Confession

[joshiwoshi]

And that makes 3 LOL....that actually made me laugh...don't worry about it, it happens

Glad I could make someone happy!

 

[benedictaoo]

Why do Catholics confess there sins to a Priest, why don't they confess there sins directly to God?

I don't understand why a Priest needs to be involved, surely only God can give forgiveness to those sins anyway.........right?

Wrong.

Jesus said so, that's basically why. But God is the one who forgives untimely.

But if we want to analyse it, why do anything at all? I mean... really... why?

Why did Jesus hear confessions? Why did He have to vocally forgive sins? He was God, He knew... He know their hearts, why did He do it that way?

It was He who instituted confession and it was He who told the apostles to continue it that way.

So the priest does what Jesus did when Jesus walked the earth. He administers on behalf of Jesus. He acts in Jesus' person. It's the physical/ material aspect of who we are. It's not for God, it's for us. God doesn't need us to do a darn thing... we need it. We need to do these things to become better people.

The goal is for us to be better. None of anything we do is for God's benefit. He doesn't need us for anything. It's a matter of if we want to be better people or not and if we do we need to be held accountable for what we do.

Because of who we are, not because of who God is, but due to who we are, material beings who are all connected to one another, saying sorry in our head, silently to no one, just doesn't cut it. There needs to be accountability so we confess to the priest because he is ordained to stand in the person of Jesus.

 

[benedictaoo]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but how can the Priest stand in for Christ? I don't understand, how can it be Christ saying this?

Because a priest is ordained (by God) to do certain things that Jesus did. Jesus' ministry. He instituted this ministry when He was with us and when He went up to take His place at God's right hand He left his ministry in the hands of His apostles and they lay hands on other men and make them priests to continue this ministry.

So the priest only and just administers the grace that can only come from God. They are called sacraments. A sacrament is a outward sign instituted by Jesus in order to give us His grace. The grace of forgiveness is given in the sacrament of reconciliation or confession, where we go, confess and are reconciled with God.

One of the problems of the Reformation was that with out valid Bishops (successors of the apostles whom Jesus left His ministry with) they can not, because they have no authority to, they cannot ordained priests, (you have to be a valid Bishop to ordain a priest). So with out the priest, there can't be a valid Eucharist or a valid sacrament of confession.

That is the real reason why Protestants do not have the sacraments... and they just "preach".

Preaching is what Jesus did but He also did other things to, like hear confessions and forgive sins... and the Jews flipped out that He thought He could do that because, who was he they thought, and they thought only God can forgive sins... sound like a familiar complaint?

So that is why the priest stand in Jesus' place... they are just following Jesus instructions to do what He did. Protestants just preach what they think is the Word... they do not do the rest of the stuff.

 

[benedictaoo]

Forgive me, just trying to understand, we don't have confession at my local church, although I did know it happened in Anglican churches I thought it was rare.

Thank you everyone for the bible verses and the useful answers.

And the reason why it's rare is apostolic succession. High Anglicans may have valid succession and if they ordain priests, he would be a valid priest and can hear confession... where they can trace a valid bishop back to the apostles.

Now just because they may be valid... does not mean any of what they do is licit. But that is another story for another day.

Just keep in mind that when we begin to trace the history and origins of Schisms and Protestantism, we will find that it's not the sacraments (like confession to a priest) they had issues with, it's authority and just who really has it.

Like I said, sacraments had to be scratched because it had gotten to the point that there wasn't a priesthood anymore in a lot of these different denominations.

 

[Wolseley]

Forgive me if this is a silly question, but how can the Priest stand in for Christ? I don't understand, how can it be Christ saying this?

When you go to confession, the priest is not forgiving your sins. God is forgiving your sins; He is merely using the priest as an instrument.

 

[Rhamiel]

some of you seem a little over zealous in how you answer this sister in Christ.

is it really that hard to understand why someone would find the Sacrament confusing?

 

[JimR-OCDS]

A tidbit of Church history:

In the beginning, when the Church was young, individuals confessed their sins openly in front of the entire congregation. It was only after Christianity was accepted as the official religion of the empire and became more mainstream, with less devout/more secular than spiritual sorts joining the congregation, that confession began to be heard privately by a priest, who stood in as a representative of the congregation. Confession has always been an important aspect of our Life in Christ, and will be until the end of times. It's a Sacred Tradition.

It was the tradition that sins were confessed openly before the congregation, but only three sins had to be confessed this way,
Apostasy, Theft, and Adultery.

In fact the Church prohibited private confessions until the Church was persecuted in Ireland, where priest were not allowed outside of monasteries and church property. So, in order to provide spiritual direction, they constructed rooms along the outside wall of the property, with a little window on the inside. People would enter the room and speak to a priest through the window. It happened that people would confess their sins and receive absolution. This method gained so much popularity, that it spread throughout the Church and the prohibition against private confession was lifted and it became the norm.


Jim

 

[WarriorAngel]

This is about the most complete history I've ever seen.

http://www.resurrection-catholic.org/learn/sacraments/reconciliation/history_reconciliation.pdf

It looks like the Celtic monastics got the Church going on the right track in the 6th century--God bless the Irish.

I didnt read the link - but wanted to chime in with the Irish...

Back in the day [1st 300 or so years] - you got like one confession outside of Baptism to remove sins.. and did ten years of sack cloth and ashes in front of the Church [for all to see] if you committed a mortal sin....which was resolved when you were dying - and gave your 'lifetime' confession to the priest.

What the Celtics did - they made a system where you 'gave of yourself' in penance in order to alleviate the sins 'affect' - as an example - you committed such and such a sin - give 2 bushels of wheat to the poor...
This was a new penance - and since it was like a hardship to the person to give up something - that kept ppl from committing 'repeat' offender sins.

The thing is - they still got council from their priests - they confessed - absolvance wasnt til later in their lifetime.. or near death with the sacrament of Last Rites/Anointing [etc]

So yah, when the priest gives a penance - it stems from the Irish starting out a hardship to keep ppl on the right track.

FWIW - confession has always existed. It has become more frequent... but so have accidents [and what not] so thats a good thing. Life is too fragile to take it for granted and frequent confessions are necessary.
Plenary Indulgences are a must.