Absolution

[Dream]

Peace in Christ.

I just got home yesterday, and surprisingly, my internet seems to work. (Previously, I was not able to establish a reliable connection.)

My question today has to do with absolution and confession. I just attended a Reconciliation service with my parents. After a couple songs were sung, the congregation said the prayer of "I confess to Alimighty Father and to you my brothers and sisters..." (I forget the name of that prayer), and then we had individual confessions with the Priest.

From what I understand, that prayer absolves you of all venial sins, but not mortal sins. So if God has forgiven you for all venial sins, wouldn't it actually be considered sinful to then confess your venial sins to a Priest because it shows that you lack faith in God's absolution? I could understand if you had mortal sins to confess, but the whole idea of confessing venial sins seems rather redundant and unnecessary.

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

[ps139]

Well, as I understand it, any sin is forgiven at the moment of repentance. (assuming you know the necessity of confession and plan to go and not just blow it off)
However a mortal sin causes you to lose your state of grace, and the only way to get back into this state is to be absolved.
When you are out of a state of grace you cannot partake in the sacraments.

Now, when you confess, part of the healing process is the absolution you receive. But the actual act of confession is so beneficial! Just getting things off your chest is so healthy. Telling a priest you are sorry for a venial sin does not mean that you do not believe God has not forgiven you for it.
Just getting it off your chest is so healthy. Also, the more a priest knows about your situation, the better advice and counsel they can give you. And this council and advice is a huge benefit of the sacrament, as it will help you avoid and reject sin in the future.

 

[Dream]

Well, as I understand it, any sin is forgiven at the moment of repentance. (assuming you know the necessity of confession and plan to go and not just blow it off)
However a mortal sin causes you to lose your state of grace, and the only way to get back into this state is to be absolved.
When you are out of a state of grace you cannot partake in the sacraments.

Now, when you confess, part of the healing process is the absolution you receive. But the actual act of confession is so beneficial! Just getting things off your chest is so healthy. Telling a priest you are sorry for a venial sin does not mean that you do not believe God has not forgiven you for it.
Just getting it off your chest is so healthy. Also, the more a priest knows about your situation, the better advice and counsel they can give you. And this council and advice is a huge benefit of the sacrament, as it will help you avoid and reject sin in the future.

But it seems as though you are continuing to be let your forgiven sin affect your life. If somebody commits a venial sin, let's say swearing for instance, they shouldn't have to confess it continously for the rest of their life. Once they confess it to a Priest and absolution is granted, it would make sense for one to accept the fact that God has forgiven their sins and get on with their life. And I would think the same should be said about any kind of absolution. When a sin is forgiven, instead of continuing to dwell on it, I would think that one should move on and accept the fact that it is forgiven.

 

[ps139]

Well DT, there is a big difference between man being forgiven of a sin, and man never committing that sin again.
Would you tell an alcoholic that going to AA to talk about their alcohol problems is unnecessary? And that they should not continue to dwell on it, they should get on with their life?
Well that would not be very effective now, would it?

 

[RhetorTheo]

That is a good question, and one you should probably ask a priest. I agree, it doesn't seem necessary to confess sins that have already been absolved on a previous occasion. I don't know if I would call it sinful, though, assuming that you believe they have already been absolved, and you are relating the sins to the priest to give context or for the relief of having told somebody about it.

 

[Dream]

That is a good question, and one you should probably ask a priest. I agree, it doesn't seem necessary to confess sins that have already been absolved on a previous occasion. I don't know if I would call it sinful, though, assuming that you believe they have already been absolved, and you are relating the sins to the priest to give context or for the relief of having told somebody about it.

I was actually going to ask one of the Priests that was doing the Confession, but it didn't seem like an appropriate time. I was going to ask afterwards, but I never got a chance.

 

[St_Joseph_Cupertino]

Well, as I understand it, any sin is forgiven at the moment of repentance. (assuming you know the necessity of confession and plan to go and not just blow it off)

2 Questions here...
As a hypothetical, if someone comitted a mortal sin, but couldn't get to confession in time...Will God forgive him of those sins anyway? If he has contrition, of course? What if he dies before he can confess?

Also, in regards to purgatory, will we only have to atone for the unconfessed sins in purgatory, or will we have to atone for all sins, even fogiven ones?

Thanks and Peace in Christ!

 

[RhetorTheo]

From what I was told by a priest, you can always go directly to God for confession and absolution.

 

[Paul S]

2 Questions here...
As a hypothetical, if someone comitted a mortal sin, but couldn't get to confession in time...Will God forgive him of those sins anyway? If he has contrition, of course? What if he dies before he can confess?

An act of perfect contrition, accompanied by a resolution to confess as soon as possible, is sufficient if one dies before being able to confess. But since we don't know if our contrition is perfect or not, we shouldn't rely on this.

Also, in regards to purgatory, will we only have to atone for the unconfessed sins in purgatory, or will we have to atone for all sins, even fogiven ones?

All sins. Confession removes the eternal punishment, penance and purgatory remove the temporal punishment. We can work off our temporal punishment on earth through indulgences and penance, but any temporal punishment left will be served in purgatory.

Suppose you had someone who committed hundreds of mortal sins, went to confession, received a penance of one Pater Noster, and died the next day. This person would go to heaven, since his sins were forgiven at Confession, but saying one prayer probably isn't enough to make up for all his sins, so he'd be spending a long time in purgatory. This would seem to be likely, but purgatory is one of the things God has not fully revealed to us, perhaps because if we fully knew what it was like, we'd be more likely to sin, so we can't be sure how much time in purgatory any particular indulgence or act of penance removes. The old system of "indulgence of 300 days" referred to what used to be in the early church 300 days of penance, not 300 days off of purgatory. Now, indulgences are either plenary (full) or partial, since the old system was too often thought to refer to days off in purgatory. How much time a partial indulgence removes is known only to God.

 

[Paul S]

From what I was told by a priest, you can always go directly to God for confession and absolution.

We do, since every priest acts in persona Christi when celebrating the sacraments. We're not confessing to Father Smith, but to Christ through Father Smith.

Confession is necessary for the forgiveness of mortal sin. Acts of perfect contrition are possible, and those who do not know of Confession's necessity may be forgiven in other ways, but we should not rely on these. "Going directly to God", as most Protestant denominations teach, is not the teaching of the Church. We don't like to hear about sin and confession these days, but we need to.

 

[RhetorTheo]

So a Catholic, knowing better, cannot directly confess to God and receive absolution? Or a Catholic should not? By "acts of perfect contrition are possible," do you mean that going straight to God is unreliable while you know for sure that the priest has absolved you?

 

[Paul S]

So a Catholic, knowing better, cannot directly confess to God and receive absolution? Or a Catholic should not? By "acts of perfect contrition are possible," do you mean that going straight to God is unreliable while you know for sure that the priest has absolved you?

An act of perfect contrition requires sorrow for one's sins based solely on love of God. Imperfect contrition can include a fear of hell. For sacramental confession, either is okay. However, we cannot know whether our contrition is truly perfect - only God can read our hearts and minds well enough to know that, so we shouldn't rely on this. On the other hand, when the priest says Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, we know we're forgiven, because God has promised this through His Church, and He remains faithful to His promises.

Jesus gave his apostles and their successors the authority to forgive or retain sins in His name, indicating that we receive forgiveness through His priests and bishops. To refuse to confess means we are ignoring the command of the Church. While God could forgive our sins directly, He has chosen to do so through His priests.

The Catechism says this:

1493 One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church, must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he remembers after having carefully examined his conscience. The confession of venial faults, without being necessary in itself, is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church.