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Hi, Jacque —
Well it's right from the Bible. Try
looking in our Knowledge base for "Confession".
Look at John 20:22-23:
22 And with
that [Jesus] breathed on them
and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone his sins,
they are forgiven; 23 if you do not
forgive them, they are not forgiven.'
John 20:22-23
This
is important because this is only
the second time that God breathed
on man (the first was at Adam's creation
in Genesis 2). What this says is
that the Apostles
— the first bishops, of whom
priests are representatives — have
the authority, in God's name, to
forgive sins, and hold sins unforgiven.
Also, in James 5:14-16, we see that
the elders of the church
(presbyteroi, where we get the word priest)
can forgive sins, and that we should
confess our sins out loud.
14 Is any among you sick? Let him
call for the elders of the church,
and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the
Lord; 15 and the prayer of faith
will save the sick man, and the
Lord will raise him up; and if
he has committed sins, he will
be forgiven. 16 Therefore confess
your sins to one another, and
pray for one another, that you
may be healed. The prayer of a
righteous man has great power
in its effects.
James 5:14-16
You see, sin doesn't just affect
us, even private sins;
they affect the whole community.
You can see this in the Old Testament
where God punished the whole community
for the sins of one or two. This
is hard for individualistic Americans
to understand. It's not just you
and Jesus.
No one can have
God as Father who does not have the
Church as Mother.
(St. Cyprian
[died 258 A.D.], De unit. 6: PL 4,
519).
I think I've written on this before
so do
a search of the Knowledge base.
You said:
- Who's to say that it's not all Vatican
crap?
Auricular confession — verbal
confession to a priest — is
very ancient. It wasn't something
made
up by the Vatican. Extra-biblical
evidence for its practice goes back
to the first century; see <Confession>.
Finally, it's worth keeping in mind
that we aren't obligated to confess
every little sin through Confession.
The sacrament of Confession is obligatory
only for mortal sins (grave sins
we did with full knowledge and consent).
Soon-to-be Blessed John Henry Cardinal
Newman once said,
A thousand
difficulties do not make a single
doubt.
It is good for you
to make the faith your own; it's
a necessary stage of development.
It is expected for young people to
challenge their faith (I am assuming
you are a young person).
The
faith can take it. What's important
is that you actually give the faith
a chance, as you are doing, and study
what you object to, giving it a fair
shake. It is also important that
you open your heart to Jesus, to
following him, and to the Spirit
of Truth, without regard to how painful
or distasteful or inconvenient it
might be. Be open to the truth, whatever
it is.
If, on the Day of Judgment,
you are proven wrong, but can say
you followed the truth to the extent
it presented itself to you, you will
do well, but if, on the other
hand, you know the truth but willingly
and steadfastly reject it, or refuse
to seek the truth . . . you will have
a harder time on that Day.
Surrender yourself
to the Truth, even if you're not
sure what it is yet.
Eric
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