What Are You Looking For? Part 2: The Liturgy and the Sacraments

Reconciliation: The Part of God

Reconciliation: The Part of God

            There are three participants in the Sacrament of Reconciliation: God, the penitent and the confessor, or priest.  The first participant in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  Without the active work of the Most Holy Trinity, nothing would happen.  No one would be convicted of their sin, no one would give or receive absolution, and no one would receive the restored penitent back into fellowship.  Let’s take a look at the role each person of the Holy Trinity plays in the sacrament.

            First there is the role of the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit moves upon each of our hearts and convicts us of our sins.  This is something Jesus promised the Advocate would do when he came.  “But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go.  For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you.  But if I go, I will send him to you.  And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation.”  (John 16:7-8 NABRE)  It is through the Holy Spirit that we are able to identify the sins we have committed.  It is through the Holy Spirit that we find the courage to approach the throne of grace, to confess our sins.  It is through the Holy Spirit that we find the humility to lay aside our pride and admit that we don’t always do things the way we should.

            The second role is that of the Son, of Jesus.  It is a vital and necessary role, and one that is most misunderstood outside of the Catholic Church.  That’s because the role of Jesus is filled by a modern man.  After the resurrection, Jesus passed on his authority to his disciples.  Included in that wasn’t just his authority to preach the gospel or heal the sick or raise the dead.  It also included his authority to forgive sins.  But to forgive sins in the authority of Jesus Christ, they had to know what the sins were.  Confession to a person was clearly, logically, supposed to happen.  But Jesus ascended and the disciples died.  This authority was passed on from Jesus to the apostles and they in turn passed it one to their disciples, and so on all the way down to the priests of today.  When the priest (confessor) hears confessions he does so in the person of Christ the Head (in persona Christi Capitis).  “It is the same priest, Christ Jesus, whose sacred person his minister truly represents.  Now the minister, by reason of the sacerdotal consecrations which he has received, is truly made like to the high priest and possesses the authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself.”  (CCC 1548)  Therefore, when the penitent confesses, they actually are confessing to Jesus Christ, who is working in and through the priest so that we have a physical person both to hear and to absolve, since Jesus in now in heaven and cannot physically do it himself.  Okay, as the Son of God he could if he chose to, but he chooses to work through humans, as God has done throughout all of human history.

            The final role is that of the Father.  Once the Holy Spirit has convicted us of our sins and given us the courage and humility to confess them, once Jesus has granted us absolution working through the person of the priest, the Father then welcomes us back into right relationship with him and the entire Holy Trinity.  Like the father in the Parable of the Prodigal Son, our heavenly Father is watching and waiting anxiously for our return.  He doesn’t even care if our reasons are bad and we are seeking forgiveness because we don’t want to go to hell or because we have decided that sin is bad and forgiveness is good.  (Imperfect contrition)  Or if our reasons are good and we are sad and sorry that we have said or done something that hurt our relationship with him whom we love the most.  (Perfect contrition)  He is more than willing to work with whatever little bit we give him.  Whenever we make that first small step toward him, for whatever reason we have, he drops everything and runs to us and embraces us and welcomes us home.