Victor R. Claveau,MJ
“A sacrament is an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us through the work of the Holy Spirit. The sacraments (called “mysteries” in the Eastern Churches) are seven in number: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance or Reconciliation, Anointing of the Sick, Holy Orders, and Matrimony.”[1]
“The Sacrament of Penance includes the confession of sins, which comes from true knowledge of self before God and from contrition for those sins. However, this inner examination of heart and the exterior accusation should be made in the light of God’s mercy. Confession requires the penitent the will to open his heart to the minister of God, and minister a spiritual judgment by which, acting in the person of Christ, he pronounces his decision of forgiveness or retention of sins in accord with the power of the keys.”[2]
Act of Penance (Satisfaction)
“True conversion is completed by acts of penance or satisfaction for the sins committed, by amendment of conduct, and also by the reparation of injury”[3] (In plain language, this means that the penitent must do all within his power to right the wrong.) The kind and extent of the satisfaction should be suited to the personal contrition of each penitent so that each one may restore the order which he disturbed and through the corresponding remedy be cured of the sickness he suffered. Therefore, it is necessary that the act of penance really be a remedy for sin and a help to renewal of life. Thus, the penitent, ‘forgetting the things which are behind him’ (Philippians 3:13), again becomes part of the mystery of salvation and turns himself toward the future.”[4]
The Prayer of the Penitent and the absolution by the priest.
After this, the penitent manifests his contrition and resolution to begin a new life by means of a prayer for God’s pardon. It is desirable that this prayer should be based on the words of Scripture.
Following this prayer, the priest extends his hands, or at least his right hand, over the head of the penitent and pronounces the formula of absolution, in which the essential words are: I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. As he says the final words the priest makes the sign of the cross over the penitent. The form of absolution indicates that the reconciliation of the penitent comes from the mercy of the Father; it shows the connection between the reconciliation of the sinner and the paschal mystery of Christ; it stresses the role of the Holy Spirit in the forgiveness of sins; finally, it underlines the ecclesial aspect of the sacrament because reconciliation with God is asked for and given through the ministry of the Church.
Absolution
“Through the sign of absolution God grants pardon to the sinner who in sacramental confession manifests his change of heart to the Church’s minister, and thus the sacrament of penance is completed. In God’s design, the humanity and loving kindness of our Savior have visibly appeared to us,[5] and God uses visible signs to give salvation and renew the broken covenant.
“In the sacrament of penance, the Father gives the repentant son who comes back to him, Christ places the lost sheep on his shoulders and brings it back to the sheepfold, and the Holy Spirit sanctifies this temple of God again or lives more fully within it. This is finally expressed in a renewed and more fervent sharing of the Lord’s table, and there is great joy at the banquet of God’s Church over the son who has returned from afar.[6] [7]
The Necessity and Benefit of the Sacrament
Saint Augustine reminds us that to see God, the soul must be purified.
“Wherefore, since it is our duty fully to enjoy the truth which lives unchangeably, and since the triune God takes counsel in this truth for the things which he has made, the soul must be purified that it may have power to perceive that light, and to rest in it when it is perceived. And let us look upon the purification as a kind of journey or voyage to our native land. For it is not by change of place that we can come nearer to Him Who is in every place, but by the cultivation of pure desires and virtuous habits.”[8]
Further, the Saint comments on the gift of the keys given to the Church.
“He has give, therefore, the keys to His Church, that whatsoever it should bind on earth might be bound in heaven, and whatsoever it should loose on earth might be loosed in heaven;[9] that is to say, that whomsoever in the Church should not believe that his sins are remitted, they should not be remitted to him; but that whomsoever should believe, and should repent, and turn from his sins, should be saved by the same faith and repentance on the ground of which he is received into the bosom of the Church. For he who does not believe that his sins can be pardoned falls into despair, and becomes worse, as if no greater good remained for him to be evil, when he has ceased to have faith in the results of his own repentance.”[10]
[1] Catechism of the Catholic Church. Glossary, Sacrament.
[2] The Rites of the Catholic Church as revised by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. (Pueblo Publishing Company: New York), 1983, p. 365.
[3] Council of Trent, Session XIV, De sacramento Paenitentiae, Chapter 8.
[4] The Rites of the Catholic Church as revised by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, p. 366.
[5] See Titus 3:4-4.
[6] See Luke 15:7, 10, 32.
[7] [7] The Rites of the Catholic Church as revised by the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, pp. 365-366.
[8] St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book one, Chap. 10.
[9] Matthew 16:9.
[10] St. Augustine, On Christian Doctrine, Book one, Chap. 18.