My last post was simply about the experience of my first confession. The Why's behind the Going were not written. So I felt like I needed to clearly state what the teachings were that brought me to a place of standing in line, ready to possibly lose my dinner at the thought of confessing my sins.
The clearest proof for me in understanding the teaching of confession was my own reflection in the mirror. On the one hand, I am already a follower of Jesus, and I believe that the sting of death has been removed as a result of Christ's death and resurrection on the cross. Yet I still sin. As Paul states, "For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want." (Romans 7:19).
The glory of the passion of the Lord was that the gates of the Garden of Eden were once again opened. No longer were Cherubim guards protecting the tree that was the symbol of man's disobedience. Rather, Jesus Christ, the perfect Fruit of a womb, willingly hung from another tree, opening for all people and for all time the ability to once again walk in the Garden with the Lord God in the cool of the day. (Joseph of Arimethea's tomb was in a Garden: John 19:41). Paradise, had been restored. But I still sin.
As baptism washes away the stain of Original Sin inherited from our first parents, "now you have had yourselves washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God," (1 Corinthians 6:11), we still get dirty. We struggle to live by the Spirit and to put off the desires of the flesh (Galatians 5:16). We fail to daily take up our cross, to crucify our flesh with its passions and desires, and we very often provoke one another, and are envious. (5:24). At least I know that I do. And Paul warns, "God is not mocked, for a person will reap only what he sows, because the one who sows in the flesh will reap corruption from the flesh, but the one who sows for the spirit will reap eternal life from the spirit." Confession, is the means of Grace that Jesus has established within his Church; lovingly cleansing his followers clean of the sins that so easily entangle on a daily basis, equipping us to better run the races that have been marked out, for us all
On Holy Thursday evening, as Jesus began washing the disciples feet, Peter was so eager for a cleansing from Jesus that he asked the Lord, "Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well." Yet Jesus replied, "Whoever has bathed (been baptized) has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over." In washing Peter's feet, Jesus was foreshadowing an act of purifying oneself after an initial baptism. We have been welcomed into the family of God by nature of our baptism, by the conversion of our sinful hearts to a relationship with his immaculate heart. Yet the concupiscence of sin still pervades our thoughts, words, and actions, and it is this that needs to be periodically cleaned so that we can enter more fully into our masters Divine Will. Confession, is just this type of foot washing.
It is also a simple Biblical fact that Jesus, after his resurrection gave his disciples the power to forgive sins. In John 20, after the resurrection, Jesus Breathes on his disciples, then states, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven, and whose sins you retain, are retained." The priest, by nature of his ordination, acts as a type of Christ in the confessional. He is not forgiving my sin. Christ, through the ordination of the priest, is forgiving my sin. The priest has been given authority from Christ in the binding and loosing of sins "whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matthew 18:18).
I found it difficult as I was investigating Catholicism to argue against the strong Biblical proofs that Jesus did indeed give some type of authority to his disciples, that they in turn passed down through the laying on of hands: (see Acts 6:6, and 2 Timothy 1:6), through ordination (Acts 14:23), and through the words that were previously taught and adhered to: "remain faithful to what you have learned and believed, because you know from whom you learned it." (2 Timothy 3:14). Again, in Hebrews 13:7, "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith." Part of the authority that he gave to them was the act of the forgiveness of sins, under the authority of Christ. Non Catholics must at the very least wrestle with these verses and take an honest look at what Jesus was instituting among the disciples.
The writers of the New Testament were constantly discussing the benefits and commands of confessing sins. John writes in 1 John 1:9, "If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." James 5:15-16 states, "Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." Paul, in his letter to the Corinthians, demonstrates his apostolic authority, "For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ." This passage in 2 Corinthians 2:10 is widely believed to be Paul speaking of his authority as "in persona Christi" (in the person of Christ).. exactly what the Priests do to this day.
Confession was an integral part of the Christian life that the disciples practiced, the early church practiced, and the earliest Fathers of the Church practiced. I came to think that if my own life in the church did not resemble the earliest believers and writers in the Church, who walked with Him, and were taught by Him, then maybe my own beliefs needed to change, instead of demanding that they conform to me.
Ignatius of Antioch (A.D. 110)
"For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Philadelphians 3 [A.D. 110]).
The Didache: (The teaching of the 12 Apostles, widely referenced in Church History)
"Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure" (Didache 4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).
There are many other quotes and writings of the early Church Fathers that even though are not inspired by the Holy Spirit like the Biblical texts, they give us a vivid glimpse into the workings, thoughts, and teachings of the early Church. And the early Church practiced the sacrament of confession, even to the current day. Catholics teach it because to grow in holiness one must be continually about the act of purification. The more we rid ourselves from the desires of the flesh, the more we start to put on the life of Christ. The more dirt that we have wiped clean, the brighter the light is allowed to shine.
That is the teaching, that led me to the line, that brought me face to face with the evil of sin, but ultimately the Grace of the Lord Jesus, himself. For he promises if we knock, he will answer. If we seek, we shall find, and if we open our hearts to him, he is faithful, and through our confessions will purify us from all unrighteousness.
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