INTRODUCTION. All Catholic commentators have seen in the
cure of the ten lepers a type of the cleansing by Christ of the
mortal leprosy of sin, and in our Lord's sending them to the
priests, a figure or type of sacramental confession of sins. The
faith which the lepers had in the mercy and power of our Lord,
and the obedience which they manifested in carrying out His
command are a fitting model of the faith and good dispositions
which those should possess who wish to make proper use of
confession.
I. The meaning and necessity of confession, 1. Confession is
a declaration of personal sins to a lawfully authorized priest
for the purpose of obtaining absolution. This declaration must
(a) be by word or sign, according to circumstances; (b) it must
be made to a priest who is validly ordained and who has either
ordinary or delegated jurisdiction (Code, can. 872) ; (c) it must
have as its end and purpose the obtaining of sacramental absolution.
2. The necessity of confession is clear from the following:
(a) Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance when He
said to His Apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc. (John
xx. 22, 23). But this power of forgiving and retaining sin,
which was to be exercised with discretion, could not be exercised
at all without that personal declaration which we call
confession; (b) Christ instituted confession, not as an optional,
but as a necessary means of obtaining pardon, otherwise the
power of the keys and of binding and loosing, which was given
to the Apostles and their successors (Matt. xvi. 19; xviii. 18)
would be of no avail; (c) that confession has been practiced
and considered necessary from the time of the Apostles is evident
from the writings of the Fathers and from the definitions
of the Councils of the Church.
II. The advantages of confession, 1. Confession is a powerful
means of promoting holiness and piety, as is proved by the
testimony of all who have any knowledge of its use. 2. It is the
least difficult means of obtaining forgiveness, because even
imperfect contrition with confession is enough for pardon. 3.
Through confession the sinner is able to obtain wise counsel
and direction in a manner at once most secret and most competent.
4. The thought of confession is a powerful deterrent
against secret sins. 5. Confession promotes the good of domestic
and civil society by securing peace and charity, by causing
reparation to be made for scandals, injustices, and the like.
III. When and how confession is to be made. 2. Regarding
the time of making confession the following points are to be
noted: (a) confession becomes obligatory when a person
reaches the age of reason; (b) all who are in grave sin after
Baptism are obliged to go to confession once a year; (c) everyone
in danger of death or about to receive one of the Sacraments
of the living is obliged to go to confession, unless he is
already in the state of grace. 2. Confession should have the
following qualities: it should be humble, entire, sincere, prudent,
and brief. 3. Confession should be humble, i.e., not made in
a boastful, but in a contrite spirit. 4. It should be entire, i.e., it
should embrace: (a) all mortal sins remembered since the last
worthy confession; (b) the circumstances which change the
malice of a sin or multiply it. 5. Confession must be sincere, i.e.,
the sins should be declared just as they appear to the conscience
without exaggeration or diminution. It should be prudent, i.e., the
penitent should confess his sins in careful words, and should guard
against revealing the sins of others unnecessarily. 7. Confession
should be brief, i.e., the penitent should avoid irrelevant facts and
details. 8. Consequences of the preceding points: (a) peoples hould
know how to make their confessions properly; (b) a bad confession
should be repeated; (c) mortal sins forgotten should be declared
in confession when remembered; (d) those who have no certain
sins to confess should mention some sin of their past life; (e)
general confessions are to be permitted according to the prudence
and discretion of the confessor.
EXHORTATION, 1. We should have the highest reverence for
this divinely instituted, necessary, and gracious means of obtaining
pardon for our sins. 2. We should go to confession not only when
it is necessary, but frequently in order to obtain grace and strength
from the use of this Sacrament. 3. In order that confession may
be properly made it should be preceded by a careful preparation
consisting of an examination of conscience and acts of faith, hope,
love and contrition. 4. After confession we, like the Samaritan in
today's Gospel, should return thanks to our Divine Physician.
Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part II
CONFESSION
We now come to confession, which is another part of Penance.
The care and exactness which its exposition demands,
must be at once obvious, if we only reflect, that most holy
persons are firmly persuaded that whatever of piety, of holiness,
of religion, has been preserved to our times in the Church,
through God's goodness, must be ascribed in a great measure,
to the influence of confession. It cannot, therefore, be a matter
of surprise, that the enemy of the human race, in his efforts to
destroy utterly the Catholic Church should, through the agency
of the ministers of his wicked designs, have assailed with all
his might this bulwark of Christian virtue. The pastor, therefore,
will show in the first place that the institution of confession
is most useful and even necessary.
CONFESSION IS USEFUL AND NECESSARY FOR REMISSION OF SIN
Contrition, it is true, blots out sin; but who does not know
that to effect this it must be so intense, so ardent, so vehement,
as to bear a proportion to the magnitude of the crimes which it
effaces? This is a degree of contrition which few reach,
and hence, through perfect contrition alone, very few indeed
could hope to obtain the pardon of their sins. It therefore
became necessary that the most merciful Lord should provide
a less difficult means of salvation; and this He has done, in His
admirable wisdom, by giving to His Church the keys of the
kingdom of heaven.
According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, a doctrine
firmly to be believed and professed by all her children, if the
sinner have a sincere sorrow for his sins and a firm resolution
of avoiding them in future, although he bring not with him that
contrition which may be sufficient of itself to obtain the pardon
of sin, his sins are forgiven through the power of the keys,
when he confesses them properly to the priest. Justly, then,
do the Holy Fathers proclaim, that by the keys of the Church,
the gate of heaven is thrown open(1) a truth which no one can
doubt since the Council of Florence has decreed that the effect
of Penance is absolution from sin.(2)
CONFESSION IS A REMEDY AGAINST FUTURE SINS
To appreciate the advantages of confession we should not
lose sight of an argument which has the sanction of experience.
To those who have led immoral lives nothing is found so useful
towards a reformation of morals as sometimes to disclose their
secret thoughts, their words, their actions, to a prudent and
faithful friend, who can assist them by his advice and cooperation.
For the same reason it must prove most salutary to those
whose minds are agitated by the consciousness of guilt to make
known the diseases and wounds of their souls to the priest, as
the vicegerent of Jesus Christ, bound to eternal secrecy by the
strictest of laws. In the tribunal of penance they will find
immediate remedies, the healing qualities of which will not
only remove the present malady, but also prove of such lasting
efficacy as to be, in future, an antidote against the easy
approach of the same moral disease.
CONFESSION SAVES SOCIETY FROM MANY EVILS
Another advantage derivable from confession, too important
to be omitted, is that confession contributes powerfully to the
preservation of social order. Abolish sacramental confession,
and that moment you deluge society with all sorts of secret
crimes--crimes too, and others of still greater enormity, which
men, once that they have been depraved by vicious habits, will
not dread to commit in open day. The salutary shame that
attends confession restrains licentiousness, bridles desire, and
coerces the evil propensities of corrupt nature.
THE NATURE OF CONFESSION
Having explained the advantages of confession, the pastor
will next unfold its nature and efficacy. Confession, then, is
defined "A sacramental accusation of one's sins, made to obtain
pardon by virtue of the keys."
It is rightly called "an accusation," because sins are not to
be told as if the sinner boasted of his crimes, as they do "who
are glad when they have done evil";(3) nor are they to be related
as stories told for the sake of amusing idle listeners. They are
to be confessed as matters of self-accusation, with a desire, as
it were, to avenge them on ourselves.
We confess our sins with a view "to obtain pardon." In this
respect the tribunal of penance differs from other tribunals,
which take cognizance of capital offenses, and before which a
confession of guilt does not secure acquittal and pardon, but
penalty and punishment.
The definition of confession by the Fathers,(4) although different
in words, is substantially the same. "Confession," says St.
Augustine, is the disclosure of a secret disease, with the hope
of obtaining a cure";(5) and St. Gregory: "Confession is a detestation
of sins."(6) Both of these opinions accord with, and are contained
in the preceding definition.
CONFESSION INSTITUTED BY CHRIST
In the next place, it is a duty of greatest moment that the
pastor unhesitatingly teach that this Sacrament owes its institution
to the singular goodness and mercy of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who ordered all things well, and solely with a view
to our salvation.(7) After His resurrection He breathed on the
assembled Apostles, saying: "Receive ye the Holy Ghost,
whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins
you shall retain, they are retained."(8)
Our Lord seems to have signified the same thing when,
having raised Lazarus from the dead. He commanded His
Apostles to loose him from the bands in which he was bound.(9)
This is the interpretation of St. Augustine. "The priests," he
says, "can now do more: they can exercise greater clemency
towards those who confess, and whose sins they forgive. The
Lord, in giving over Lazarus, whom He had already raised
from the dead, to be loosed by the hands of His disciples,
wished us to understand that to priests was given the power
of loosing."(10)
To this also refers the command given by our Lord to the
lepers cured on the way, that they show themselves to the
priests, and subject themselves to their judgment."(11)
Invested, then, as they are, by our Lord with power to remit
and retain sins, priests are evidently appointed judges of the
matter on which they are to pronounce; and since, according to
the wise admonition of the Council of Trent, we cannot form
an accurate judgment on any matter, or award to crime a just
proportion of punishment without having previously examined
and made ourselves well acquainted with the case, it follows
that the penitent is obliged to make known to the priest,
through the medium of confession, each and every sin.(12)
This doctrine the pastor will teach as defined by the holy
synod of Trent, and handed down by the uniform doctrine of
the Catholic Church. An attentive perusal of the Fathers will
present innumerable passages throughout their works, proving
in the clearest terms that this Sacrament was instituted by our
Lord, and that the law of sacramental confession, which, from
the Greek, they call "exomologesis," and "exagoreusis," is to
be received as true Gospel teaching. And if we seek figures in
the Old Testament, the different kinds of sacrifices which were
offered by the priests for the expiation of different sorts of
sins seem, beyond all doubt, to have reference to sacramental
confession.
RITES AND CEREMONIES USED AT CONFESSION
Not only are the faithful to be taught that confession was
instituted by our Lord; they are also to be reminded that, by
authority of the Church, have been added certain rites and
solemn ceremonies, which, although not essential to the Sacrament,
serve to place its dignity more fully before the eyes of
the penitent, and to prepare his soul, so that, kindled with devotion,
he may more easily receive the grace of the Sacrament.
When, with uncovered head, and bended knees, with eyes fixed
on the earth, and hands raised in supplication to heaven, and
with other indications of Christian humility not essential to
the Sacrament, we confess our sins, our minds are thus deeply
impressed with a clear conviction of the heavenly virtue of
the Sacrament, and also of the necessity of humbly imploring
and of earnestly importuning the mercy of God.
THE NECESSITY OF CONFESSION
Nor let it be supposed that, although confession was instituted
by our Lord its use was not declared by Him necessary.
The faithful must be impressed with the conviction that he who
is dead in sin is to be recalled to spiritual life by means of
sacramental confession, a truth clearly conveyed by our Lord
Himself, when, by a most beautiful metaphor, he calls the
power of administering this Sacrament, "the key of the kingdom of heaven."(13)
Just as no one can enter any place without
the help of him who has the keys, so no one is admitted to
heaven unless its gates be unlocked by the priests to whose
custody the Lord gave the keys.
This power would otherwise be of no use in the Church. If
heaven can be entered without the power of the keys, in vain
would they to whom the keys were given seek to prevent
entrance within its portals. This thought was familiar to the
mind of St. Augustine. "Let no man," he says, "say within
himself: 'I repent in secret to the Lord, God, who has power
to pardon me, and knows the inmost sentiments of my heart.'
Was there, then, no reason for saying 'whatsoever you loose
on earth, shall be loosed in heaven';(14) no reason why the keys
were given to the Church of God?"(15) The same doctrine is
taught by St. Ambrose in his treatise on Penance, when refuting
the heresy of the Novations who asserted that the power
of forgiving sins belonged solely to God. "Who," says he,
"yields greater reverence to God, he who obeys or he who
resists His commands? God commands us to obey his ministers;
and by obeying them, we honor God alone."(16)
THE AGE AT WHICH CONFESSION BECOMES A DUTY
As the law of confession was no doubt enacted and established
by our Lord Himself, it is our duty to ascertain, on
whom, at what age, and at what period of the year, it becomes
obligatory. According to the canon of the Council of Lateran,
which begins: "Omnis utriusque sexus," no person is bound
by the law of confession until he has arrived at the use of reason--a
time determinable by no fixed number of years.(17) It
may, however, be laid down as a general principle, that children
are bound to go to confession, as soon as they are able to discern
good from evil, and are capable of malice; for, when a
person has arrived at an age when he must begin to attend to
the work of his salvation, he is bound to confess his sins to a
priest, since there is no other salvation for one whose conscience
is burdened with sin.
AT WHAT TIME
In the same canon the Church has defined the period, within
which we are bound to discharge the duty of confession. It
commands all the faithful to confess their sins at least once a
year.(18) If, however, we consult our eternal interests, we will
certainly not neglect to have recourse to confession as often, at
least, as we are in danger of death, or undertake to perform
any act incompatible with the state of sin, such as to administer
or receive the Sacraments. The same rule should be strictly
followed when we are apprehensive of forgetting some sin, into
which we may have fallen; for we cannot confess sins unless
we remember them, neither do we obtain pardon unless
through confession, our sins are blotted out.
THE QUALITIES OF CONFESSION
But since in confession many things are to be observed, some
of which are essential, some not essential to the Sacrament, the
faithful are to be carefully instructed on all these matters.
The pastor can have access to works from which such instructions
may easily be drawn.
I. CONFESSION SHOULD BE ENTIRE
He will teach first of all that a chief requisite for confession
is that it be complete and entire. All mortal sins must be
revealed to the priest. Venial sins, which do not separate us
from the grace of God, and into which we frequently fall,
although they may be usefully confessed, as the experience of
the pious proves, may be omitted without sin, and expiated by
a variety of other means.(18) Mortal sins, as we have already
said, are all to be made matter of confession, even though they
be most secret, or be opposed to the last two Commandments of the
Decalogue. Such secret sins often inflict deeper wounds on the
soul, than those which are committed openly and publicly.
So the Council of Trent (20) has defined, and such has been the
constant teaching of the Church, as the Fathers declare. St.
Ambrose speaks thus: "Without the confession of his sin, no
man can be justified from his sin."(21) In confirmation of the
same doctrine, St. Jerome, on Ecclesiastes, says: "If the serpent,
the devil, has secretly and without the knowledge of a
third person, bitten anyone, and has infused into him the
poison of sin; if unwilling to disclose his wound to his brother
or master, he is silent and will not do penance, his master, who
has power to cure him, can render him no service." The same
doctrine we find in St. Cyprian, in his sermon on the lapsed.
"Although guiltless," he says, "of the heinous crime of sacrificing
to idols, or of having purchased certificates to that effect;
yet, as they entertained the thought of doing so, they should
confess it with grief to the priest of God."(22) In fine, such is
the unanimous voice, such the unvarying record of all the
Doctors of the Church.(23)
CIRCUMSTANCES OF SIN THAT MUST BE CONFESSED
In confession we should employ all that care and exactness
which we usually bestow upon worldly concerns of great
moment, and all our efforts should be directed to the cure of
our soul's wounds and to the destruction of the roots of sin.
We should not be satisfied with the bare enumeration of our
mortal sins, but should mention such circumstances as considerably
aggravate or extenuate their malice. Some circumstances
are so serious as of themselves to constitute mortal
guilt. On no account whatever, therefore, are such circumstances
to be omitted. Thus if one man has killed another, he
must state whether his victim was a layman or an ecclesiastic.
Or, if he has had sinful relations with a woman, he must state
whether the female was married or unmarried, a relative or a
person consecrated to God by vow. These circumstances
change the nature of the sins; so that the first kind of unlawful
intercourse is called by theologians simple fornication, the
second adultery, the third incest, and the fourth sacrilege.
Again, theft is numbered in the catalogue of sins. But if a
person has stolen five dollars his sin is less grievous than if he
had stolen five hundred or a thousand dollars, or an immense
sum; and if the stolen money belonged to the Church, the sin
would be still more grievous. The same rule applies to the
circumstances of time and place, but the examples are too well
known from books to require mention here. Circumstances
such as these are, therefore, to be mentioned; but those which
do not considerably aggravate the malice of the sin may be
lawfully omitted.
CONCEALMENT OF A SIN IN CONFESSION A GRIEVOUS CRIME
So important is it that confession be entire that if the penitent
confesses only some of his sins and willfully neglects to
accuse himself of others which should be confessed, he not only
does not profit by his confession, but involves himself in deeper
guilt. Such an enumeration of sins cannot be called sacramental
confession; on the contrary, the penitent must repeat
his confession, not omitting to accuse himself of having, under
the semblance of confession, profaned the sanctity of the
Sacrament.
OMISSION OF A SIN THROUGH FORGETFULNESS DOES NOT RENDER IT
NECESSARY TO REPEAT THE CONFESSION
But should the confession seem defective, either because the
penitent forgot some grievous sins, or because although intent
on confessing all his sins, he did not examine the recesses of
his conscience with extraordinary minuteness, he is not bound
to repeat his confession. It will be sufficient, when he recollects
the sins which he had forgotten, to confess them to a
priest on a future occasion.
We are not, however, to examine our consciences with careless
indifference, or to be so negligent in recalling our sins as
to seem as if unwilling to remember them. Should this have
been the case, the confession must be made over again.
2. CONFESSION SHOULD BE PLAIN, SIMPLE, SINCERE
In the second place our confession should be plain, simple,
and undisguised, not artfully made as is the case with some
who seem more intent on defending themselves than on confessing
their sins. Our confession should be such as to reflect a true image
of our lives, such as we ourselves know them to be, exhibiting as
doubtful that which is doubtful, and as certain that which is
certain. If, then, we neglect to enumerate our sins, or introduce
extraneous matter, our confession, it is clear, wants this
quality.
3. CONFESSION SHOULD BE PRUDENT AND MODEST
Prudence and modesty in explaining matters of confession
are also much to be commended, and a superfluity of words is
to be carefully avoided. Whatever is necessary to make known
the nature of every sin, is to be explained briefly and modestly.
SECRECY TO BE OBSERVED BY PRIEST AND PENITENT
Secrecy should be strictly observed as well by penitent as by
priest. Hence, no one can, on any account, confess by messenger
or letter, because in those cases secrecy would not be possible.
THE ADVANTAGE OF FREQUENT CONFESSION
The faithful should be careful above all to cleanse their consciences
from sin by frequent confession. When a person is in
mortal sin nothing can be more salutary, so precarious is
human life, than to have immediate recourse to confession. But
even if we could promise ourselves a long life, yet it would be
truly disgraceful that we who are so particular in whatever
relates to cleanliness of dress or person, were not at least
equally careful in preserving the luster of the soul pure and
unsullied from the foul stains of sin.
THE CONFESSION OF SINS
BY THE REV. F. G. LENTZ
Go show yourselves to the priests.--LUKE xvii. 14.
LEPROSY A TYPE OF SIN
Under the old law leprosy was looked upon not only as a
type and figure of sin, but the result of sin itself. Hence men
afflicted by this disease were unclean in the eye of the law;
were segregated from their fellow men and had to dwell apart
from their kinsfolks and relatives. Their lot was an unhappy
one, for they were not only driven from the usual haunts of
their fellow men, but should any come near them, they were
obliged to announce their own disabilities by the cry of "Unclean!
Unclean!" Moreover, they were so declared by the
law of God, and any attempt to thrust themselves upon the
companionship of their fellow creatures would have been a
violation of the divine ordinance. They were not only physically
affected, but were legally unclean.
Could the men healed by Christ of leprosy in today's Gospel
immediately go back to their friends? Not so, for the law held
that they could not associate with their fellow creatures until
their legal disabilities had been removed by the priest, so that in
this ordinance of the Old Law we have a perfect type of the great
Sacrament of Penance.
CONFESSION IN THE OLD LAW
At all times God has made use of the ministry of man to do
favor to man. It was by the mouth of His prophets that He
taught man. It was by the ministry of Moses that He liberated
the Israelites from bondage and led them to the Promised
Land. It was by means of Aaron and his descendants that
He made known his will to the Jewish people, and even now,
when He acts directly for the healing of the unclean. His first
instructions are "Go show yourselves to the priests" (Luke
xvii. 14). Why? Because, as you are legally unclean, you
can not g-o back to your homes or associate with your fellow
men until you have made known your condition to the proper
authority and been declared clean, i.e., absolved by the priest.
Thus we see that even under the Old Law the manifestation
of one's condition was necessary to obtain absolution. If any
one doubts this let him read the fifth chapter of the Book of
Numbers, where it is expressly prescribed that, when men
have sinned, "they shall confess their sin," etc. The same law
is laid down in the fifth chapter of the Book of Leviticus. In
fact, confession of sin has always been a prerequisite in order
to obtain pardon, so that instead of confession being an invention
of Rome, as our enemies would have you believe, it
was well understood by the first Christians from the ancient
practice among Hebrews. Edersheim, in his "Life and Times
of Jesus Christ," says it was the custom of the Jews to go to
confession before marriage. (Vol. I, p. 352, also note p. 353.)
No one ever heard of God pardoning sin without a confession,
and that, too, before man. David obtained pardon only after
he had confessed to Nathan, and long before that the Jews
confessed to Moses when they had committed grave crimes,
in order that they might obtain forgiveness. Even in the natural
order this practice is constantly followed, for the State
is always merciful only to those who acknowledge their guilt
and throw themselves upon the mercy of the court; and Scripture
says: "Be not ashamed to confess thy sins" (Ecclus. iv.
31) ; again, "He that hideth his sins shall not prosper, but he
that shall confess, and forsake them, shall obtain mercy"
(Prov. xxviii. 13).
FORGIVENESS OF SIN
It is not easy to understand the objection of those who reject
the idea that the Church of God has the power to forgive sin.
Every organization claims this power and exercises it. Even
the sects, while denying it in theory, claim it in practice, for
when a member has violated their ordinances they may expel
him, but, on his repenting and fulfilling certain conditions, they
receive him back again. The State, also, and every association,
no matter for what purpose originated, all have a way and
means by which a delinquent member may be restored to
full fellowship. Now, why should not this be the case in
that society instituted by Christ to impart the merits of His
redemption to individuals? Surely there must be some way in
which a man, who has been so unfortunate to lose his citizenship
in that kingdom, may be reinstated. True, other societies will
not claim the power of forgiving sins against God.
They can go no higher than their origin, and, since they are
human, they can only forgive offenses against themselves.
This is very proper. But the kingdom of God is a divine institution
founded for the purpose of ministering in divine things.
Its purpose in this world is to reconcile the sinner with God,
which would be useless unless the Church can pardon the
sinner. Hence St. Paul says: "But all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Christ: and hath given to us
the ministry of reconciliation, and he hath placed in us the
word of reconciliation. For Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors,
God, as it were, exhorting by us" (2 Cor. v. 18, etc.).
The Apostle must certainly have known of what he was speaking
when he. made use of the above language, which seems
clear enough to any intelligent person. It shows plainly
enough that the Apostle claimed the power of reconciling the
sinner with God, since he was acting as ambassador of Christ
in that very matter in which the Eternal Father had endowed
His Divine Son, viz., the ministry of reconciliation. That he
exercised this power is clearly shown by his action with the
incestuous Corinthian, mentioned in the second chapter of the
same book.
But in doing this St. Paul was only making use of that power
which Christ had given to His Apostles after His resurrection.
Having come to them in Jerusalem, His first salutation is
"Peace be to you," and then He uses this remarkable language:
"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had
said this he breathed on them, and he said to them: Receive
ye the Holy Ghost; whose sins you shall forgive, they are
forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained"
(John xx. 21-23). Now, our Divine Lord did not use
this singular language without some object. We know He
was sent with full power to reconcile the world to God. This
power He claimed, and we are not Christians if we do not
acknowledge His authority in the matter. But He distinctly,
and in so many words, says that "as the Father sent me, I
send you." Either He had the power to do so or He had not.
If He had the power, what was to prevent Him from so sending
them? He did so in unmistakable language, and this commission
is coupled with the extraordinary action of His breathing
upon them and communicating the Holy Spirit. Only
twice have we a record of God breathing upon man. In the
first instance He gives man his natural life, in the second case
He communicates to him a supernatural power, viz., the power
of reconciling the sinner. "Whose sins you shall forgive are
forgiven them, whose sins you shall retain are retained." It
is impossible to impart a commission in more direct and positive
language, and this text has always proved a stumbling
block to those who would deny this power to God's Church.
CONFESSION NECESSARY FOR PARDON
But this commission conveys a judicial power. To exercise
that power the judges in the case must know and understand
the spiritual condition of the sinner. Without doing so it would
be impossible for them to justly exercise the power here delegated
to them. But how are they to know the condition of
the soul that applies to them? How are they to know whether
to forgive or retain his sins? Evidently there must be some
manifestation of conscience, for that soul's state can not otherwise
be known. For sin is in the will, and no man may know
the guiltiness of another, except that man make it known.
Neither the kind of a sin nor the culpability of the sinner can
be known except by confession of the sinner himself. There
are a thousand and one acts of man which may seem serious,
and yet no great culpability be attached to them. Want of
malice, forgetfulness, ignorance and even circumstances, all
have their part in determining a man's guilt. How then were
the Apostles to know what they were to do with a sinner,
unless that man manifested the spiritual state of his soul?
Clearly it was impossible. And yet they had the commission
to settle this matter with the sinner.
Whatever difficulties this matter may present to others, it
seems to have occasioned no trouble to the Apostles, for St.
Paul says: "With the mouth confession is made unto salvation"
(Rom. x. 10). And St. John tells us that "If we confess
our sins: He is faithful and just, to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all iniquity" (1 John i. 9). What is here set
forth we find practiced both before and during the apostolic
age. Those who heeded the words of the Baptist confessed
their sins (Matt. iii. 6), and when the Apostles went out to convert
the world they began by preaching penance. "Peter said
to them: Do penance and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your sins" (Acts
ii. 38). And "many of them that believed came confessing and
declaring their deeds" (Acts xix. 18). It was thus the first
ministers of Christ exercised the power given to them when
Christ said "Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained"
(John xx. 20-21). Many were pardoned, but we have a noted
instance in the case of Ananias and Sapphira when there was
no forgiveness forthcoming.
After all, there must be some way in which a man may
obtain pardon for his delinquencies, or else we may as well
abandon hope. Man is not an angel or a mere spirit. He has
a very substantial body, and it is through that body he commits
most of his sins. Why then should not that body participate
in the humiliation necessary to secure pardon? To
do so it must use external signs or expressions, and confession
is one of the most potent means. We may further ask why
should a man be pardoned who is unwilling to acknowledge
his guilt? True some there are who, running away with that
saying of St. James "Confess your sins one to another" (James
v. 16), insist that the offender shall confess to the Church
while denying the power of the priests of the Church. But we
can not conceive how, if the individual has not power to absolve
from sin, any number should possess this faculty. A multitude
has no more power in this case than the individual, for it is
the power of God which is exercised, and if God has not made
some "ambassadors in the ministry of reconciliation" it is inconceivable
how any number of those same helpless individuals
could acquire that power by accumulation. It is a divine power
which here energizes the fallen one, and no aggregation of
finite beings can ever become infinite. Moreover, that plan
would be upsetting all precedent in such cases, for even in
civil affairs the power is exercised by the individual and not
by the multitude which compose the State. No man can give
that which he has not, and St. Paul tells us that "all power
comes from God." Hence while the individual in some cases
may be chosen by the multitude to execute laws the power
comes from God. But in this case not even the appointment
comes from the people, for St. Paul tells us that "no man takes
this honor to himself but he that is called by God as Aaron
was" (Heb. v. 4).
And all history, sacred and profane, teaches
us that Christ chose out His own ministers. "You have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you" (John xv. 16). It follows
that no man can attempt this ministry unless it has been
handed down to him by legitimate authority. Hence it is easy
to understand why those who rejected that authority denied
this power of man to forgive sins. But that question was
settled long since by no less an authority than Jesus Christ,
who replied to the Jews: "Whether is easier to say, Thy sins are
forgiven thee, or to say. Arise and walk? But that you may
know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive
sins" (Matt. ix. 5, 6), He healed the man of his physical
infirmities. Having thus demonstrated His power. He afterwards,
as we have seen, passed it on to His Apostles. To reject
this truth is to refuse to believe Holy Writ and the testimony
of all Christianity for fifteen hundred years.
Among all the
errors which arose from time to time it remained for the sixteenth
century revolters to deny that God had provided a
means by which man might obtain pardon for his sins. That
might not have been so serious had it not been for the fallacy
they invented, that a man should confess to God alone. Outside
of this absurdity that God should provide a totally inadequate
means, one shorn of all power to help man in the most
important needs of life, their proposition involves the idea that
God's justice should never be made manifest. In their idea,
no matter what sin a man may commit, he could secretly go
to God and obtain pardon without humbling himself. This
makes the criminal at the bar dictate to the Deity on what
terms he is willing to come back. The sinner becomes his own
judge and jury in the case. It is no longer what the offended
infinite majesty of God may require, but what the sinner may
choose to give. Practically he demands pardon without offering
any recompense, which is contrary to all justice. God
can not pardon the sinner without repentance, and, since
the sinner has no rights in the case, if he wishes restoration
to favor, it is not the sinner but God who has the right to
name the conditions. Somewhere along the line the sinner
must humble himself and acknowledge that "I have sinned
against heaven and before thee; I am not now worthy to be
called thy son" (Luke xv. 21). Then God may receive him
back again. But since He has established the tribunal of
Penance, that is the means by which this must be accomplished.
How thankful should we not be that God has been so merciful
to man. Not angels or the powers of heaven has Pie chosen
to exercise this authority, but man, who knows the weakness
of our nature, who daily comes into conflict with the powers
of darkness and the wiles of Satan, and can sympathize with
our ailments and help us in our need. We may look upon it
as a humiliation, and it is, but as Tertullian says: "It is better
to confess here than to burn hereafter." And having fulfilled
the required conditions, we can arise with the conviction that
as we have not been our own judge, but have submitted our
case to that independent tribunal which God established, we
have really been made clean and restored to friendship with
God. Either here or hereafter, since we commit sins before
man, must our manifestation be made.
How much better then
to make it here than to have the whole world witness our confession.
Here we are taken on. our own valuation, for this
is the only tribunal where man is taken at his own estimate,
but in eternity we shall be judged without mercy, since we
refused to accept the opportunity to acquire it, while the confessional
was still open to us. "If we should judge ourselves
we should not be judged" (1 Cor. xi. 31). But if we resist the
grace of God and refuse to submit ourselves to His own tribunal,
we can expect no reward except that of the proud Pharisee,
who went down, not justified. For such the wells of mercy
shall be dried up on that awful day, when Christ comes to judge
the living and the dead.
1. Ambr., serm. I, de quadrag.; quoted in de poenit. dist. I c. ecce nunc.;
August, lib. 2 de adul. conjug. 59; Chrysost., de sacerdot. lib. 3.
2. In decree of Eugene IV; de poenit. dist. 6. c. sacerdos,
3. Prov. ii. 14.
4. Chrysost., 20 in Genes.
5. Aug., ser. 4 de verbis Domini.
6. Greg., hom. 40. in Evangel.
7. See C. of Trent, sess. 14. de poenit. c. 5; can. 6; Aug., lib. 50. hom.
homil. 49; quoted in de poenit. dist. I. c. agite; Orig., hom. I. in Psal. 31;
Chrysost., de sacerd. lib. 3.
8. John xx. 22, 23.
9. John xi. 44.
10. De vera et falsa poenit. c. 16; senn. 8. de verbis Domini.
11. Luke xvii. 14.
12. Sess. 10. c. 5; can. 7. de pcenit. That priests are the appointed judges
of sins is taught by August., lib. 20. de civit. Dei, c. 9; Jerome, epist. I.
ad Heliod.; Chrysost, lib. 3. de Sacerd.; hom. 5. de verbis Isaise; Greg.,
hom. 26. in Evang.; Ambr., lib, 2. de Cain, cap. 4; C. of Trent, sess. 14.
de poenit. c. 5. can. 7.
13. Matt xvi. 19.
14. Lib. 50. horn. 49.
15. Matt. xviii. 18.
16. Lib. i. de poenit. 2.
17. Lat cone. cap. 22.
18. Lat. cone. cap. 21.
19. How venial sins are remitted see Aug., in Ench. cap. 71; quoted
in de poenit. dist. 3. c, de quotidianis, and in C. of Toledo 4, cap. 9.
20. Sess. 14. de posnit. c. 5. et can. 7.
21. Lib. de Paradiso, c. 4. c. i. super illud: si mordeat serpens.
22. Circa finem.
23. The necessity of confessing all mortal sins is taught by August., lib.
de vera et falsa poenit. cap. 10; Gregor., homil. 10. super Eze.; Ambr., lib.
de parad. cap. 14; Jerome, in Ecclesiast. c. 20; Cypr., de lapsis towards the
end; see also de poenit. dist. 3. cap. sunt plures, etc., pluit; ibid. dist. I c.
quem poen. & ibid. passim.
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