|
Your sins have been
forgiven
Go in the peace of God
I never heard this in words growing up. Now, as a Catholic I can say
that it makes a life, well, not so lonely because at times life can
weigh heavy on our souls. Jesus has His ways of helping us lighten our
load. He carries our cross, one cross for all sins, in this we all
share. He wants us to pile them on so that we can continue the journey
with Him to the Father. He knows that we can be crushed under the
weight of our sin if we turn away from Him in shame. He does'nt want us
to hide our sins from each other, rather He wants
us to clearly know them, each one of them so that we can know where to
place
them. Jesus did not come to condemn us, He came to save us. The
Sacrament
of confession is not a Sacrament in shame. Confession is a Sacrament of
love
and healing. Forgiveness and reconciliation shouldn't be done alone
because
we all need each other in Christ. Seeing each other in the line of
confession
is a very good and humbling experience. Confession, within the confines
of
the Sacrament is a good thing; a very special gift from God.
Prayer Of The Penitent
My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,
I have sinned against you whom I should love above
all things. I firmly intend, with your help, to do
penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever
leads me to sin. Our Savior Jesus Christ suffered
and died for us. In his name, my God, have mercy.
Lord, Have Mercy
The Healing Power of Forgiveness
Jesus told his first clergy, “If you forgive the sins
of any,
they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
In Lord, Have Mercy, Scott Hahn explores the sacrament of
reconciliation and shows why it is the key to spiritual growth,
particularly in these times of intense anxiety and uncertainty.
Drawing on the history of ancient Israel, the Gospels, the writings of the early
Church, and the lives of the saints, Hahn reveals the living,
scriptural heart of the Church’s teachings on penance, forgiveness, and
reconciliation. It is a story that begins with the sin of Adam and Eve,
continues in the biographies of Moses, King David, and the Apostle
Peter, and reverberates in the lives of believers today. Hahn presents
the Catholic and biblical perspective on sin and mercy, elucidating in
clear, easily understood language the true import
of Jesus’ simple, yet profound promise–“I am the door; if anyone enters
by
Me, he will be saved (John 10:9).
Like Hahn’s earlier books, Lord, Have
Mercy offers thoughtful, authoritative insights into controversial
issues and disputed doctrines in a manner that will enlighten lay
readers yet is thorough enough for scholars to appreciate. More than
just a Bible study, it is a guide
for the perplexed, providing practical advice and inspiration that will
help
readers come to a deeper knowledge of themselves and of Jesus through
the
sacrament of penance.
|
 Confession
In Scripture
& and the words of the early Church Fathers
Scripture and the earliest church
writings on confession our pretty clear. As an outsider coming in at a
later age in life I have fist hand witness to this great
Sacrament. I have walked in and I have walked out. It's in hearing the
words out loud that I have
come to appreciate this Sacrament the most:
. . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the
sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are
retained"
( John
20:21–23).
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so
that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and
effective. (James 5:16)
"And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors" (Matt.
6:12).
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our
sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9).
(cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power
"glorified God, who had given such authority to men"
"Whoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an
unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the
Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).
Confession
in the Old Testament
(Leviticus 5:14-26)
The LORD said
to Moses:
"When a person commits a violation and sins unintentionally in regard
to
any of the LORD's holy things, he is to bring to the LORD as a penalty
a
ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value in
silver,
according to the sanctuary shekel. It is a guilt offering.
He
must make restitution for what he has failed to do in regard to the
holy things,
add a fifth of the value to that and give it all to the priest, who
will
make atonement for him with the ram as a guilt offering, and he will be
forgiven.
"If a person sins and does what is forbidden in
any of the LORD's commands, even though he does not know it, he is
guilty
and will be held responsible. He is to bring to the
priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and
of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him
for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be
forgiven. It is a guilt offering; he has been guilty
of wrongdoing against the LORD ."
The
Didache
"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" (Didache
4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).
The
Letter of Barnabas
"You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you
shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall
confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience.
This is the way of light" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).
Ignatius
of Antioch
"For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the
bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into
the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may
live according to Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Philadelphians 3
[A.D. 110]).
"For where there is division and wrath, God does not dwell. To all them
that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to
the
unity of God, and to communion with the bishop" (ibid., 8).
Irenaeus
"[The Gnostic disciples of Marcus] have deluded many women. . . . Their
consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. Some of these women
make
a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence,
as
if withdrawing from themselves the hope of the life of God, they either
apostatize
entirely or hesitate between the two courses" (Against Heresies
1:22
[A.D. 189]).
Tertullian
"[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure
of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are
more
mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease
in
the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to
the
physicians; and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness" (Repentance
10:1 [A.D. 203]).
Hippolytus
"[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop shall pray:]
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . Pour forth now that
power which comes from you, from your royal Spirit, which you gave to
your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he bestowed upon his holy
apostles . . . and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for
the episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and to serve
without blame as your high priest, ministering night and day to
propitiate unceasingly before your face and to offer to you
the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high priesthood
to
have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command" (Apostolic
Tradition 3 [A.D. 215]).
Origen
"[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the
remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not
shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking
medicine, after the manner of him who say, ‘I said, "To the Lord I will
accuse myself of my iniquity"’" (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D.
248]).
Cyprian
of Carthage
"The apostle [Paul] likewise bears witness and says: ‘ . . . Whoever
eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty
of the body
and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]. But [the impenitent] spurn and
despise
all these warnings; before their sins are expiated, before they have
made
a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in
the
ceremony and at the hand of the priest . . . they do violence to [the
Lord’s]
body and blood, and with their hands and mouth they sin against the
Lord
more than when they denied him" (The Lapsed 15:1–3 (A.D. 251]).
"Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess
their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in
sorrow,
making an open declaration of conscience. . . . 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" (ibid.,
28).
"[S]inners may do penance for a set time, and according to the rules of
discipline come to public confession, and by imposition of the hand of
the
bishop and clergy receive the right of Communion. [But now some] with
their
time [of penance] still unfulfilled . . . they are admitted to
Communion,
and their name is presented; and while the penitence is not yet
performed,
confession is not yet made, the hands of the bishop and clergy are not
yet
laid upon them, the Eucharist is given to them; although it is written,
‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord
unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor.
11:27]" (Letters 9:2 [A.D. 253]).
"And do not think, dearest brother, that either the courage of the
brethren will be lessened, or that martyrdoms will fail for this cause,
that penance is relaxed to the lapsed, and that the hope of peace
[i.e., absolution] is offered to the penitent. . . . For to adulterers
even a time of repentance is granted by us, and peace is given" (ibid.,
51[55]:20).
"But I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think that repentance is
not to be granted to the lapsed, or to suppose that pardon is to be
denied
to the penitent, when it is written, ‘Remember whence thou art fallen,
and
repent, and do the first works’ [Rev. 2:5], which certainly is said to
him
who evidently has fallen, and whom the Lord exhorts to rise up again by
his
deeds [of penance], because it is written, ‘Alms deliver from death’
[Tob.
12:9]" (ibid., 51[55]:22).
Aphraahat
the Persian Sage
"You [priests], then, who are disciples of our illustrious physician
[Christ], you ought not deny a curative to those in need of healing.
And if anyone uncovers
his wound before you, give him the remedy of repentance. And he that is
ashamed
to make known his weakness, encourage him so that he will not hide it
from
you. And when he has revealed it to you, do not make it public, lest
because
of it the innocent might be reckoned as guilty by our enemies and by
those
who hate us" (Treatises 7:3 [A.D. 340]).
Basil
the Great
"It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation
of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found
to
have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they
confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts
[19:18] they confessed to the apostles" (Rules Briefly Treated
288 [A.D. 374]).
John
Chrysostom
"Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels
nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on
earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall
be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they
can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond
which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did
[God] not give them all the powers of heaven? ‘Whose sins you shall
forgive,’ he says, ‘they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall
retain, they are retained.’ What greater power is there than this? The
Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing
all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John 20:21–23]. They
are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to
heaven" (The Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387]).
Ambrose
of Milan
"For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given,
it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither
is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to
heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only" (Penance
1:1 [A.D. 388]).
Jerome
"If the serpent, the devil, bites someone secretly, he infects that
person with the venom of sin. And if the one who has been bitten keeps
silence and does not do penance, and does not want to confess his wound
. . . then his brother and his master, who have the word [of
absolution] that will cure him,
cannot very well assist him" (Commentary on Ecclesiastes 10:11
[A.D.
388]).
"We read in Leviticus about lepers, where they are ordered to show
themselves to the priests, and if they have leprosy, then they are to
be declared unclean by the priest. . . . Just as in the Old Testament
the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so in the New Testament
the bishop or presbyter binds or looses not those who are innocent or
guilty, but by reason of their office, when they have heard various
kinds of sins, they know who is to be bound and
who is to be loosed" (Commentary on Matthew 3:16:19 [A.D.
398]).
Augustine
"When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the
commandments of God so that you may preserve your baptism to the very
end. I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they
are venial sins which this life is never without. Baptism was
instituted for all sins. For light sins, without which we cannot live,
prayer was instituted. . . . But 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. . . . In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins
are
forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in the greater humility of
penance"
(Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D. 395]). |
