One of the most neglected, abused, and misunderstood sacraments is unfortunately probably also the most important of the seven. It is that sacrament known commonly as Confession or Penance and sometimes Reconciliation. Despite having a firm footing in the New Testament and in the testimony of the early church, it often plays second fiddle to the others. While it may very well be the most powerful sacrament toward becoming a holy person, it is frequently ignored and treated with a sense of dread. Few try to break down the door of the confessional to reap its benefits and for good reason. It is by nature an unpleasant ritual filled with feelings of shame and remorse, and it is easier to avoid it than stir up those ugly sentiments. Yet those who know the power of the sacrament and the sense of liberation and cleansing that it brings find the motivation to unload their dirty laundry to a priest. Sometimes after eating bad food we become very sick with a stomach ache and know that we will only feel better once we vomit up what we have ingested. So it is with the sacrament of Confession; once we go though the unpleasant exercise of telling another our misdeeds, only then can we feel like a load has been lifted off our backs and can experience a lightness of soul such as we had on the day of our baptism.
What makes Christianity unique compared to the other religions of the world is that great privilege of receiving forgiveness of sins. The default way to deal with our transgressions in this life is to pay them off ourselves which is unquestionably a long, arduous, and painful process. Christianity short-circuits to a good extent the normal way of working off our debts by providing the opportunity for remission of sins. Baptism of course is the primary vehicle by which the initiate receives radical cleansing from sin and guilt, but it is not the only ceremony that the Christian religion offers to deal with sin. Few can keep their baptismal purity going forward and so the Church has offered another remedy to deal with sins committed after Baptism in the sacrament of Confession.
That the Church should be entrusted with this ministry was presaged by Jesus’ work among the people of Israel when he walked this earth. The Savior not only healed the physical diseases that ailed his countrymen but on some occasions also forgave their sins. Through the merit of the good deeds he was doing for his fellowman, Christ forgave the paralytic who was lowered through the roof of the house in which he was preaching. Having told the man his sins were forgiven, he asked the people, “Which is easier to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven’ or to say, “Get up, take your mat, and walk?’” This was somewhat of a rhetorical question. Certainly the crowds would have greatly valued a physical healing because it is immediately tangible and beneficial in this physical life. But Jesus was trying to point out that the forgiveness of sins is by far the harder to achieve. It is hands down the greater miracle and far more important in the grand scheme of things. Just to show that he had the authority to forgive sins, he healed the man physically anyway, but to him this was certainly secondary in importance.
On another occasion when Jesus was dining at the home of a Pharisee, a woman who had led a sinful life entered the house and began weeping at Jesus’ feet, bathing them in her tears and then poured perfume on them. The host was a bit indignant about this woman of ill-repute molesting his guest though he kept his opinions to himself. Jesus, knowing his thoughts told him a parable about cancelling debts and then proceeded to tell the woman that her sins were forgiven.
Even Peter, the prince of the apostles received forgiveness from the Savior when after the Resurrection Jesus absolved him of the guilt he was carrying from denying him on the night of his Passion. Stricken with fear, Peter denied the Lord three times to save his own skin. Perhaps a few weeks later, after he was raised from the dead, Jesus appeared to the disciples on the shore of the sea of Galilee and reinstated Peter who was overwhelmed by his shame. For each of his denials, Jesus recommissioned him in his service and reconciled the lead apostle back to himself.
It was earlier in his ministry that Jesus had entrusted Peter with the “keys of the kingdom” granting him and the other apostles the power of binding and loosing. He said to his disciples, “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” While this language may be a bit cryptic, it is rephrased more plainly in another post-Resurrection encounter with the Savior. When he appeared to them, Jesus said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them they are not forgiven.”
It is here that Christ explicitly authorizes his apostles to share with others the most important part of his work, namely the wiping out of sins through the merit of his virtuous life and final sacrifice. Some years later this apostolic ministry was mentioned by James the Lord’s brother in his epistle. In his passage about the anointing of the sick, he writes, “Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” Though the passage is mainly about the healing ministry of the apostles and their successors, it reiterates that they have also been entrusted with the forgiveness of sins as well. Because they are mentioned together here, the sacrament of anointing the sick and the sacrament of confession have historically always been intertwined and often administered together. This is because often it is the case that our physical suffering is a consequence of our own sins, so that when the transgressions are neutralized, physical recovery may commence.
While the biblical references for the sacrament of confession are rudimentary, the testimony of the early Church Fathers indicates that the practice was deeply entrenched in the tradition of the church. Bishops like Cyril of Alexandria recognized the twofold ministry of the church inasmuch as the forgiveness of sins was available through two sacraments: “Men filled with the spirit of God (i.e. priests) forgive sins in two ways, either by admitting to baptism those who are worthy or by pardoning the penitent children of the Church.” He was seemingly just echoing the words of his predecessor Athanasius who expressed the same idea a couple of centuries earlier: “Just as a man is enlightened by the Holy Spirit when he is baptized by a priest, so he who confesses his sins with a repentant heart obtains their remission from a priest.”
Fathers like Cyprian greatly encouraged the practice of confession as something that people would be foolish not to take advantage of: “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.”
The erudite scholar Origen compared confession to hard and unpleasant work: “In addition to these kinds of forgiveness of sins, albeit hard and laborious, the remission of sins through penance ... when he [the sinner] does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine.”
Theodore of Mopsuestia also drew the parallel to medicine and regarded priests as physicians of the soul: “This is the medicine for sins, established by God and delivered to the priests of the Church, who make diligent use of it in healing the afflictions of men. You are aware of these things, as also of the fact that God, because He greatly cares for us, gave us penitence and showed us the medicine of repentance; and He established some men, those who are priests, as physicians of sins. If in this world we receive through them healing and forgiveness of sins, we shall be delivered from the judgment that is to come. It behooves us, therefore, to draw near to the priests in great confidence and to reveal to them our sins; and those priests, with all diligence, solicitude, and love, and in accord with the regulations mentioned above, will grant healing to sinners.”
While the Fathers speak benevolently about the sacrament of confession, in the early centuries of Christianity it was in practice of a much more limited scope than it is today. Forgiveness of sins was not doled out liberally but was reserved particularly for those who had committed grievous sins and was only granted after a long and hard penance had been satisfied. Those who had committed the three big sins – adultery, murder, and apostasy had severely wounded their connection with the community of faith and were in need of a stringent program that would bring about reconciliation. Augustine attests to such grievous transgressions saying, “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.”
For those who had done grave sins, public penance was their path toward rejoining the community but it was a onerous journey to come fully back into the bosom of the church. Those who had committed serious sins were publicly enrolled in the Order of Penitents and were required to submit to those austerities that the clergy deemed appropriate. Tertullian speaks of the need for the penitents to don sackcloth and ashes as they went about mourning about their sin. They were to only ingest the plainest of foods denying themselves ordinary pleasures, and they were to commit themselves to prayer and fasting.
The penitential period would often last up to a year during which time the offenders would not be able to partake in the Eucharist. Often it was the case that they would remain either outside the doors of the church or in the narthex where like the Catechumens they would have to leave before the consecration of the bread and wine. During this whole time they received the support and prayers of the community to encourage them until the solemn ceremony during Holy Thursday. At this the beginning of the Easter celebration, they would come forward kneeling before the bishop who laid his hands upon them and absolved them of their sins.
This was the practice in the Greco-Roman world and in Celtic Christianity it was similar. The Synod of St. Patrick informs us that any Christian who had carried out a capital sin had to perform one year’s penance for each offense and at the end of that period would come with witnesses to be absolved by the priest.
While forgiveness of very serious sins was available after some hard work on the part of the offender, unfortunately it was only offered once in a lifetime. Repeat offenders were out of luck as far as the early Church was concerned. Origen wrote, “For the graver crimes, there is only one opportunity of penance.” Likewise Ambrose soberly noted, “As there is one baptism so there is one penance, which, however is performed publicly.”
Consequently with the church’s highly reserved policy toward this sacrament, members naturally were fearful to perform penance too soon lest they should stumble again in the future. It was then not uncommon for fallen Christians to delay reconciliation to their deathbed and similarly catechumens often delayed baptism until very late in life as well. The most famous person to do so was the emperor Constantine who received baptism not long before his death.
Constantine of course was famous for legalizing Christianity which took it from the underground and brought it to prominence. It grew rapidly from then onward having the sanction of the empire behind it. This transition also signaled a change in the practice of the sacrament of penance which could no longer be managed the same way in small communities as it was.
At this time, the faithful began seeking out spiritual advisors to help guide them on their journey to holiness and personal conversion, particularly those who were living in monasteries apart from the world. Within the secrecy of their consulation, these spiritual guides would offer advice on how to live a better life and keep iniquity at bay, and they began to extend forgiveness of sins to their mentees during these visits. Particularly this new practice was championed by the Irish Monastic system under the leadership of St. Columba in the 6th century.
The shift begins here from public to private penance. Columba had created a system of penitentials or particular punishments for a litany of sins which were to be assigned to those who came to the monastic clergy looking for help. As Christians would come periodically to receive the wisdom of the cloistered priests, it eventually followed that absolution would be given multiple times to a person in sharp contrast to the one opportunity that was available in earlier times.
At the Council of Chalon-sur-Saône in France in the 7th century, the bishops who gathered became convinced that the sacrament of confession was a great benefit toward achieving salvation and decided it was to be given as many times as the Christian fell into sin during his lifetime. By the Lateran Council in 1215, the sacrament made the full transition from being a public ritual to a private one and not only was it to be offered whenever requested, it was also enjoined on the faithful to receive sacramental reconciliation once each year, an ordinance that the Catholic Church has continued until the present day for those who commit serious sins.
Though all sins are an offense against God, it is probably intuitive that some sins are worse than others as intimated by the early Fathers. We can’t really put a small fib in the same bucket with premeditated murder and this tradition can also be found in the scriptures particularly with the apostle John who wrote: “If you see any brother or sister commit a sin that does not lead to death, you should pray and God will give them life. I refer to those whose sin does not lead to death. There is a sin that leads to death. I am not saying that you should pray about that. All wrongdoing is sin, and there is sin that does not lead to death.” (1 John 5:16,17) As is common among biblical writers, John uses dichotomy in his theology to make a point. So he divides sins into two categories, those that are minor and insignificant and those that are so grave that they destroy our connection with God.
Based on John’s writing, the Church has historically divided sins into two categories known as Venial and Mortal Sins. A venial sin is defined as one that is of a less serious nature and is committed with low awareness of wrongdoing. By contrast a mortal sin is one that constitutes a grave matter and is committed deliberately with full awareness. A venial sin is one that weakens someone’s union with God but does not wholly sever it as is said to be the case with a mortal sin.
While it is convenient to simplify theology into black and white terms like this, in reality life is full of shades of gray, and we should probably think of the seriousness of our sins on a spectrum from the trifling to the abominable with minor sins barely compromising the inflow of grace into our souls and major ones as all but stopping it.
As the magnitude of our sins can vary significantly so too does the punishment associated with them. Jesus told a parable to this effect in the gospels: “The servant who knows the master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what the master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.”
Whether our sins are small or great, we each have the opportunity to pay them off by means of the three “S’s” which we identify as Sacrifice, Service, and Suffering. Ultimately it is the third “S” that is the default way to work off our failures and is the one that gets imposed on us whether we like it or not. But the first two “S’s” represent a proactive approach to deal with our sins before suffering becomes the brute force way of rectifying them.
According to St. Augustine, small sins can be atoned for simply through the sacrifice of prayer: “For light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted ... If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out.” The church has long taught that participating in the greatest prayer of all, the Mass can also wipe out our little failures through the power of the Sacrifice. Traditionally most liturgies have a penitential rite at the beginning of the service to bring to mind our sins and present them before God.
While the Eucharist can be a potent way to help cleanse us of our day to day imperfections, it cannot be approached when our consciences are weighed down heavily with transgressions. In one of the earliest teachings of the apostolic tradition, the Didache, we have a certain warning about this: “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.”
If we join in the celebration of the Mass with a relatively pure conscience, then we can expect to reap many graces from that sacrament, but unfortunately the opposite is also true. Rather than helping us, the Eucharist will become a snare to us and cause us to fall under judgment. Instead of feeling cleansed from our sins we will experience the opposite effect and become more entrenched in our rebellion against God and intransigent in our wayward behavior.
It is absolutely imperative that one be clean before joining the Eucharistic feast, and for this reason Justin Martyr wrote that first and foremost the radical cleansing of baptism is a prerequisite for approaching the altar: “And this food is called among us Ευχαριστια [the Eucharist], of which no one is allowed to partake but the man who believes that the things which we teach are true, and who has been washed with the washing that is for the remission of sins, and unto regeneration, and who is so living as Christ has enjoined.”
A certain story from the Old Testament probably is a good illustration of what these teachings are trying to convey. While David was king of Israel, there was an instance when the Ark of the Covenant was being moved from one location to another on a cart being drawn by oxen. At one point in the trip, the oxen stumbled and the ark was in danger of being thrown off the cart and damaged. Uzzah, one of the men accompanying the cart immediately reached out his hand to steady the ark so it wouldn’t fall off. Though his gesture certainly appears like a responsible action, the passage informs us, “The anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God struck him there because he reached out his hand to the ark; and he died there beside the ark of God.”
Our immediate response to this story is often that that was a pretty mean thing for God to do, and while on one level that may be reasonable, the account seems to want to make a point about something else. From what we know from the bible, a good deal of God’s holiness and power were concentrated in that special box that the Israelites carried around. Certainly the “Raiders of the Lost Ark” movie celebrated this sobering reality with fantastic displays of the ark’s power.
The Eucharist is in no way less holy than the ancient Ark of the Covenant, and is also full of God’s Special Presence. If we therefore approach it in an unworthy way, we run the risk of being harmed by it whether we are conscious of the danger or not. The Apostle Paul in one of his epistles echoed this warning, “For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body. For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep (have died).” Consequently if we are struggling with a great deal of guilt from having offended God in a big way, the only practical and efficient way to rejoin the table of the Lord is to receive the sacrament of penance and be cleansed of our wrongdoing.
But if we do indeed take advantage of this beautiful sacrament of the church to deal with our sins, should we assume that it completely eradicates all wrongdoings we have committed. There may be a temptation to view the sacraments in general as magic as if a wand could be waved and make everything suddenly perfect, but this is unrealistic and a fanciful understanding of what God has given us through the ministry of the church. In many respects, we get out of the sacraments what we put into them. The spiritual life is all about the union of human effort and divine assistance. As a rule of thumb, we can expect God’s help when we are making a sincere effort on our spiritual journey.
So neither confession, nor the sacrament of baptism completely remit all of our sins, and in fact to quantify exactly what degree of forgiveness we receive through these sacraments would be impossible to say. As much as human suffering is a consequence of sin, then all we can really say is that remission of sins is partial at best when we observe the often miserable lives of those who who receive these sacraments. Although we can’t figure out the degree to which our sins are forgiven through the sacraments, we can keep in mind some principles that govern that equation. One such principle can be found right in the Beatitudes: “Blessed are the merciful for they will be shown mercy.” According to this immutable law, what we sow in kindness and love towards others will be reaped back the same way not only from others but from God himself. To the degree that we are showing mercy to other people, God will show mercy and extend forgiveness to us.
Likewise, to the degree that we are forgiving other people who offend us will be the extent to which God will forgive us our sins. This idea is laid out right in the Lord’s prayer with the phrase, “Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us.” In a sobering illustration, Jesus told the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant to warn about the dangers of not forgiving others. In that story, a king went to settle accounts with his servants and having come to one that owed a lot of money was about to throw him into debtor’s prison. But the servant begged and pleaded, and the king taking pity on him forgave him his debt. However the servant proved to be unappreciative, for he began to harass someone who owed a small amount of money to him and refused to cancel his debt even though the king had forgiven him a much larger sum. When the king heard about what the servant had done, he put him in prison until he would pay back all that he owed. The parable concludes with Jesus’ commentary that this is the way God will treat us if we do not forgive our neighbor from our hearts.
As might be fairly intuitive, the degree to which we are forgiven in the sacraments will also depend in large part on how sorry we really are for our failures. If we confess sins mechanically or by rote without any great sincerity we will not benefit by the sacrament nearly as much as somehow who has great remorse and contrition for what he has done. We recall that it was the woman who wept at Jesus’ feet and washed them with her tears who received his forgiveness.
Finally, the degree to which we are forgiven of our sins will also depend to some extent on whether we have learned a lesson from our misdeeds. If we have come to finally see the error of our ways and pledge to go and sin no more, then perhaps we can expect to see a greater outpouring of God’s mercy.
While there are many factors that can clearly limit how effective the sacrament of penance can be for us, should we be concerned that there are sins which we possibly may never receive forgiveness from at all? Jesus spoke about the mysterious “unpardonable sin” in the gospels which has undoubtedly terrified many sincere believers throughout the ages with the fear of unwittingly committing it. That passage reads, “Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” The unpardonable sin is in Christ’s words a nebulous offense against the Holy Spirit. Though many have conjectured that this refers to some specific sin, it is likely more an indictment against a certain disposition of the will. That is, the unpardonable sin is just a stubborn, obstinate impenitence and God cannot forgive us if we are simply not sorry for what we have done. Because such a disposition becomes ingrained in the soul, it often takes many lifetimes to break this cycle of intransigence. For this reason, Jesus indicates that it could be ages in the future before such a sinner turns genuinely remorseful.
Though rooted in the New Testament, the Sacrament of Confession is one that has taken many centuries to evolve into what it is today. As the church was growing up, its understanding of this sacred rite gradually developed into a form that is now accessible to all who seek it. While it is not a magic formula that remits all sins, it is nonetheless an opportunity for much grace as are all of the sacraments. Whether burdened by heavy transgressions or light sins, this sacrament cleanses us from guilt and renews our connection with God. At the very least it infuses us with divine power to break the patterns of sin that dominate us to “go and sin no more.”