Many Catholics are thankful to be celebrating the Jubilee Year of Mercy. To rediscover the beauty of God’s rich merciful love is an experience that instils inner peace and deep joy.

In the relationship with the Lord of grace, it is always our Creator and Saviour who takes the first step. We are called to respond, to deepen our faith and to heed the call to ‘conversion’ (that is, to repent, changing the direction of our lives where necessary). This at times involves the sacrament of confession.

Opening oneself to the invitation of the merciful Lord is attractive, but many nowadays would stop short at going to confession. Can’t I tell the Lord that I am sorry in my heart? ‘Why do I need to go to another human being?’, many ask.

We first receive the great gift of life in Christ in our baptism. We experience, however, that this gift is carried in earthen vessels. The life of a child of God is threatened by temptation and is weakened, even lost, by serious sin.

Therefore the Lord has provided a sacrament of healing for Christians during their earthly pilgrimage. “The Lord Jesus, physician of our souls…, has willed that His Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, His work of healing and salvation, even among its own members.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1992, par 1421).

There are different names for this sacrament, each stressing a particular aspect.

The designation ‘sacrament of confession’, for instance, points to disclosure of sins to a priest as being an essential element in the sacrament. The name ‘sacrament of penance’ (or ‘conversion’) stresses personal conversion within the Church, penance and satisfaction for sin. The term ‘sacrament of reconciliation’ points to the effect of the sacrament: the sinner is reconciled to God, to the Church and also to himself or herself. All these elements make up the beautiful sacrament of mercy.

Can’t I tell the Lord that I am sorry in my heart? ‘Why do I need to go to another human being?’, many ask

This healing sacrament goes back to the day of the Resurrection. The Risen Lord, appearing to His apostles, “breathed upon them, saying: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone’s sins, they are retained” (John 20:19, 22-23).

God alone saves us, and only God forgives sins. Yet God chose as a ‘method’ to save us, that of taking flesh. He willed that even the forgiveness of sins, first in baptism and then in the healing sacrament, should be accompanied by visible, tangible signs.

In the case of the sacrament of confession, a tangible sign of the presence of God and the Church is the priest. Disclosing one’s sins to the priest, evidently a penitential act, can be followed by a comforting and/or encouraging, personalised response from the priest and then by sacramental absolution of sins.

Grave sins damage one’s relationship with the Almighty, but also wound the spiritual wellbeing of the Christian community, the Church, as well as one’s own dignity.

Sacramental absolution of sins is a profound experience of being healed on all three levels: being reconciled to God, the Church and oneself.

The reconciling sacrament is a whole, with input by the penitent and the priest. The penitent needs inner repentance of sins committed, disclosure (confession) of sins to the priest and the intention to do works of reparation. On his part, the priest, an enfleshed sign of God’s rich mercy to the penitent, grants absolution and proposes acts of ‘penance’ to be performed by the person receiving the sacrament: these are aimed at repairing the harm caused by sin, thereby strengthening the repentant disciple of Christ in his/her life of holiness.

The richness present in the sacrament would be missing if seeking pardon of God were a private matter alone. Once a grievous sin has been committed, reconciliation with God, the Church and oneself is needed. In confession, the priest as the ordained minister of God and the Church, dispenses God’s rich mercy. There he is not merely ‘another human being’.

Fr Robert Soler is a member of the Society of Jesus.

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