Confession
- Are all of our
sins—past, present, and future—forgiven
once and for all when we become Christians?
Not according to the Bible or the early
Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states
that our future sins are forgiven; instead,
it teaches us to pray, "And forgive
us our debts, as we also have forgiven
our debtors." (Matthew 6:12)
The means by which God forgives sins
after baptism is Confession:
"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).
Minor or venial sins can
be confessed directly to God, but for
grave or mortal sins, which crush the
spiritual life out of the soul, God
has instituted a different means for
obtaining forgiveness—the sacrament
known popularly as Confession, Penance,
or Reconciliation.
This sacrament is
rooted in the mission God gave to Christ
in his capacity as the Son of man on
earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matthew 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed
this new power "glorified God,
who had given such authority to men" (Matthew 9:8; note the plural "men").
After His Resurrection, Jesus passed
on His Mission to forgive sins to His
ministers, telling them,
"As the
Father has sent me, even so I send you.
. . . 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)
Since it is not possible to confess
all of our many daily faults, we know
that sacramental Reconciliation is required
only for grave or mortal sins — but
it is required, or Christ would not
have commanded it.
Over time, the forms in which the sacrament
has been administered have changed.
In the Early Church, publicly known
sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed
openly in church, though private Confession
to a priest was always an option for
privately committed sins. Still, Confession
was not just something done in silence
to God alone, but something done "in
church," as the Didache (70 A.D.)
indicates.
Penances also tended to be performed
before rather than after absolution,
and they were much more strict than
those of today (ten years' penance
for abortion, for example, was common
in the early Church).
But the basics of the sacrament have
always been there, as the following
quotations reveal. Of special significance
is their recognition that Confession
and absolution must be received by a
sinner before receiving Holy Communion,
for
"[w]hoever . . . 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 Corinthians 11:27)
Early Church Documents and Fathers of the Church on Confession. |
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 [70 A.D.]).
|
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 [74 A.D.])
|
St. 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 [110 A.D.])
"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)
|
St. Irenaeus of Lyons.
"[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 [189 A.D.])
|
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 [203 A.D.])
|
Hippolytus of Rome.
"[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 [215 A.D.])
|
Origen of Alexandria.
"[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 [248
A.D.])
|
St. 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 Corinthians 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 (251
A.D.])
"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 Corinthians 11:27]" (Letters
9:2 [253 A.D.])
"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' (Revelation 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'. (Tobit 12:9)
(Tobit 12:15) (ibid., 51[55]:22)
|
Aphrahat 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 [340 A.D.])
|
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 (Matthew 3:6), but
in (Acts 19:18) they confessed
to the Apostles."
(Rules Briefly Treated 288 [374
A.D.])
|
St. 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.'
(Matthew 16:13-19)
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.'
(John 20:21-23)
- 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 (Matthew 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 [387 A.D.])
|
St. 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 [388 A.D.])
|
St. 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
[388 A.D.])
"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
[398 A.D.])
|
St. 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 [395 A.D.])
|
|
