The Healing that comes with Confession of Sins "We are in a supernatural struggle" with evil, the pope said, "even though we already know the final outcome will be Christ's victory over the powers of evil. This victory truly takes place every time a penitent is absolved. Nothing drives away and defeats evil more than divine mercy." -Pope Francis It is very difficult, even humiliating to go before a priest, or minister, or a trusted friend, and to confess one’s wrongdoing, or sin. After all these years of using this Catholic Sacrament, I can still find it difficult to go. To make a good confession is to reveal to another one’s struggles, sins, and yes indifference to doing God’s will in one’s life. Yet I feel that it is important to confess, and those who don’t miss out on a great deal of inner healing, as well as the growth in self-knowledge. Confession is not about making excuses for one’s behaviors, as well as private thoughts, that can move in directions that are harmful to the one having them if allowed to freely develop. Our actions flow from our thoughts. To admit guilt is healthy, to deny it is to become stuck an endless cycle of frustration and pain. To deny one’s healthy guilt is to become a victim and therefore there can be little if any progress. Humility and Self-knowledge go together. For Catholic’s the process of confession allows another human to hear about your struggles. and failures, in doing so it gets it out of the subjective world that can get one stuck. To have another see you in your struggles, is to allow mercy to work at a deeper level. The priest who represents Christ Jesus gives the words of absolution setting one free of endless dialogue over guilt, and regret. There is no need to defend oneself, God sees it all and yet still shows us mercy. Sin is like a cancer that will only grow larger if not acknowledged before the grace of God. True, one can do it privately, but the grace of confession is deep healing and the growth in humility which can free one from self-preoccupation. Jesus gave the church the power to forgive sin, and in the epistle of James, we are told to confess our sins to one another because it is good for the soul. The sacraments are a grace, and those who participate in them with understanding what they are doing can only lead to deeper trust in God’s love, compassion, and mercy. Yes, confession is difficult, but the rewards are many. Deepen your faith and trust in God and confess your sins to another. Be it a priest, if one is Catholic, or to a minister, or a friend who shares your faith, and can listen and not judge. You need to use discernment when you seek out someone to confess to.-Br.MD
Something that would be very useful and salvific for Protestants to know is that Martin Luther's reform did not eliminate the sacrament of confession of sins, contrary to the view of many Protestants that this sacrament places the priest in an arrogant position of considering himself equal to God for granting absolution of sins. This would be useful in trying to convince a Protestant in the last hours of his life to accept confession before a priest and to accept the call of true faith.
Confession (Lutheran Church) Article Talk Language Download PDF Watch Edit In the Lutheran Church, Confession (also called Holy Absolution) is the method given by Christ to the Church by which individual men and women may receive the forgiveness of sins; according to the Large Catechism, the "third sacrament" of Holy Absolution is properly viewed as an extension of Holy Baptism.[1] "Private Absolution ought to be retained in the churches, although in confession an enumeration of all sins is not necessary." —Augsburg Confession, Article 11 BeliefsEdit The Lutheran Church practices "Confession and Absolution" [referred to as the Office of the Keys] with the emphasis on the absolution, which is God's word of forgiveness. Indeed, Lutherans highly regard Holy Absolution. They, like Roman Catholics, see James 5:16 and John 20:22–23 as biblical evidence for confession.[2] Confession and absolution is done in private to the pastor, called the "confessor" with the person confessing known as the "penitent". In confession, the penitent makes an act of contrition, as the pastor, acting in persona Christi, announces the formula of absolution. Prior to the confession, the penitent is to review the Ten Commandments to examine his or her conscience.[3] In the Lutheran Church, like the Roman Catholic Church, the pastor is bound by the Seal of the Confessional. Luther's Small Catechism says "the pastor is pledged not to tell anyone else of sins to him in private confession, for those sins have been removed." If the Seal is broken, it will result in excommunication.[2] In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, weekly private confession became less expected;[citation needed] at the present time, it is, for example, expected before partaking of the Eucharist for the first time.[4][non-primary source needed] It is also encouraged to be done frequently in a year[5][non-primary source needed] (specifically before Easter). In many churches,[citation needed] times are set for the pastor to hear confessions.[6] The Augsburg Confession divides repentance into two parts: "One is contrition, that is, terrors smiting the conscience through the knowledge of sin; the other is faith, which is born of the Gospel, or of absolution, and believes that for Christ's sake, sins are forgiven, comforts the conscience, and delivers it from terrors."[7] In line with Luther's initial statement in his Large Catechism, some Lutherans speak of only two sacraments,[8] Baptism and the Eucharist, although later in the same work he calls Confession and Absolution[9] "the third sacrament."[10] The definition of sacrament in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession lists Absolution as one of them.[11] Luther went to confession all his life.[12] Although Lutherans do not consider the other four rites as sacraments, they are still retained and used in the Lutheran church. Philipp Melanchthon speaking about the Confession in the Lutheran Church, claims that "we do not wish to sanction the torture [the tyranny of consciences] of the Summists, which notwithstanding would have been less intolerable if they had added one word concerning faith, which comforts and encourages consciences. Now, concerning this faith, which obtains the remission of sins, there is not a syllable in so great a mass of regulations, glosses, summaries, books of confession. Christ is nowhere read there".[13] Martin Luther on ConfessionEdit In his 1529 catechisms, Martin Luther praised confession (before a pastor or a fellow Christian) "for the sake of absolution", the forgiveness of sins bestowed in an audible, concrete way.[14] The Lutheran reformers held that a complete enumeration of sins is impossible[15] and that one's confidence of forgiveness is not to be based on the sincerity of one's contrition nor on one's doing works of satisfaction imposed by the confessor (penance).[16] The Roman Catholic church held confession to be composed of three parts: contritio cordis ("contrition of the heart"), confessio oris ("confession of the mouth"), and satisfactio operis ("satisfaction of deeds").[17] The Lutheran reformers abolished the "satisfaction of deeds," holding that confession and absolution consist of only two parts: the confession of the penitent and the absolution spoken by the confessor.[18] Faith or trust in Jesus' complete active and passive satisfaction is what receives the forgiveness and salvation won by him and imparted to the penitent by the word of absolution. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession_(Lutheran_Church)
