Br. Tonto and Cappa
I'm still working on my
lesson plan for Confession. I had a dry run this afternoon. They loved the
skit and everything about it. When we came to the time for asking questions, everyone felt the question uppermost in everyone's mind would be "Why do I have to go to a priest to confess? Why can't I just tell God?" So we're going to dedicate time to address this important question.
First, Scripture. James 5: 16 instructs us to "confess to one another." Note, it doesn't say "confess to God."
Matthew 9: 6 tells us that Jesus was given authority to forgive sins and continue to 9: 8 and Jesus tells us that this authority was given to
men.
John 20: 21-23 is famous for Jesus blessing his disciples with the grace to forgive sins. "Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained."
The quote from John is the money quote. This statement is the reason priests have the authority to hear our confessions and absolve our sins.
Second, now that I've given the references for the priests' authority to hear confessions, I'll give you the reason why they have to even do this. It is because we're human. Of course, the minute you are sorry for a sin and pray to God, you are forgiven. But Catholics go to a confessor because the priest is acting
in persona Christi and is exercising Matt 9:6. We can actually see physical evidence of the priest (
in persona Christi) blessing us and audibly hear the words of absolution.
In persona Christi is a Latin phrase for "acting in the person of Christ."
Isn't this great? Trust me, nobody ever regrets going to confession.
