The science of confession
Jesus doesn’t wait for a confession from the paralytic in Luke 5:17-26, but immediately grants absolution: “Man, your sins are forgiven you.”
Oct 12, 2024
Word in Progress - Karen-Michaela Tan
Ask any secondary school catechist and you’ll soon realise the majority of teens currently attending faith formation classes have not made a Confession since their first Holy Communion in Standard Three. Unless something changes, the next time they will be obligated to exercise this sacrament will be before they are confirmed in Form Five.
While they were hanging out at my home, I asked a group of my 16-year-old’s Catholic friends about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and if they availed themselves of it. The majority had not been in a confessional in years, while two said they were made to go during the Lenten and Advent penitential services. My teen who has set herself a quarterly confessional schedule spoke for her friends when she said, “I don’t blame my friends for not going to Confession. The advice the priest gives is so basic (‘basic’ in teen-speak being uninspired and humdrum.)
All my life, before and after I became Catholic, I have heard questions of the need to confess before a fellow human, and the Christian school of thought that generally skews to being able to speak to God in one’s own heart or head and find absolution.
The folly of mankind is still the refusal to believe that something greater than us exists. The ego that drives man to create something that might be his own undoing, like Artificial Intelligence, is only matched by the stubbornness to believe in certain things unseen. And that is what the definition of faith is: the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen (Hebrews 11:1).
Some things in our faith life can, in fact, be explained and understood with due study. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC, my favourite Catholic resource and sometimes door stop and paper weight) states that Confession is called “the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin.
It is called the sacrament of Penance since it consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction. It is called the sacrament of confession since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a “confession” - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man. (CCC 1423-1424)” The amount of thought put into this convinces me that because the Church deems it so important, I, as a part of the physical body of Christ, should too.
The former faith educator in me asked the group of teens what they expected during the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Most of them said ‘advice’. It makes me believe that many Catholics mistake the confessional for a therapist’s couch. The same way that people may pick a counsellor or psychologist is used to decide when to go to confession. I’ve heard people in the penitential line say, “I hope I get Father So-and-so because he’s a very understanding priest.” I also have people tell me they go to confession only when the priest is someone not known to them/not their parish priest.
The role of priests in any sacramental rite is to serve in persona Christi – in the person of Christ. In the bible wherever a confession is made to Jesus, He doesn’t respond with paragraphs of advice, suggestions and a life plan. To the woman caught in adultery in John 8: 11, the only thing Jesus said was, “Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more.”
Jesus doesn’t wait for a confession from the paralytic in Luke 5:17-26, but immediately grants absolution: “Man, your sins are forgiven you.” The woman branded a sinner who washed Jesus’ feet in Luke 7: 36-50 said nothing of her wrongdoings to the Master. She simply broke down under the weight of public judgement, and let her penitence speak by the way she abased herself, using her free-flowing hair to wipe Jesus’ feet before anointing them with expensive lotion. Jesus simply said to the woman, “Your sins are forgiven.”
The confessional should not be confused as a place for therapy or counselling. There are many guides to making a good confession, and all of them centre on the actions of the penitent. The examination of conscience is not to give God ammunition against you. A good examination of conscience is not about just ticking off yes or no to the long list of prompting questions. An examination of conscience compels someone to face straight on their wrongdoings with honesty and openness. One needs to be brave enough to call to mind personal transgressions without adding on justification such as, “But I only did it because they first did something bad.”
In accepting responsibility for our actions, we are led to see the error of our ways, and how it impacts on our relationship with God and our fellow men. The work of reconciliation happens before one enters the confessional. Hence the importance of prayer before the examination of conscience. In that lead-up we pray for supernatural wisdom to see our faults, and for heavenly strength to own up to our wrong doing. It is during this time that the Holy Spirit convicts us of things. Strengthened by the wisdom of the Spirit, we enter the confessional and state our transgressions.
The end game in the confessional is the blessing and absolution from whichever priest is serving in persona Christi. Should a penitent have the fortune to come face to face with a confessor with the acumen of St Alphonsus Liguori, patron of lawyers, vocations and confessors; or the kind astuteness of Saint John Vianney, well and good. Comfort, assurance, good counsel is an added benefit of the sacrament. But it is the words of absolution “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” which we thirst for, because it does not come from the priest in front of us, but the loving Father in heaven and the Son who died for us.
If we believe enough to seek out the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we must also believe in the forgiveness that comes from it. Perhaps the examination of conscience or something the priest says may prompt a penitent to go in search of a counsellor, therapist or psychologist. Then it is undoubtedly the Holy Spirit which moves a person towards a greater understanding of an underlying issue, but until such time, it is prudent for us to continue to expect chairs in the confessional and not a psychologist’s couch.
(Karen-Michaela Tan is a poet, writer and editor who seeks out God’s presence in the human condition and looks for ways to put the Word of God into real action.)
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