The sacrament of confession is one of the main sacraments of the Church from
the very beginning, from the ancient times. In fact, in the early centuries: first,
second, and third centuries, in most places the sacrament of confession was done
publicly so the Christian who committed some sort of sin would come in front of
the congregation and will ask them for forgiveness for the particular sin that
they committed. Of course, this is a difficult thing for many people to do
and the church made it easier for people by making the sacrament a private
session with the bishop or with the priest and so we don't need any more to
stand publicly and say our sins. That public confession would create of course
problems, especially if other people were involved, and it would be scandalous and
and it would not really be a positive thing for the parish and for the people
for the congregation but it would rather be damaging so that's why eventually the
church abolished the public confession and made it private. Confession is
definitely a confidential event where the priest of course will not tell what
the confessed has given them the information even if they will be called
to a court and this has been tested several times in fact more recently in
California where the priest was subpoenaed to the court for a case. They
were not required to give a testimony at the particular case when
when that reached the court.
Of course, confession has many benefits and it is a sacrament because it brings
the holy spirit to us, it brings the grace of God to us when we
confess our sins. When we admit the faults that we have, when we recognize
what it is that we're doing wrong. Then God's healing comes through the Holy
Spirit to heal us and protect us from these things that we're confessing. It is
also a way of bringing ourselves to humility, it is a way of bringing
ourselves to admit to our faults so that we can correct them by our own efforts
and of course with the grace of God we are correct but even further. It is also
an opportunity for the person who is confessing to have counseling from
somebody who has experience who is able to know about the sins of people and get
some advice from a priest from the priest who is doing the confession. This
is very significant especially in the world like ours today where there is so
much turmoil in our lives, there is so much mental illness, there is so much
which is not normal in so many ways and we need somebody to reflect with them
and get their advice about what our life should be like and the priest becomes
that person. If he sees mental illness of course he should always guide the person
to a professional who can help them. But confession is a sacrament where we
invoke the grace of God to heal all things which we may have in our hearts
in our minds. The reason the confession is important
of course is because when we sin we basically cut ourselves off the body of
Christ, the community of Christians, the worshiping community, and in order to be
able to reconnect we need to have reconciliation with the body of Christ.
That reconciliation is given to us today by the priest through the
forgiveness prayer and he reattaches us to the community and to the worshiping
community of Christians which is the body of Christ. In the ancient times as I
said before they would do this publicly and that would be their confession and
their reattachment but again they will receive penance from the priest or the
bishop and most of the time they will sit outside the doors in the narthex
being dressed in sackcloth and asking for forgiveness from all the parishioners
that were coming in and out of the church as they came into worship. Today, we don't do
that as I said because we don't want to embarrass the person and we allow them
to do it in secret basically confessing privately so that their sins will not be
made public and the reattachment is done by the priest as he forgives the sins
and gives advice and he guides the person back to communion with the Church.
So, there's always a penance that may be given not as punishment but as a way to
help the person to become more aware of what their sin is or what their problem
is which leads them to sin. And of course, a priest who is careful and also
experienced will look in the person's repeated sins and try to correct what
that might be. That is why also important that the
person not change priests and move from priest to priest in their confession but
have one spiritual father where he always he or she always goes so that
they will know them well. It's like having one doctor that knows you well,
knows your history, your medical history, and he's able to help you better to give
you the right medications and the priest does the same.
This is spiritual healing, the church is a hospital, and we come to the church to
be healed from all these things. Salvation is healing and the healing is
manifested in us as we bring our sicknesses to the church and ask for
healing. Confession is one of the most important sacraments of the church in
the sense that it's necessary in our process of salvation and it's necessary
in a process of preparation to receive Holy Communion. It is necessary in our
askesis, our ascetic living. It is necessary for our healing as we
recognize our shortcomings and we admit them and we ask for forgiveness and we
ask for guidance. And so, let's do that. It is important that we come to
confession, that we talk to the priest that we find the healing. Thank you!