One of the many advantages of the Catholic faith over other faiths is the existence of the sacraments. One of the best sacraments is sacrament of reconciliation. Jesus gave the Apostles this sacrament when He said, “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained.” None of us are perfect and so we need this sacrament to cleanse our souls of the sins that we commit throughout our life.
Some may say that Jesus has already died for our sins and there is no need to confess. Jesus did die for our sins and He offers us forgiveness. However, we still need to express contrition for our sins and confess our sins to God and to man though the priest. We are all part of the body of Christ and when we sin it not only affects us, but it affects the whole body. When we confess through the priest, we are repairing that communal wound. Sacraments have power and in them and confessing within the sacrament of reconciliation is much more powerful than confessing directly to God. We are also given grace when we confess through the sacrament. We are showing that we are humble enough to show our imperfection and we are also showing that we trust Jesus when He asks us to confess to one another.
There are two types of sins that we can commit, mortal and venial. Mortal sins are sins with grave matter, committed with full knowledge and consent. They are usually offenses against the Ten Commandments. Committing a mortal sin breaks our union with God and without forgiveness, it would be impossible to have a relationship with Him. Venial sins are sins that don’t involve grave matter, full knowledge, and/or consent. While venial sins don’t break our connection with God, they still taint our soul.
There are also two kinds of contrition for sins and each kind requires a different remedy. Perfect contrition is when we are sorry for our sins because of our love for God and having offended Him. Imperfect contrition is when we are sorry for our sins because of the fear of Hell or because of another lesser reason that doesn’t involve the love of God. Any sin can be forgiven through perfect contrition, but we still should go to the sacrament of reconciliation to get the full grace from it. Imperfect contrition requires the sacrament of reconciliation for a mortal sin to be forgiven. It’s hard to know if our contrition is truly perfect so it’s best to be on the safe side and just go to reconciliation.
Other sacraments can forgive sins. Baptism is the ultimate sacrament that forgives all sins and basically gives us a clean slate, but we only get that once in our life. Receiving the Eucharist worthily and without mortal sin also forgives venial sins that we are sorry for. Finally, anointing of the sick can forgive both mortal and venial sins that the recipient is remorseful for. If the person receiving anointing of the sick can make it to the sacrament of reconciliation, they are expected to make a full confession as well, but if they are not able but still sorry, they are forgiven.
Many people are nervous about confessing their sins to a priest. They are afraid that the priest won’t look at them the same way or are embarrassed about their sins. The priest has probably heard everything before in the confessional. Also, we are all imperfect and while we like to always show our best side and pretend that we are perfect, we aren’t. A priest would rather see a humble and contrite person rather than someone who pretends that they are perfect and doesn’t need forgiveness.
Jesus gives us so many paths to receive forgiveness, but many people don’t take advantage of them. Just think how popular a debt forgiveness service would be. A person could just go there and all their personal debts would be forgiven. That person would have such peace of mind. We can have that peace of mind as well if we attend the sacrament of reconciliation regularly. The only cost of reconciliation is a little humility and contrition. However the benefits are maintaining a good relationship with God and the peace of mind knowing that if you were to die right then, you would go to Heaven. That’s reason enough for me.
