Posted on January 23, 2025
Catechism Meditation:
Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: “Your sins are forgiven.” Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name. ―No. 1441
REFLECTION. “Why confess your sins to a priest when you can just go straight to God?” This is one of the most common questions that people ask about the Catholic faith. The Catholic Church does not teach that priests forgive our sins. Only God forgives sins. A priest’s authority to convey forgiveness does not come from himself. It comes from Christ (John 20:21–23).
In his article for Catholic365: Why We Confess Our Sins to a Priest, JP Nunez writes… In a nutshell, the answer is that it’s good for us. God didn’t have to institute the Sacrament of Confession, but he chose to forgive our sins that way because he knows it has numerous spiritual benefits.
First, it’s good for our humility. It’s one thing to acknowledge our sins and tell them to a God that we can’t see or hear, but it’s another thing to tell them to another human being who’s physically there with us. That’s a much more humbling experience, and humility is an important virtue to cultivate. It doesn’t help us to merely acknowledge that we’re sinners. No, to grow in holiness, we need to know precisely how we’re falling short. We need to know the specific sins we commit so we can root them out of our lives, and confessing them helps us do that. It makes us aware of the areas of our lives we need to improve so we can make real progress in our spiritual journeys.
Secondly, physically hearing the words of absolution (“I absolve you of your sins”) is important for us. Consider an analogy. Married couples may know that they love each other, but they still want to hear the words “I love you.” Spoken words are an important part of how we humans communicate, a key way that we physically convey spiritual realities like love, so we naturally want our loved ones to tell us that they love us too. And in our relationship with God, the words of absolution play that same role for us. It’s great to know intellectually that God has blotted out our sins, but hearing the words “I absolve you of your sins” gives us so much more. It allows us to experience God’s love and forgiveness in a physical, verbal way, and we simply cannot do that if we just confess our sins to him privately.
The sacrament of confession is one of God’s greatest gifts to us. Not only does it forgive our sins, but it also has numerous other benefits that we can’t get from simply acknowledging that we’re sinners or confessing our sins to God in private. It helps us to confront our sinfulness head-on so we can root it out of our lives and grow in humility, and it allows us to experience his forgiveness in a physical way.
PRAYER. Lord Jesus, thank You for the sacrament of confession. Help me to approach it with humility and repentance.
Timeless Wisdom Quote:
“The people who are dragging their shame into a confessional box, with their feet hanging out from under a curtain like wiggling worms, have courage to face their own shame. It is the cowards who are running off to pillboxes, and to a thousand and one other escapes, who have not the courage to face that which has within themselves the possibility of great dignity.” ―Venerable Fulton J. Sheen
Featured Video:
Actor on The Late Show Mocks Confession? (Priest Reacts) (7:34)
