneeling behind a wall to visually separate yourself from the priest. Regardless of the dynamics of the confession, the priest isn’t permitted to tell your sins to anyone else; to do so would violate Church law and bring about both serious punishment on their soul from God and from the bishop if he found out about this. In short: I wasn’t worried that the priest would tell anyone else about my sins, but I was very nervous as to whether he would be upset with me for the numerous horrible things that I have done.

In front of many to see, though no one could actually hear the words I was saying to the priest in my first confession (in which I couldn’t receive absolution for my sins because I wasn’t yet baptized), I told him how I’d done numerous grave sins in my life, and when I walked back to the pew, my friend John, who attended and, as I mentioned, was also in the parish RCIA program with me as a convert, said: “You looked like you were going to cry.” To be brutally honest, I almost did, and there have been numerous times where I have been to confession and shed many tears- both out of remorse for my countless sins, and also out of joy due to God’s abundant mercy poured onto me from Heaven.

In 2022, I took my faith very seriously and though I was far from a saint during this time, reflecting back: I don’t believe I committed a single mortal sin during this year- by God’s grace. I went to confession every other month or so, but I wasn’t really making the type of confession that involved a true reflection on my spiritual life, the roots of the sinful areas I was struggling with, or the means by which I could improve my spiritual life. Later on in this post, I will provide you information on how to make a good confession, but before I do so: I need to let you know that I was struggling with serious habitual sin throughout the year of 2023- both alone many times and with another person on a handful of occasions in the earlier part of the year; these were the worst sins of my life because I knew the immorality of my actions. I felt (and still feel) enormous remorse for my actions and the effect that it had on my will and the other individual involved, and what’s really bad is that: throughout this time: a lot of people looked at me like I was a faithful Catholic. In reality, my private life was anything but faithfully Catholic, and though I never skipped mass, would almost always pray the Rosary each day, and while I never for even a second lost belief in my Catholic faith: I was living a life of truly impure and unchaste ways. Though my goal is to go straight to Heaven, I would frankly welcome God’s Justice to be served to me via purgatory beforehand due to my horrible, horrible actions. In my mind, I should gladly suffer very much in this life and in purgatory in the next! It isn’t right that God has given me profound grace to know, fight for, and return to the Truth in light of my previously repeated evils, while others do not even know the gravity or immorality of their actions! For this, and for the good of all sinners, we must pray: “Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell, and lead all souls into Heaven, especially those most in need of Thy Mercy!” This is what Our Lady of Fatima, and we must meditate upon this.

Throughout this time of habitual sin during much of 2023, never a priest deny me absolution- although they probably should have as a means of doing an “intervention” to actually put the breaks on my sinful actions and cause me to reflect upon the deeply-troubling flaws and broken components of who I was as a man with respect to the spiritual life. Never did a priest do anything other than give me words of encouragement or hope despite my repeated wrongdoings, and I can only say: this isn’t objective evidence for the sacrament of confession, this isn’t to say there aren’t cases of priests who might be rude or unkind to laypersons, but I can tell you this: I’ve had nothing but grace shown to me in the sacrament of confession from God and by priests of the Church in this sacrament, and there are so many reasons to trust in the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ through this sacrament. Equally, there are so many priests out there who have so many responsibilities and so much on their plate- emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and yet: they are still taking opportunity after opportunity to diligently fulfill the commands of God in their vocation to be merciful servants of the Gospel and those who will guide us to Heaven through their holy orders in the confessional!

But why confess your sins to a man; can’t we just go directly to God? How many times have you heard this from Protestant brothers and sisters; perhaps you yourself believe in this objection to the Catholic sacrament of confession with a priest! To truly understand why Catholics partake in this sacrament, we need to dive into the biblical and early church evidence for the sacrament of confession with a priest. James 5:16 says: “Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.” So first off, we have evidence from Scripture that we can and should confess our sins to other humans, and that this isn’t contradictory with the action of praying to God and asking for forgiveness; the Church says that we should absolutely do this, too!

However, this isn’t just about confessing our sins to other human persons; this is about the idea that a human priest has the authority to forgive sins that we confess to him in the position of Jesus, the Eternal High Priest; to show such a claim is true, I will, in this post, provide evidence for you. First, allow me to briefly share something that will help aid your understanding of this from a theological perspective.

Recently, I was watching a video by Father Chad Ripperger, an exorcist and priest who went to Holy Apostles College and Seminary, posts speeches to his YouTube Channel (Sensus Fidelium), and has written numerous books about the spiritual life and psychology. The video was titled “The Offense God is Taking Today.”¹ In this, he explains: according to Saint Thomas Aquinas: Our relationship with God is non-mutual because the causation is totally one-sided (with Him) while we are entirely dependent. We can change nothing about the intrinsic nature of God. In some sense: it is not literally true that God “forgives and forgets sin if we repent”; for all eternity He will see your sin in that particular moment, but He also knows that you have possessed contrition since a particular point when He infused that grace into your soul; He rewards you based on your current state rather than on a prior state or even the totality of such through His Mercy when applied to an individual.

This connects to the sacrament of confession because, as Father Ripperger explains: sin has two components: the choice to act disordered in your will and engage in something contrary to God Will and the good, and the consequence of your sin as a habit or corrupted instinct/association in your lower faculties inclining them to be ordered towards falsities. It also leaves a disorder in the will towards that (malice in your relationship) and can even bring about blindness of the intellect over time. These are effects that naturally flow from a sinful action. Through confession and absolution, God removes the debt that is owed to Him and judgment upon your soul for that action as a legal matter, however the temporal consequences still remain and we still have to overcome the effects. We must make reparation in some fashion and partake in penance to remove this and strive for perfection going forward (which both the Lord Jesus Christ as part of the Divine deposit of the faith commands and the natural law instinctively calls upon for us). If you don’t take reasonable means to clean up this disorder in your will- whether caused by you or something external- you become complicit in allowing the retraction from God’s extrinsic glory to take place, and thus: posses moral culpability for a culpable defect.

Moreover, the degree of this sin is based on the degree of the defect; if the defect inclines you something gravely disordered (such as lustful thoughts or homosexual attractions) and you don’t take reasonable action to fix this disorder: that’s grave matter- whereas if it’s something only venially sinful such as white lies, though we still have an obligation to try and stop that- lest Hell awaits us in the former, and Purgatory in the ladder. We must work on fixing our faculties to be rightly-ordered, otherwise, contrary to piety: we run the risk of offending God in the future and more damage to our souls! Don’t abuse God’s mercy or take that risk! We don’t know how much time we will have, and thus we must strive for perfection in the spiritual life- even if we will inevitably fall short in some sense.

Father Ripperger, in this video, also explains that: even if ignorance possesses a person to the extent that they do not understand the nature of their sins, rather than volitionally (an intentional sin which offends Him even more) the objective nature of a sin still offends God and takes away from His extrinsic glory in nature. Thus, we still need to make reparation to Him for those sins as well. Even if there were zero mortal sins a day (which is far from the case today), if every person only committed one venial sin, that would mean that God is offended eight billion times in a single day. However, we know that many grave sins are committed each day by countless people throughout the world. The extraction from His external glory can become so great He understandably chastises us after a certain point for our sins.” We need much more fervent prayer & as the Angel at Fatima, Portugal in 1917 said: “Penance, penance, penance” as reparation to The Most Holy Trinity & Our Lady! The beginning of getting right with God once we are baptized is the SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION!

1 Peter‬ ‭3‬:‭18‬-‭21‬ ‭‬‬says: “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.”

The Sacred Scriptures give insight to the sacrament of reconciliation with a person given the authority of Christ to forgive sins in two prime cases:

2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬-‭21‬ ‭says: “For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore from now on we recognize no one according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him in this way no longer. Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

The previous chapter talked about Paul’s mission as an apostle for Christ, and the prior section in the same chapter as the quote above reads: “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made manifest also in your consciences. We are not again commending ourselves to you but are giving you an occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are of sound mind, it is for you,” (2 Corinthians‬ ‭5‬:‭10‬-‭13).

Secondly, more telling is when Jesus gives the apostles the Holy Spirit and tells them to forgive sins on His authority in His name:

So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.” And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.” - John‬ ‭20‬:‭19‬-‭23‬

Why is this relevant? Because the apostles themselves established successors as deacons, priests, and bishops- the ladder two, of course, having the authority as well as the original apostles to forgive the sins of others in the place of Jesus; this is made possible through the sacrament of holy orders for those who came after the apostles in history in what is known as apostolic succession. The clergymen from apostolic succession in the Church hierarchy make up the Catholic Church under the head of the successor of Peter, the Pope, who resides in Rome and acts as the head of the Church which Jesus founded- just as Peter did at the Council of Jerusalem when: “… some of the sect of the Pharisees who had believed stood up, saying, ‘It is necessary to circumcise them and to direct them [Gentile converts] to observe the Law of Moses,’” (Acts‬ ‭15‬:‭5‬).

Scripture records the following:

“The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter. After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brethren, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us; and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear? But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, in the same way as they also are.” - Acts‬ ‭15‬:‭6‬-‭11‬ ‭

Notice, Peter passionately exclaims: “We are saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus,” and he makes the decision on the authority of God with the Holy Spirit speaking through him on teaching matter of faith not directly told to Him previously by Jesus or in New Testament Scripture (which was not written yet) among his brethren apostles through the Tradition of the Apostolic Church. This is how all of early church Christianity operated, why do Protestants think Jesus intended the Church to operate radically differently today? The Catholic Church recognized and put together the canon of Scripture with the Old & New Testament in the late fourth century, and has been entrusted with the authority from Jesus to teach on faith and morals as a means of properly interpreting Scripture; these are the same Scriptures that Protestants accept via the authority of the Catholic Church unknowingly, even though Martin Luther decided to remove seven books from the Protestant canon for the Old Testament. Jesus has given the Apostles & their successors the Holy Spirit for this function (John 14:16-31), and promised that the “gates of hell would never prevail,” in the process (Matthew 16:18-19). If we are to leave the Church Jesus founded with its hierarchy and apostolic roots, then we are to reject the fullness of Jesus Himself; this is what Protestants sadly do. As Jesus said to His apostles, “The one who listens to you listens to Me, and the one who rejects you rejects Me; and he who rejects Me rejects the One who sent Me,” (Luke 10:16).

Peter was given headship over the Church as the vicar of the Lord Jesus Christ by Jesus Himself:

“Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” - Matthew‬ ‭16‬:‭13‬-‭19‬ ‭

When the apostles were debating the greatest among them at the Last Supper, Jesus said to Peter: “… The one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. For who is greater, the one who reclines at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines at the table? But I am among you as the one who serves. You are those who have stood by Me in My trials; and just as My Father has granted Me a kingdom, I grant you that you may eat and drink at My table in My kingdom, and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers,” (Luke‬ ‭22‬:‭26‬-‭32‬).‭

Now that we have covered the biblical evidence for the authority of the apostles to forgive sins in the name & of Jesus Christ (in persona Christi), we should now look at the evidence in the early church after them to see how Christianity was intended to function on behalf of Jesus & His apostles. In the first four centuries alone, we have overwhelming evidence that the sacrament of confession was passed on from the apostles to their successors in accordance with how it was instituted by Jesus:

THE DIDACHE

“Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure” (Didache 4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).

THE LETTER OF BARNABAS

“You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light” (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).

IGNATIUS OF ANTIOCH

“For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ” (Letter to the Philadelphians 3 [A.D. 110]).

“For where there is division and wrath, God does not dwell. To all them that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of God, and to communion with the bishop” (ibid., 8).

IRENAEUS

“[The Gnostic disciples of Marcus] have deluded many women. . . . Their consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. Some of these women make a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence, as if withdrawing from themselves the hope of the life of God, they either apostatize entirely or hesitate between the two courses” (Against Heresies 1:22 [A.D. 189]).

TERTULLIAN

“[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to the physicians; and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness” (Repentance 10:1 [A.D. 203]).

HIPPOLYTUS

“[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop shall pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Pour forth now that power which comes from you, from your royal Spirit, which you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he bestowed upon his holy apostles . . . and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and to serve without blame as your high priest, ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly before your face and to offer to you the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command” (Apostolic Tradition 3 [A.D. 215]).

ORIGEN

“[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, ‘I said, “To the Lord I will accuse myself of my iniquity”’” (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248]).

CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE

“The apostle [Paul] likewise bears witness and says: ‘ . . . Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. But [the impenitent] spurn and despise all these warnings; before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest . . . they do violence to [the Lord’s] body and blood, and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord more than when they denied him” (The Lapsed 15:1–3 (A.D. 251]).

“Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are still pleasing before the Lord” (ibid., 28).

“[S]inners may do penance for a set time, and according to the rules of discipline come to public confession, and by imposition of the hand of the bishop and clergy receive the right of Communion. [But now some] with their time [of penance] still unfulfilled . . . they are admitted to Communion, and their name is presented; and while the penitence is not yet performed, confession is not yet made, the hands of the bishop and clergy are not yet laid upon them, the Eucharist is given to them; although it is written, ‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]” (Letters 9:2 [A.D. 253]).

“And do not think, dearest brother, that either the courage of the brethren will be lessened, or that martyrdoms will fail for this cause, that penance is relaxed to the lapsed, and that the hope of peace [i.e., absolution] is offered to the penitent. . . . For to adulterers even a time of repentance is granted by us, and peace is given” (ibid., 51[55]:20).

“But I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed, or to suppose that pardon is to be denied to the penitent, when it is written, ‘Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works’ [Rev. 2:5], which certainly is said to him who evidently has fallen, and whom the Lord exhorts to rise up again by his deeds [of penance], because it is written, ‘Alms deliver from death’ [Tob. 12:9]” (ibid., 51[55]:22).

APHRAAHAT THE PERSIAN SAGE

“You [priests], then, who are disciples of our illustrious physician [Christ], you ought not deny a curative to those in need of healing. And if anyone uncovers his wound before you, give him the remedy of repentance. And he that is ashamed to make known his weakness, encourage him so that he will not hide it from you. And when he has revealed it to you, do not make it public, lest because of it the innocent might be reckoned as guilty by our enemies and by those who hate us” (Treatises 7:3 [A.D. 340]).

BASIL THE GREAT

“It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they confessed to the apostles” (Rules Briefly Treated 288 [A.D. 374]).

JOHN CHRYSOSTOM

“Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven? ‘Whose sins you shall forgive,’ he says, ‘they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John 20:21–23]. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven” (The Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387]).

AMBROSE OF MILAN

“For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only” (Penance 1:1 [A.D. 388]).

JEROME

“If the serpent, the devil, bites someone secretly, he infects that person with the venom of sin. And if the one who has been bitten keeps silence and does not do penance, and does not want to confess his wound . . . then his brother and his master, who have the word [of absolution] that will cure him, cannot very well assist him” (Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11 [A.D. 388]).

AUGUSTINE

“When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the commandments of God so that you may preserve your baptism to the very end. I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they are venial sins which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins. For light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. . . . But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the body of Christ. Perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. . . . In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance” (Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D. 395]).

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches the following things about the sacrament of confession:

1422: “Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God's mercy for the offense committed against him, and are, at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.”

1423: It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.

It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.

1424: It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a “confession” - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man.

It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest’s sacramental absolution God grants the penitent “pardon and peace.”

It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: “Be reconciled to God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go; first be reconciled to your brother.”

1425: “You were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.” One must appreciate the magnitude of the gift God has given us in the sacraments of Christian initiation in order to grasp the degree to which sin is excluded for him who has “put on Christ.” But the apostle John also says: “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” And the Lord himself taught us to pray: “Forgive us our trespasses,” linking our forgiveness of one another's offenses to the forgiveness of our sins that God will grant us.

1426: Conversion to Christ, the new birth of Baptism, the gift of the Holy Spirit and the Body and Blood of Christ received as food have made us “holy and without blemish,” just as the Church herself, the Bride of Christ, is “holy and without blemish.” Nevertheless the new life received in Christian initiation has not abolished the frailty and weakness of human nature, nor the inclination to sin that tradition calls concupiscence, which remains in the baptized such that with the help of the grace of Christ they may prove themselves in the struggle of Christian life. This is the struggle of conversion directed toward holiness and eternal life to which the Lord never ceases to call us.

1427: Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.” In the Church’s preaching this call is addressed first to those who do not yet know Christ and his Gospel. Also, Baptism is the principal place for the first and fundamental conversion. It is by faith in the Gospel and by Baptism that one renounces evil and gains salvation, that is, the forgiveness of all sins and the gift of new life.

1428: Christ's call to conversion continues to resound in the lives of Christians. This second conversion is an uninterrupted task for the whole Church who, “clasping sinners to her bosom, [is] at once holy and always in need of purification, [and] follows constantly the path of penance and renewal.” This endeavor of conversion is not just a human work. It is the movement of a “contrite heart,” drawn and moved by grace to respond to the merciful love of God who loved us first.

1429: St. Peter’s conversion after he had denied his master three times bears witness to this. Jesus’ look of infinite mercy drew tears of repentance from Peter and, after the Lord's resurrection, a threefold affirmation of love for him. The second conversion also has a communitarian dimension, as is clear in the Lord's call to a whole Church: “Repent!” St. Ambrose says of the two conversions that, in the Church, “there are water and tears: the water of Baptism and the tears of repentance.”

1430: Jesus’ call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, “sackcloth and ashes,” fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.

1431: Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).

1432: The human heart is heavy and hardened. “God must give man a new heart.^” Conversion is first of all a work of the grace of God who makes our hearts return to him: “Restore us to thyself, O LORD, that we may be restored!” God gives us the strength to begin anew. It is in discovering the greatness of God's love that our heart is shaken by the horror and weight of sin and begins to fear offending God by sin and being separated from him. “The human heart is converted by looking upon him whom our sins have pierced.”

The Catechism continues to say:

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.

1441: Only God forgives sins. 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.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.

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.” The apostle is sent out “on behalf of Christ” with “God making his appeal” through him and pleading: “Be reconciled to God.”

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.

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.” “The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head.”

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.

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.”

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.

The Catechism also says:

1455: The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to God and to the communion of the Church in order to make a new future possible.

1456: Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: “All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly.”

When Christ’s faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, “for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know.”

1457: According to the Church's command, “after having attained the age of discretion, each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once a year.” Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion, even if he experiences deep contrition, without having first received sacramental absolution, unless he has a grave reason for receiving Communion and there is no possibility of going to confession. Children must go to the sacrament of Penance before receiving Holy Communion for the first time.

1458: Without being strictly necessary, confession of everyday faults (venial sins) is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Indeed the regular confession of our venial sins helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By receiving more frequently through this sacrament the gift of the Father's mercy, we are spurred to be merciful as he is merciful: “Whoever confesses his sins . . . is already working with God.” God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God. Man and sinner are, so to speak, two realities: when you hear “man”- this is what God has made; when you hear “sinner” - this is what man himself has made. Destroy what you have made, so that God may save what he has made. . . . When you begin to abhor what you have made, it is then that your good works are beginning, since you are accusing yourself of your evil works. The beginning of good works is the confession of evil works. You do the truth and come to the light.

1459: Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm (e.g., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as much. But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor. Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused. Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must “make satisfaction for” or “expiate” his sins. This satisfaction is also called “penance.”

1460: The penance the confessor imposes must take into account the penitent's personal situation and must seek his spiritual good. It must correspond as far as possible with the gravity and nature of the sins committed. It can consist of prayer, an offering, works of mercy, service of neighbor, voluntary self-denial, sacrifices, and above all the patient acceptance of the cross we must bear. Such penances help configure us to Christ, who alone expiated our sins once for all. They allow us to become co-heirs with the risen Christ, “provided we suffer with him.”

1461: Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of reconciliation, bishops who are their successors, and priests, the bishops’ collaborators, continue to exercise this ministry. Indeed bishops and priests, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”

1462: Forgiveness of sins brings reconciliation with God, but also with the Church. Since ancient times the bishop, visible head of a particular Church, has thus rightfully been considered to be the one who principally has the power and ministry of reconciliation: he is the moderator of the penitential discipline. Priests, his collaborators, exercise it to the extent that they have received the commission either from their bishop (or religious superior) or the Pope, according to the law of the Church.

1463: Certain particularly grave sins incur excommunication, the most severe ecclesiastical penalty, which impedes the reception of the sacraments and the exercise of certain ecclesiastical acts, and for which absolution consequently cannot be granted, according to canon law, except by the Pope, the bishop of the place or priests authorized by them. In danger of death any priest, even if deprived of faculties for hearing confessions, can absolve from every sin and excommunication.

1464: Priests must encourage the faithful to come to the sacrament of Penance and must make themselves available to celebrate this sacrament each time Christians reasonably ask for it.

1465: When he celebrates the sacrament of Penance, the priest is fulfilling the ministry of the Good Shepherd who seeks the lost sheep, of the Good Samaritan who binds up wounds, of the Father who awaits the prodigal son and welcomes him on his return, and of the just and impartial judge whose judgment is both just and merciful. The priest is the sign and the instrument of God's merciful love for the sinner.

1466: The confessor is not the master of God's forgiveness, but its servant. The minister of this sacrament should unite himself to the intention and charity of Christ. He should have a proven knowledge of Christian behavior, experience of human affairs, respect and sensitivity toward the one who has fallen; he must love the truth, be faithful to the Magisterium of the Church, and lead the penitent with patience toward healing and full maturity. He must pray and do penance for his penitent, entrusting him to the Lord's mercy.

1467: Given the delicacy and greatness of this ministry and the respect due to persons, the Church declares that every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him. He can make no use of knowledge that confession gives him about penitents’ lives. This secret, which admits of no exceptions, is called the “sacramental seal,” because what the penitent has made known to the priest remains “sealed” by the sacrament.

Lastly, the Catechism notably states:

1472: To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.

1473: The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the “old man” and to put on the “new man.”

The Divine Mercy Story of Jesus & Saint Faustina (Private Revelation)

Our Lord Jesus Christ appeared to the Polish mystic, Saint Faustina, in the 1930s. Though this is private revelation- not part of the deposit of faith, and you need not accept this to be saved, I think there is good evidence to believe that what she wrote on behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ is true. Here is some of what He instructed her to write down in her diary, Divine Mercy In My Soul:

“My Heart overflows with great mercy for souls, and especially for poor sinners. If only they could understand that I am the best of Fathers to them and that it is for them that the Blood and Water flowed from My Heart as from a fount overflowing with mercy. For them I dwell in the tabernacle as King of Mercy. I desire to bestow My graces upon souls, but they do not want to accept them. You, at least, come to Me as often as possible and take these graces they do not want to accept. In this way you Will console My Heart. Oh, how indifferent are souls to so much goodness, to so many proofs of love! My Heart drinks only of the ingratitude and forgetfulness of souls living in the world. They have time for everything, but they have no time to come to Me for graces.” (367)

“Tell the world about My mercy and My love. The flames of mercy are burning me. I desire to pour them out upon human souls. Oh, what pain they cause Me when they do not want to accept them! My daughter, do whatever is within your power to spread devotion to My mercy. I will make up for what you lack. Tell aching mankind to snuggle close to My merciful Heart, and I will fill it with peace. Tell [all people], My daughter, that I am Love and Mercy itself. When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it call not contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls. Souls who spread the honor of My mercy I shield through their entire lives as a tender mother her infant and at the hour of death I will not be a Judge for them, but the Merciful Savior. At that last hour, a soul has nothing with which to defend itself except My mercy. Happy is the soul that during its lifetime immersed itself in the Fountain of Mercy, because justice will have no hold on it. Write this: Everything that exists is enclosed in the bowels of My mercy, more deeply than an infant in it mother's womb. How painfully distrust of My goodness wounds Me! Sins of distrust wound Me most painfully.” (1074-1076)

“[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy. Write: before I come as a just Judge, I first open wide the door of My mercy. He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice…” (1146)

“As for you, be always merciful toward other people, and especially toward sinners. Oh, how painful it is to Me that souls so seldom unite themselves to Me in Holy Communion. I wait for souls, and they are indifferent toward Me. I love them tenderly and sincerely, and they distrust Me. I want to lavish My graces on them, and they do not want to accept them. They treat Me as a dead object, whereas My Heart is full of love and mercy. In order that you may know at least some of My pain, imagine the most tender of mothers who has great love for her children, while those children spurn her love. Consider her pain. No one is in a position to console her. This is but a feeble image and likeness of My love. Write, speak of My mercy. Tell souls where they are to look for solace; that is, in the Tribunal of Mercy [the Sacrament of Reconciliation]. There the greatest miracles take place [and] are incessantly repeated. To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage or to carry out some external ceremony; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of My representative and to reveal to him one’s misery, and the miracle of Divine Mercy will be fully demonstrated. Were a soul like a decaying corpse so that from a human standpoint, there would be no [hope of] restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not so with God. The miracle of Divine Mercy restores that soul in full. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God's mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late,” (1446-1448).

Here is an image of how the Lord Jesus appeared to Saint Faustina; it was painted in 1934 by Eugeniusz Kazimirowski as advised by the Polish saint herself, as well as Father Sopocko, her confessor and spiritual director, who was beatified by the late-Pope Benedict XVI in the year 2008:

Why is confession so important? As shown by the biblical and early church historical evidence, the sacrament of confession is the ordinary means by which Jesus desires and instructs us to approach Him for healing, forgiveness, and ultimately: salvation. Just like with the sacrament of baptism, Jesus transforms earthly matter into means of fundamentally (not just symbolically) bringing about His saving grace through the authority of the priest in His name (made possible through holy orders & apostolic succession in the Church) in the sacrament of confession. However, in a more intimate way, Jesus becomes truly present to us in the Eucharist. In Greek, the word is ευχαριστία, which translates to “thanksgiving” in English. In this sacrament, we give thanks to Jesus in Holy Communion because He becomes truly present in the apparent matter of bread and wine which is changed in substance through the blessing of the priest who has been given the authority & ability to preside over the mass & process of transubstantiation. Jesus unites us to Himself through the Eucharist!

In the liturgy of the Church, we say: “Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” In the Traditional Latin Mass, the same is said but in Latin and verbally spoken thrice: “Domine, non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum: Sed tantum dic verbo et sanabitur anima mea.” We get this directly from Scripture, when the centurion says to Jesus: “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed,” (Matthew 8:8).

Jesus tells us that the Eucharist is not symbolic but truly necessary for salvation, even when people leave Him over this teaching as recorded in Scripture. John 6:66 records: “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.” Jesus tells them: “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them,” (John 6:53-56). And yet: only the Catholic Church can receive and distribute the Holy Eucharist validly through apostolic succession and holy orders; Protestants do not even have the power or ability to bring about transubstantiation in any of their church denominations or sects, and while the Orthodox Church does due to apostolic succession- they are schismatic and have separated themselves from Jesus because of their rejection of the Pope (the successor of Saint Peter) as the head of the Church in Rome by which unity is maintained and supremacy is possessed; to receive Him at such a church would only bring the type of judgment upon yourself that Saint Paul talks about in 1 Corinthians 11.

So what are either to do? The sacrament of confession is ALWAYS THERE FOR YOU! So long as you are a validly-baptized Christian, you can receive absolution in the sacrament of confession from the priest given the authority to do so from Jesus! If you are not a member of the Catholic faith yet, there are RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) programs at nearly every parish (a Catholic Church community under the supervision of a diocese- a bigger community of Catholics led by a bishop in union with the Pope) no matter where you are! This is how I became an initiated Catholic in the spring of 2022 at the Easter Vigil despite not being baptized, having gone to confession, or having received the sacraments of the Holy Eucharist or confirmation beforehand. Any priest would be more than happy to help you become Catholic if you approach them after mass, if you call the parish office number or email them and leave your information; this number is available on each individual parish website. The RCIA program to become a fully initiated Catholic is a very simple process that takes only a few months and is what Jesus calls us to do as converts to the faith for the good of our salvation!

Confession is also always there for those who are struggling with sin- whether mortal (grave sins which separate you from God and eternal life IF you do not repent and seek absolution from a priest in the sacrament of confession with the time you have subsequently) or venial (less severe sins that do not separate you from God; see 1 John 5:16-17 for Scripture evidence for clarity on this) to bring them closer to a perfect union with God.

In some sense, we are never worthy to receive Jesus in the Eucharist, and are also never worthy of Heaven because of our sinful nature. However, God has found it fitting through His Mercy to offer salvation to all of us- so long as we cooperate with His grace, obey His commands & by extension His teachings through the Holy Catholic Church (namely to receive baptism once [Acts 2:38, John 3:5, Romans 6:1-4, Galatians 3:27, 1 Peter 3:21], receive the Eucharist worthily [John 6:53, 1 Corinthians 10:16-21, 1 Corinthians 11:27-30], and to avoid grave sin/commit apostasy which would strip us of communion with Him and His Church [Matthew 24:13, Romans 11:22, Colossians 1:21-23, Philippians 2:12]).

In case you didn’t know (perhaps you haven’t heard): priests are sinners too- even the most devout, orthodox, compassionate, and merciful amongst them. But that doesn’t invalidate the sacrament of confession, because as I explained through the biblical and early church historical evidence: we go to a priest to receive absolution for our sins since this is how Jesus intended for it to be, and Jesus is Lord, and we do not doubt the spotless bride of Christ, the Church, just as we would not doubt the Bridegroom (Jesus). Even if the institutional Church has problems, and though priests are sinners too, they act in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) to absolve us just as the apostles did who established successors that make up the Catholic Church of today and have for 2,000 years. The efficacy of the sacrament is not bound by the moral quality of the priest presiding over the sacrament, because he acts only as a representative of Jesus given His authority; the same is true with a priest who baptizes you, presides over the mass and distributes Holy Communion to the faithful, anoints you with oil in the case of sickness or medical emergency, or officiates a marriage between a husband and wife.

After all, even Pope Francis, the Holy Father of the Catholic Church, partakes in the sacrament of confession! Here is the Holy Father both acting as the penitent (the confessing individual) and as the confessor (the priest who presided over the sacrament of confession and can give absolution to the penitent):

Now, allow me to share with you some quotes by the Holy Father, Pope Francis, about the sacrament of confession:

“Someone can say, ‘I confess my sins only to God.’ Yes, you can say to God, ‘forgive me,’ and say your sins. But our sins are also against our brothers, against the Church. This is why it is necessary to ask forgiveness of the Church and of our brothers, in the person of the Priest. Forgiveness is not something we can give ourselves. [Someone may say:] ‘Father, I am embarrassed!’ Even embarrassment is good. It's healthy to have a bit of shame... it does us good, because it makes us more humble. Don't be afraid of confession ... When someone is in line for confession he feels all these things- even shame - but then, when he finishes confessing, he leaves (feeling) free, great, beautiful, forgiven, clean, happy. The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament of healing.” The Holy Father added: “Be courageous, and go to confession.”

In a general audience address- just recently- on the 7th of February, he stated: “There is a form of sorrow that is part of our conversion and can be transformed into joy with God’s grace. But another kind of sadness makes the soul despondent. This second kind of sadness must be fought with all our strength, because it comes from the evil one.” An article posted by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from March 2023 notes the following:

Pope Francis, who has said he goes to confession every two weeks, meets during Lent with priests and those about to be ordained at the end of a Vatican-sponsored course on confession, matters of conscience and indulgences. This year, he told them that making themselves available to the faithful who want to experience God’s mercy and forgiveness is an essential part of the church’s mission.

In a world where “there is no shortage of hotbeds of hatred and revenge,” Pope Francis told priests and seminarians that “we confessors must multiply the ‘hotbeds of mercy,’” by making it easy for people to access the sacrament of reconciliation. “We are in a supernatural struggle” with evil, the pope said, “even though we already know the final outcome will be Christ’s victory over the powers of evil. This victory truly takes place every time a penitent is absolved. Nothing drives away and defeats evil more than divine mercy.”

The pope said he had told Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, which assigns confessors to the major basilicas of Rome, that one of the confessors “listens and rebukes, rebukes and then gives you a penance that cannot be done. Please, this will not do, no. Mercy. You are there to forgive and to say something so that the person can move forward renewed by forgiveness.”

“You are there to forgive: put that in your heart,” the pope told them. While insisting individual confession is “the privileged way to go, because it fosters a personal encounter with divine mercy, which every repentant heart awaits,” the pope also encouraged the priests to offer communal celebrations “on some occasions,” as occurred around the world during the Coronavirus pandemic.

As ministers of the church, he said, a priest hearing confession must have obvious “evangelical attitudes,” including: “First of all, welcoming everyone without prejudice, because only God knows what grace can work in the hearts at any time; then listening to your brother or sister with the ear of the heart, wounded like Christ's heart; absolving penitents, generously dispensing God’s forgiveness; and accompanying the penitent’s journey without forcing it, keeping the pace of the faithful with constant patience and prayer.”

As he often does, Pope Francis pleaded with the priests to be generous with the time they are available for confessions since “the church's evangelizing mission passes in large part through the rediscovery of the gift of confession, also in view of the approaching jubilee of 2025.”

Every cathedral, every shrine and every deanery or cluster of parishes should have an ample schedule of confession times, he said. “If mercy is the mission of the church, we must facilitate the faithful's access to this ‘encounter of love’ as much as possible,” he said, taking great care when preparing children for their first confession and, especially, when ministering to the sick and dying. “When not much more can be done to restore the body,” he said, “much can and always must be done for the health of the soul. Especially in an individual confession, he said, God can “caress each individual sinner with his mercy. The Shepherd, and he alone, knows and loves his sheep one by one, especially the weakest and most wounded.”²

Now, an understandable theological question may arise from some: “What happens if I die without having received absolution for my mortal sin in the sacrament of confession?” There are two very different circumstances which would involve vastly different outcomes for a soul in such a scenario that I must more deeply explain. First, if you choose to not seek the sacrament of confession with the time that you have on Earth, or if you intentionally choose not to reveal to the priest any mortal sin in the sacrament of confession when you go before you die, then you will be punished accordingly by God for having intentionally and willfully not properly used the ordinary means by which He absolves us of sin and violating His grace. On the other hand, if you have committed a grave sin and repented in your heart, and make a commitment in your will to go to the sacrament of confession and seek absolution with the time that you have as soon as possible, and you tragically died before you could get to the sacrament of confession to receive absolution from the priest, then you would not be held morally responsible or culpable. Why? Because God works through the sacraments, but His Mercy and forgiveness are not bound by the sacraments. In the same way that the thief on the cross besides Jesus was told He would receive the Kingdom of Heaven after recognizing the authority, innocence, and goodness of Our Lord (Luke‬ ‭23‬:‭40‬-‭43‬) despite not formally receiving baptism, God forgives those who desire to get to confession and receive absolution from the priest, but couldn’t:

Moreover, the Church teaches:

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As explained earlier, the temporal consequence of sin remains both through a now-tainted component of our will and as a sin committed against our neighbor & the Church. Purgatory, though its levels and experiences differs for everybody, involves the same pains of Hell for a temporary period of purification before we are allowed into Heaven if the venial sins & temporal affects of the totality of our sins are not removed through penance, awaits us all if we do not frequently visit the sacrament of confession, engage in and maintain a fervent prayer life, and reflect on how to improve in the spiritual life each and every day.

Can you go to confession for the same sin over and over? Yes, so long as you have a genuinely contrite heart; never despair if you are struggling! The Catechism explains:

1450: “Penance requires . . . the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction.”

1451: Among the penitent’s acts contrition occupies first place. Contrition is “sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again.”

1452: When it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else, contrition is called “perfect” (contrition of charity). Such contrition 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.

1453: The contrition called “imperfect” (or “attrition”) is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin's ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner (contrition of fear). Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of Penance.

According to the experience of most priests that I’ve talked to and seen online, and some of the most gifted spiritual directors and confessors of our time, including Father Chad Ripperger (mentioned earlier in this post), most of us struggle with the same area of sin over and over, but do not despair! This means that this is the area of vulnerability in our spiritual lives and the virtue which God wishes us to work on and master in time. Instead of giving into the temptations of the Devil (the worst of which is the choice to despair), we need to ask Our Lady of Sorrows to intercede for us so that God may provide us with the grace and direction of working on mastering the particular virtue(s) which reflects a triumph over the sin(s) in our lives from which we struggle. Here are some examples:

Saint Maximilian Kolbe, who lived during the Second World War as a Polish priest, said: “Whenever you feel guilty, even if it is because you have consciously committed a sin, a serious sin, something you have kept doing many, many times, never let the devil deceive you by allowing him to discourage you. Whenever you feel guilty, offer all your guilt to the Immaculate, without analyzing it or examining it, as something that belongs to her... My beloved, may every fall, even if it is serious and habitual sin, always become for us a small step toward a higher degree of perfection. In fact, the only reason why the Immaculate permits us to fall is to cure us from our self-conceit, from our pride, to make us humble and thus make us docile to the divine graces. The devil, instead, tries to inject in us discouragement and internal depression in those circumstances, which is, in fact, nothing else than our pride surfacing again. If we knew the depth of our poverty, we would not be at all surprised by our falls, but rather astonished, and we would thank God, after sinning, for not allowing us to fall even deeper and still more frequently.”

Now, I’d like to share with you something you can reflect upon in preparation for your next (perhaps first) visit to the sacrament of confession with a priest. Recently, my friend Tom gave me a pamphlet from the year 2000 published by TAN Books called: “Confession: It’s Fruitful Practice With an Examination of Conscience.” The following is contained within the book, and it made me reflect a lot more on my flaws in the spiritual life and how I can improve on them through the sacrament of confession- a place of victory:

The Ten Commandments of God: 1) “I am the Lord, thy God: thou shalt not have strange gods before Me.“ Have I: Denied my religion? Spoken against it or its ministers? Doubted any article of Faith? Affiliated myself with a forbidden secret society? Taken part in non-Catholic church services? Read books, papers, etc., belittling morality, scoffing at virtue or causing doubts regarding the Church's teachings? Despaired of, or presumed on God's mercy by continuing a long time in mortal sin? Had anything to do with superstitious practices: chain prayers, fortune-telling, spiritism, the Ouija board, etc.? Complained or murmured against God or His Providence? Refused to resign myself to His Will? Neglected daily prayers? Or said them carelessly, with willful distractions? Shown irreverence towards the Blessed Sacrament, or in the use of sacramentals: holy water, the Sign of the Cross, etc.? Used words of Scripture in jest? Failed to keep promises or vows made to God?

2) “Thou shalt not take the Name of the Lord, thy God, in vain.” Have I: Used the Name of God or of Jesus in cursing? in swearing? in jest? Have I done this from habit? Have I been guilty of blasphemous thoughts, or words, or writings? Desired evil to others, or cursed them? Asked God to curse them? Encouraged others to use evil or profane language?

3) “Remember thou keep holy the Sabbath day (Sunday).” Have I: Willfully missed Mass on Sundays or Holydays of Obligation? Come late through my own fault and missed a considerable part of the Mass? Misbehaved in church? Caused others to do so? Performed unnecessary servile work for a considerable time on such days (more than 2 or 3 hours)? Desecrated them by excessive drinking or gambling, or by keeping sinful company or frequenting sinful amusements?

4) “Honor thy Father and thy Mother. [For] Children: Have I: Been disobedient, ungrateful or stubborn toward my parents, teachers or pastors? Wished serious harm to parents or wished they were dead? Used insulting language toward them? Struck them in resentment or bad will? Made them unhappy by misconduct? Disobeyed when they forbade going with bad companions, to bad shows, or other dangerous places? Failed to assist them when they needed help in old age, sickness, or poverty? Failed to carry out their last will? Neglected to pray for the repose of their souls? Have I broken any civil laws? Have I disobeyed any lawful authority? [For] Employees: Have I: Failed to carry out the commands of my employer? Fomented discord? Failed in respect or honesty?

5) “Thou shalt not kill.” (This includes also injury to the soul, and uncharitableness.) Have I: By act, participation, instigation, counsel, or consent, been guilty of anyone’s death, or bodily injury? Or of destroying the life of the unborn? Have I desired another's death, or wished misfortune to him? Given way to anger and passion? Ill-treated others? Been at enmity with others? Refused to speak to them? Willfully entertained thoughts of hatred, revenge, jealousy, aversion, resentment, or contempt for others? Provoked others to anger? Harmed the souls of others by giving scandal or throwing temptation in their way? Given in to moods of sullenness and moroseness? Shown sensitiveness and hurt feelings over trifling matters? Approved or encouraged the anger of others? Attempted suicide or entertained thoughts of it? Participated in or consented to “mercy killing”? Sinned by excessive eating and /or drinking? Become intoxicated? Sinned by abusing drugs? Has anyone through my fault died without having the priest and religious ministrations? Have I sent or advised parents to send children to a school where their Catholic faith or morals would be endangered?

6) “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” 9) “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife.” Have I: Committed impure acts? Alone, or with another? With a single or married person? Of my own or the opposite sex? With a relative? Dwelt with pleasure on impure thoughts and imaginations? Or consented to them in my heart? Willfully desired to see or do anything impure? Used impure language, allusions, words of double meaning? How many were listening? Have I listened with willful pleasure to immodest language? Sung or listened to improper songs? Sinned by impure or immodest touch or action, with myself, or with others? Boasted of my sins? Read immoral books? Loaned or sold them to others? Written improper things? Gazed with willful pleasure on improper objects or pictures, or shown them to others? Voluntarily exposed myself to temptation by curiosity? By frequenting dangerous company or places? By sinful amusements? By immodest dances? By watching indecent plays or movies? Been guilty of undue familiarities or sinful kisses? Kept company with a married person? Am I keeping sinful company now? Have I dressed immodestly? Have I by immodest dress or freedom of speech or manners been a cause of temptation to the purity of others? Have I deliberately led others into sin? Or taken part in their sins? (The circumstances which change the nature of a sin, such as whether married or single, gender, if related, etc., must be mentioned in confessing these sins.) Have I been guilty of sins contrary to marriage obligations? Have I used contraceptives or abortifacient “contraceptives” or been sterilized? Encouraged, advised, or instructed others to commit such sins? Failed to train my children in matters of chastity?

7) “Thou shalt not steal.” 10) “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s goods.” Have I: Stolen money? How much? Stolen other goods? From whom (poor, rich, Church, parents)? Have I returned the stolen goods or their value? Knowingly bought or accepted stolen goods? Damaged another's property in any way? Neglected to pay for such damage? Refused to give back borrowed things? Kept things that were found without making sufficient effort to find the owner? Cheated? Passed worthless money? Performed work carelessly? Wasted time at work? Squandered my property? Wronged my family by prodigal expenses, such as excessive drinking, gambling, etc. Sought the things of this world too eagerly? Desired to steal or commit any injustice? Been a party to another’s stealing or injustice? Shared in or concealed stolen goods?

8) “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.” Have I: Given false evidence in a court of justice? Deliberately told a lie to deceive another? Told lies which caused injury to another's reputation and good name? (This is the sin of calumny.) Made known the true but secret faults of others without necessity? (This is the sin of detraction.) Listened to such speech? Caused ill-feeling by tale-bearing? Judged others rashly or suspected them rashly? Read others’ letters and violated their right to certain secrets? Been guilty in any other way of uncharitable speech? Have I neglected to repair the harm done by my sinful speech? Have I spoken against a priest, or anyone consecrated to God? (This is a sacrilege.) Have I flattered others in their sins and bad habits? Have I sinned by hypocrisy and pretense of virtue? Signed false papers or documents? Have I attributed bad motives to others when I could not be certain of their motive?

The Six Precepts of the Church. 1. To attend Mass and to abstain from servile work on all Sundays and Holydays of Obligation. 2. To fast and abstain from meat on the days appointed by the Church. 3. To confess one's sins at least once a year. 4. To receive worthily the Blessed Eucharist at Easter Time or within the time appointed. 5. To contribute to the support of the Church. 6. Not to marry persons within the forbidden degrees of kindred or otherwise prohibited by the Church; not to solemnize marriage at the forbidden times; in general, to observe the laws of the Church concerning marriage. Have I: Failed to assist at Mass on Sundays or Holydays of Obligation, or done so without due reverence and devotion? Performed unnecessary servile work on such days? Failed to go to Confession once a year? Failed to receive Holy Communion during the Easter Time (Septuagesima Sunday through Trinity Sunday, i.e., from the third Sunday before Ash Wednesday through the Sunday after Pentecost Sunday)? Received Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin? Failed to observe precepts of fasting and abstinence without lawful reasons and proper dispensation? Failed to contribute to the support of the Church according to my means? Planned to “marry” or actually pretended to enter the married state before a minister or a civil magistrate? (That is, entered into an invalid so-called “marriage” outside the Church.) Approved of other Catholics doing this? Acted as witness for them in such a “marriage”? Married within the forbidden degrees of kinship?

The Seven Capital Sins: Pride, Covetousness, Lust, Anger, Gluttony, Envy and Sloth. Have I: Willfully entertained proud thoughts or been vain of my looks, talents, family, clothes, good works, etc? Boasted of these things? Sought the flattery and applause of others? Avoided doing some good work through fear of what others might think? Repined at another’s good, either spiritual or temporal? Committed gluttony by eating or drinking to excess? Become excessively or unjustly angry? Given way to impatience, peevishness, ill-humor or discontent? Neglected my duties (including spiritual ones) or performed them with tepidity and indolence? Sought my own ease too much? Led an unmortified life, squandering time in idleness or useless occupations? Taken any unlawful (i.e., impure) sexual pleasure, either in thought or deed? Been willfully jealous of others? Permitted jealousy of another to show in my conduct? Sought the goods of this world with inordinate effort? Been miserly toward the poor?

Duties of Particular States of Life. For Married Persons. Have I: Lived in peace and union? Given cause for jealousy? Observed the laws of purity according to the married state? Misused the holy state of Matrimony? Given scandal by angry disputes? Forsaken my partner and lived separately without just cause? Neglected my duties of support or care for my children and household? For Parents. Have I: Neglected the religious training of my children? Failed to send them to good Catholic schools when I could have done so? Sent them to a school where their Catholic faith or morals would be endangered? Neglected to watch over the company they keep? The things they read? The shows they watch? Given them scandal by cursing, quarreling, or in other ways? Failed to correct them? Selfishly interfered with the vocation of a son or daughter? For Employers. Have I: Failed to afford those who work under me opportunities to discharge their religious duties? Ordered them to do anything wrong? To be dishonest, cheat, etc.? Have I paid unjust wages?

Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy. Have I: Failed to relieve the temporal and spiritual necessities of others when it was in my power to do so? Did I do what I could to assist them in poverty, sickness, old age, or any spiritual need?

Some of you may be reading this and thinking, “Wow, I am guilty of so much more than I even realized!” That’s what I thought when I first read this, too. The sacrament of confession- prepared for properly through an examination of conscience like such- is humbling. The point of the sacrament is to make us humble before God, contrite for our sins, more loving (willing the good of another, according to Saint Thomas Aquinas) towards our neighbor, but thankful in the presence of Our Merciful God for His infinite Love & Goodness! Confession is a place of victory and an instrument of God’s great Mercy!

Saint John Vianney, the patron saint of parish priests who lived between 1786 and 1859, said this about the sacrament of confession: “You don’t need to wallow in guilt. Wallow in the mercy of God. When you are guilty, say so to God through a confessor. Acknowledge your problems and sins. The moment you have stated them, God puts His Hand over you and you are a newborn babe.”

Saint Frances de Sales, who served as the Bishop of Geneva, was one of the most influential Catholic leaders to restore the Church after the heretical Protestant Reformation. He also gave practical spiritual advice to people through his preaching and writings during his life. In one example, he said: “Be patient with everyone but especially with yourself; I mean that you should not be troubled about your imperfections and that you should always have courage to pick yourself up afterwards. There is no better way of getting there in the end in the spiritual life than always starting all over again and never thinking that you have done enough.”

In The Way of Divine Love by Sister Josefa Menendez (1890-1923), Our Lord told her: “The world does not know the mercy of My Heart. I intend to enlighten them through you. I want you to be the apostle of My love and mercy. I would like these [those living with sin] to understand that it is not the fact of being in sin that ought to keep them from Me. They must never think that there is no remedy for them, nor that they have forfeited forever the love that once was theirs.... No, poor souls, the God who has shed all His Blood for you has no such feelings for you! Come all of you to Me and fear not, for I Love you all... I will wash you in My Blood and you shall be made whiter than snow. All of your offenses will be submerged in the waters in which I myself shall wash you, nor shall anything whatsoever be able to tear from My Heart its Love for you.”

I said this recently on my Telegram, and I will say it here once more: THE FACT THAT YOU ARE ALIVE ON PLANET EARTH RIGHT NOW IS REASON ENOUGH TO HAVE HOPE! NEVER DESPAIR KNOWING THE MERCY OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST & THE LOVE GOD HAS FOR YOU! GOD LOVES EACH AND EVERY ONE OF YOU!

Our Lady and all of the saints and angels in heaven, are watching over you, rooting for you as if this was one big spiritual sporting event, and praying for you that you will strive to grow in holiness and respond to God’s grace and offering of salvation through the Redemptive Work of Jesus on the Cross; once you are baptized: it all starts with the sacrament of confession.

Pray the Rosary, pray the Divine Mercy Chaplet, get enrolled in sacramentals for spiritual aid like the St. Benedict Medal, the Miraculous Medal, the Brown Scapular, and the likes! Study the lives of the saints are role models who we must imitate and rock-stars in God’s Hall of Fame (called Heaven), ask for their intercession, examine your conscience thoroughly each day, and yes: become Catholic if you are not already! Go to the sacrament of confession so that you may be prepared to properly receive the Lord Jesus in the Most Holy Eucharist! May God Bless you all- especially throughout this upcoming season of Lent! I will be sharing a post about that in the coming days, so do stay tuned! Thank you! CHRIST IS KING!

SOURCES:

1. Early Church Fathers on Confession: https://www.churchfathers.org/confession

2. Divine Mercy Journal of Saint Faustina: https://www.amazon.com/Diary-Divine-Mercy-My-Soul/dp/1596141107

3. Pope Francis on Confession: https://www.archbalt.org/pope-francis-top-ten-reasons-to-go-to-confession/?print=print#:~:text=%E2%80%9C%E2%80%A6,at%20his%20general%20audience%20Nov.

4. TAN Books Confession Guide: https://tanbooks.com/books/confession-its-fruitful-practice-with-an-examination-of-conscience/?sku=1723&gc_id=10316277314&h_ad_id=633454567152&gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA8YyuBhBSEiwA5R3-E-kqmBSa3uwWqVdLjeM8dEFydRJwgy8U1Ps4tyeHUrzDYBmc5sW3nRoCW-IQAvD_BwE

1. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2024-02/pope-francis-gereral-audience-sorrow-vice-2024.html

2. https://www.usccb.org/news/2023/confession-encounter-love-fights-evil-pope-tells-priests