Years ago when I was occasionally talking about religion with friends who were not Catholics, they used to say. “It must be awful to have to tell your sins to a priest”. Of course going to confession may not be easy most times. On the other hand I am glad that there is the sacrament of reconciliation when you feel you need it.

Why does the Catholic Church have this sacrament?

Jesus established seven sacraments for His followers. Confession is one of the seven sacraments administered by the Catholic Church. In the case of confession the institution occurred on Easter Sunday when Christ first appeared to the apostles after his resurrection. Breathing on them he said; “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20; 22-23).

We understand from the Scripture that Jesus spoke clearly that He had authority to forgive sins and by virtue of His divine authority He gave this power to men to exercise in his name (Mathew 16; 19-20). Jesus established this sacrament, out of His great love, knowing that even after baptism we could still have to deal with the reality of sin. Thus a sinner who is repentant about his/her sins receives pardon and peace and is restored to the fullness of grace with God. Catholics believe that the sacraments are an outward sign of an inward grace. In this case the outward sign is the absolution and forgiveness of sins, that the priest grants to the penitent. The inward grace is the reconciliation of the penitent to God.

Reconciling of man to God is the purpose of confession. When we sin, we deprive ourselves of God’s grace. In the sacrament of confession, grace can be restored to our souls and we can once again resist sins.

What is sin?

The Church defines sin as a deliberate turning away from God and God’s goodness. Sin is before all else an offense against God. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. In some ways it is really hard to commit sin, because sin involves making a conscious decision to turn away from God. So most of the times the weakness makes us fall into temptations.

Since God is love and wills only what is ultimately good, He continues to call us to conversion. St Peter’s conversion after he had denied his Master three times bears witness to the expecting Father and his love and mercy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes this sacrament as the sacrament of conversion, the sacrament of penance, the sacrament of confession, the sacrament of forgiveness and the sacrament of reconciliation.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation

It is felt that this is also a sacrament of compassion. God has given freedom for all to love Him and His creation. When we sin, we misuse that freedom. But we can repent and turn back to God. Through His death Jesus rescued humanity to the Father. Jesus continues to dwell within the Church and continues to help us.

Absolution is part of the great mystery of salvation. It does not work like a magic, but it is amazing to realize how extraordinary God’s redeeming love for the humans really is. The God we encounter in the sacrament of reconciliation is the God of compassion. In the battle against sin God is on our side. It does not mean that God is pleased by sin. It means that, because of an overwhelming love for us, God reaches out even further to meet us when we need our creator most.

When it comes to sin, we can be sure that God is not vengeful or spiteful but merciful and forgiving. This is very clear from the behaviour of Jesus. How He dealt with sinners whom He encountered. Luke tells us the story of a sinful woman who sought out Jesus. When He was eating in the house of Simon, the Pharisee, this woman showed up. She was uninvited. Because she had a bad reputation, she was considered a terrible sinner, but Jesus welcomed her in. Simon was outraged that Jesus was associated with this kind of woman. But Jesus knew of her sorrow for her sins and her humble heart which desired healing. Jesus said to Simon “her many sins are forgiven, hence she was shown great love (Luke 7; 47).

For confession, a good examination of conscience is needed. We have to examine how we failed in the love of Jesus. Repentance is the recognition that we have strayed from the right path hurting Jesus and our neighbours. When we confess we are not telling God something he does not know already. We have to pour out the ugly sins to the priest who alone can provide us with the peace of absolution. Accepting a penance from the priest and completing it is a proof of our true sorrow. It is a way of expressing our sincere sorrow and to turn back to God.

Read more on Confession

There was a time when the number of communicants was very less when compared to the large attendance in the church for Mass. The Vatican II documents say that the faithful achieve a more perfect participation in the Mass when, with proper dispositions, they receive the Body of the Lord sacramentally in the Mass, in obedience to His words “take and eat” . The faithful are encouraged to receive Communion in the Mass to live joyfully and gratefully by the strength of this heavenly food. (Eucharistic Mysterium) As a result almost all participants receive communion, these days.

St Paul clarifies that “only after examining ourselves (that is after confession) we shall eat the bread and drink the cup. Whoever therefore eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord” (I Cor 11; 27).

Sometimes we put off this sacrament of reconciliation or avoid it altogether because we don’t have big sins or there may be some hesitation or nervousness on account of an impression that our faults and sins may get leaked. In this connection it is stated that the Church will never violate the seal of confession. According to the code of canon law 9831, The sacramental seal is inviolable and so is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.

In this connection I would like to mention that the Prime Minister of Ireland threatens that legislation would be enacted in the Parliament to make the Church reveal the confessional secrets if and when the Govt. wants. The Archbishop of Ireland has already told that no one can interfere with the rules of the Church in such matters and that the Church opposes all such threats.

Advocates of Confession

It may not be right to end this article without mentioning the two famous catholic priests who spent their lives declaring the importance of confession. St John Maria Vianney of France, the patron of the parish priests (1786-1859) was known for spending more than half of his day in the confessional. The faithful came from afar to the small city of Ars to pour out their hearts and ask for the Lord’s forgiveness for their sins. It is said that once devil told him “If there were three such priests as you, my kingdom in France would be ruined.”

Another famous person was Padre Pio of Italy (1887-1968). He had the stigmata on 29th September 1918 which remained for 50 years till his death. When daily he woke up at 4.00 am to say Mass, hundreds of people were already waiting for him for confession. His principal activity was hearing confession. He was famous for possession of knowledge about others’ thoughts and had the gift of bilocation, that one is presenting himself in two places at the same time.

Let us hope that more and more Catholics will receive the sacrament of reconciliation to renew themselves and to be nearer to God. Now I hope you all have a clear idea on why should we confess our sins to a priest in the sacrament of confession.

- – - written by K. C. Thomas

The outfall of the rivers to the seaport is comparatively less deep. It is the same even with the case of very powerful and heavy flowing rivers. What could be the reason? The sand carried by the flowing water settles at the port. Thus the sandbank formed may even change the direction of the river in several years.

In olden times we were depending mainly on rivers for journey than road ways. As it was the case, there were incidents where port cities became unapproachable due to the formation of heavy sandbanks. Such cities even disappeared in course of time.

Remember that neither heavy landslide nor an earthquake caused this great change. It is not even big stones or rocks that changed the direction of the mighty river. But the cause of such a big change was tiny sands. Likewise even tiny little sins and seemingly small mistakes can direct us to huge troubles. They can be terrible blocks in our life.

This could be one of the reasons why many faithful ones stumble on the way and their life become futile. They do not commit the mistakes which the society considers grave. And they may evade from the serious sins.

But they are unaware that the tiny mistakes are repeated every now and then. At last these tiny sins will settle at the shore of our heart and change the direction of our life as well as block our relationship with the ocean of grace. It is one of the reasons of a troubled and callous life.

Let us pray: Lord, give me a simple heart which rejects everything unpleasing to you without rating sins as big and small. Amen.

- – - written by Benny Punnathara

The runaway method from sins, used often by saints is really awesome. My friend told me about this method today and I really liked it. Its one of the best ways to keep sins at bay.

Runaway Method By Saints

The runaway method from sins used by saints is just simple.

When we are tempted to do any sin, let it be big or small, we should just say any prayer like Our father who alt in heaven or Hail Mary full of grace, repeatedly for any number of times, until the temptation goes away by itself. The Holy Spirit will come upon us when we repeat these prayers and make our hearts stronger in GOD, giving us the courage to run away from the sin we were gonna commit.

Just a simple step but you will wonder that it has the power to save our souls from the deadliest of sins too. The point to remember is not to give in to our instincts and start our favorite prayer at the instant when we realize that we are gonna commit a sin. Say the prayer meaning it, repeatedly and you will see the work of Holy Spirit on you.

Run From Sin As From Snake

My friend came to know about this method from his church pastor. He was under the heavy influence of the sexual sin of masturbation (Is masturbation a sin?). The pastor gave him so many advices as to avoid the situations causing him to do this, to get busy in other things like an outdoor game, office matters etc and then, this runaway method too. He is now trying this runaway method from sins to escape from the sexual sin and I think he is finding this method as the best one to escape from any type of sins. So he shared it with all of us today.

Friends, come on, let us also try this runaway method by saints in our everyday life.

PDF titled ‘Run Away From Sexual Sin’ available - Download PDF