Practically Penitent

By Todd Inman, Catholic Evidence Guild of Guam

   Last week we discussed the difficulty we often have confessing our sins to a priest. Many non-Catholics claim that there is no reason for us to suffer this humiliation. We need only confess our sins to Christ! The Church in her wisdom has, however, always understood that Christ instituted sacramental confession when he breathed on the Apostles and said, "As the Father has sent me, so I send you.... Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, whose sins you retain are retained" (John 20: 21-23). As Christ came to call men and women to repentance and forgive sins, he sent his chosen ministers forth to preach repentance and to forgive sins. By giving his Apostles the authority to "retain" sins, Jesus indicates that there may be grounds for not forgiving someone.

    One such impediment to forgiveness of sins is a lack of contrition in the sinner. This leads us to the second major reason people avoid going to Confession. If the first reason is the difficulty and humiliation of confessing, the second is that they have not repented of their sins. Now there are only two reasons why a man will not be sorry for his sins. He is either ignorant that he has sinned, or he loves his sin more than he loves God.

    Pope Pius the XII declared, "The sin of the twentieth century is the loss of the sense of sin." This loss is perhaps even more pronounced today than it was when Pius XII made his statement in 1946. We are inundated with lies telling us not only that there is no sin, but also that sinful actions are virtues. Euthanasia is called "mercy killing." Homosexuality is called “a dignified, loving life-style choice.” Some mothers actually convince themselves that they are teaching their daughters to be responsible when they put them on the “pill.” Young girls and working women are counseled to have abortions so that they do not "ruin their lives" raising children. The list of lies goes on.

    When we look closely, we see clearly that every rationalization we make to justify our sins is a lie told to keep us ignorant --or at least forgetful--of our sinfulness. Our tendency to rationalize away our sins is one reason we need the sure authority of the Church to instruct us in matters of faith and morals. It is also why Confession to a priest for forgiveness was given to us. Left to us, we will often err--or even deceive ourselves--about what is right and good. If we confess only to God, we have no one to help us overcome our self-deception. God gives us his priests as aids to our union with Jesus.

    Now, some will complain that this focus on our sinfulness keeps us from the essence of the Gospel message, which is Christ’s love for us. The focus on sin, however, is really for the sake of the love of Jesus. We may repent of our sins, overcome our sin, and be joined with Christ in the love of the Father. We do not dwell on our sin for the sake of chastising ourselves as though that were the purpose of faith. No, we chastise ourselves for our sins, so that we might be changed because we want to come into our inheritance as sons and daughters of the living God. Ideally, we repent of our sins because we love God and we want to be reconciled with Him.

    We have faith and hope in the love of Christ crucified, so we do not despair of forgiveness, but we must be careful not to fall into the opposite sin of presumption. Presumption is the belief that we can be forgiven without repentance. Why then would we be in need of repentance? Didn’t Christ die for our sins and make reparation for us? Is that not sufficient?  Jesus suggests that this presumption is not true in his lament over Jerusalem as recorded in Saint Matthew’s Gospel:

“Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how many times I yearned to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her young under her wings, but you were unwilling!  Behold, your house will be abandoned, desolate” (Mt 23:37-38).

    St. Thomas Aquinas explains that it is contrary to God’s nature to forgive us without our repentance. Mercy and justice are married in all the works of God, so it would be incomplete to forgive an unrepentant sinner. The sinner must co-operate with God’s merciful grace to turn away from sin. The sinner does this by repenting of his sin and resolving to sin no more. God in his mercy is willing to forgive any sin, but when a sinner is determined to continue in his sin, he thereby refuses to accept God’s merciful grace and thereby condemns himself. Let us sincerely repent of our sins, confess them, and enjoy the generosity of our Heavenly Father.

Next week we will discuss how to make a good confession.