Catechism Corner | Why Go to Confession? (Part 1)

Jesus entered this world to forgive sins. Recall the words of our Lord: "God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him may not die but may have eternal life" (John 3:16). During His public ministry, Jesus preached about the forgiveness of sins: remember the parables of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11ff) or the Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1ff), and His teaching that "there will likewise be more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need to repent" (Luke 15:7). Jesus Himself forgave sins: remember the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1ff) or the woman who washed His feet with her tears (Luke 7:36ff). He also taught us to pray for forgiveness in the "Our Father": "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us" (cf. Matthew 5:9ff). His mission of reconciliation would climax in His passion, death, and resurrection: Jesus suffered, died, and rose to free us from sin and death.

However, Jesus never trivialized sin nor rationalized it. No, for Jesus, sin is sin, a violation of love against God, self, and neighbor. However, in His divine mercy, Jesus called the sinner to realize the sin, to repent of it, and to be reconciled with God, self, and neighbor.

Jesus wanted this ministry of reconciliation to continue. On that first Easter Sunday evening, Jesus appeared to His apostles, "breathed on them," and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound" (John 20:21-23). Only twice in Sacred Scripture do we find God breathing into human beings. First, in the Genesis account of creation, God breathes the life of a soul into the man He has created (Genesis 2:7). Now, Jesus, the Son, breathes His life into His apostles, His priests, so that through them He will "breathe" life into the souls of contrite sinners. In this scene, Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance and made His apostles the ministers of it.

At the ascension, Jesus again charged His apostles with this ministry: "Thus it is written that the Messiah must suffer and rise from the dead on the third day. In His name, penance for the remission of sins is to be preached to all the nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of this" (Luke 24:46ff). Clearly, Jesus came to forgive sins, He wanted that reconciliation to continue, and He gave the Church a sacrament through which priests would continue to act as the ministers of this reconciliation.

We see this ministry of reconciliation lived-out in the early Church. St. Paul wrote, "God has reconciled us to Himself through Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation" (II Cor 5:18). The Didache (or Teachings of the Twelve Apostles), written about AD 80, stated, "In the congregation you shall confess your transgressions" and "On the Lord's Day, come together and break bread… having confessed your transgressions that your sacrifice may be pure." St. Cyprian in his De lapsis (c. 251) concerning the reconciliation of Christians who had succumbed to offering pagan worship rather than face martyrdom, wrote, "Let each confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession can be received, while satisfaction and the forgiveness granted by the priests is acceptable to God." At this time of persecution, when local "parishes" were small, individuals publicly confessed their sins at the beginning of Mass (as mentioned in the Didache) and received absolution from the bishop or priest.

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Fr. Antonius David Tristianto, O.Carm.