Confession: Why Don’t Catholics Go Straight To Jesus?

I went to confession with Fr. Nick earlier at Our Lady of Hope in San Bernardino. After I finished with my confession and received my penance, Fr. Nick asked me if I liked the sacrament of reconciliation. I told him that I valued the opportunity to wipe away my serious sins when I was in need, and get advice on controlling my bad habits. He spent a minute telling me that it was a wonderful gift from God, and that more people should take advantage of the great sacrament. I agreed, and will be trying to take greater advantage of it.

Later on, I had a discussion with a friend about confession. I was embarrassed when I couldn’t remember appropriate Bible verses (the verse numbers) to explain that it was biblical, and so I had to recount merely the content of the passages. This is the second or third time I’ve had to deal very specifically with the basis and importance of confession, and so, I’ve had to do some research. Here’s what I’ve re-learned.

1.      Where in the Bible does Jesus give authority to men to forgive sins?

2.      Why can’t Catholics confess their sins directly to Jesus, the only mediator between God and us?

3.      How do we know this is what the first Christians believed and not something made up by the Catholic Church?

4.      Where is confession in the Bible?

5.      Even if it’s possible, what good does it do?

1. If You Forgive Sins, They Are Forgiven

First, Jesus did give the power to forgive sins to human beings. In John 20:21–23, Jesus says, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." Then he breathed on them, saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." This is the foundation on which the sacrament of confession stands.

The meaning of this passage is clear to Catholics: Jesus, who alone has the power to forgive or retain sins (Mark 2:10; Luke 5:24), gives that power to the apostles. But Evangelicals usually have a different take on John 20:21–23. One of the most popular is that Jesus sent the apostles to preach the gospel and to inform hearers that if they have faith in him their sins are forgiven and if they do not believe in him their sins are retained. To the Evangelical mind, John is saying, "You can declare the sins of whoever believes the gospel to already have been forgiven through the preaching of the cross." Of course, that is not what the text says. Jesus clearly commissioned the apostles to carry out his ministry of reconciliation as his agents. John 20:21-23 clearly says, “If YOU forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if YOU retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

2. Priests Act In Persona Christi; it IS going straight to Jesus

But Paul teaches that Jesus is the one and only mediator between God and us (1 Tim. 2:5), so isn’t the priest an unnecessary intermediary? Shouldn’t Christians confess their sins directly to God?

Catholics do confess their sins directly to God both in confession and in private prayer. Jesus advocated praying directly to the Father to ask forgiveness for our sins (Matt. 6:12), and Catholics do this communally at every Mass and in prayer groups, and individually during private prayer. But Catholics also believe that Jesus gave the Church a unique role in his ministry of reconciliation by entrusting it with his power to forgive and retain sins.

During confession, the priest perpetuates this ministry by acting in persona Christi, Latin for "in the person of Christ." In other words, when Catholics receive absolution from the priest for sins confessed, it is Jesus’ forgiveness that is granted, not the priest’s.

An essential principle of the priesthood is that God works through men who have a special spiritual role within the Church to communicate his grace and truth. Both Catholics and Evangelicals affirm Paul’s teaching that Jesus is the sole mediator between God and us, but Catholics recognize that Jesus allowed his grace and will to be worked through the apostles and their successors in the Church.

We see Jesus giving specific power to the apostles to continue his presence and ministry not only in John 20:21–23 but also in other Gospel accounts: Jesus confers his authority to baptize, saying, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt. 28:18–19); he also gives Peter and the apostles the power to teach and to excommunicate within the Church in a way that would be ratified in heaven (Matt. 16:18; 18:19).

Jesus chose to use the apostles as his instruments. In a similar way, God employs priests as ministers of forgiveness in the sacrament of confession.

3. Church Fathers Confessed

The earliest leaders of the Church believed fully in the confession of their sins to others (priests) in order for forgiveness from serious sins. Below is a collection of statements made by Church leaders, starting with the Didache (teaching of the 12 Apostles), written between 60 and 70 AD, less than 40 years after Christ’s resurrection. The other quotes are from early bishops and writers.

The Didache – (Recorded teachings of the 12 Apostles)

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])

The Letter of Barnabas

You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light. (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74] Letter written by the disciple who worked with Paul and Luke)

Ignatius of Antioch

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], Ignatius was an early bishop)

Tertullian

The Church has the power of forgiving sins. This I acknowledge and adjudge. (ibid., 21)

Tertullian

I hear that there has even been an edict set forth. . . . The Great Pontiff-that is, the bishop of bishops [i.e., the pope]-issues an edict: "I remit, to such as have discharged penance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication." (Modesty 1 [A.D. 220])

Hippolytus

[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop shall pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . Pour forth now that power which comes from you, from your Royal Spirit, which you gave to your beloved Son, Jesus Christ, and which he bestowed upon his holy apostles . . . and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and to serve without blame as your high priest, ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly before your face and to offer to you the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high-priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command. (Apostolic Tradition 3 [A.D. 215])

Origen

[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, "I said, 'To the Lord I will accuse myself of my iniquity.'" (Homilies in Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248])

Cyprian

The Apostle likewise bears witness and says: ". . . . Whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord" [1 Cor. 11:27]. But [the impenitent] spurn and despise all these warnings; before their sins are expiated, before they have made a confession of their crime, before their conscience has been purged in the ceremony and at the hand of the priest . . . they do violence to his body and blood, and with their hands and mouth they sin against the Lord more than when they denied him. (The Lapsed 15:1-3 (A.D. 251])

Cyprian

Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are still pleasing before the Lord. (ibid., 28)

Basil the Great

It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted (priests). Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they confessed to the apostles (Rules Briefly Treated 288 [A.D. 374]).

John Chrysostom

Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: "Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed." Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven? "Whose sins you shall forgive," he says, "they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John 20:21-23]. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven. (The Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387])

Ambrose

For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only. (Penance 1:1 [A.D. 388])

Augustine

When you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the commandments of God so that you may preserve your baptism to the very end. I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they are venial sins, which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins. For light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. . . . But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the body of Christ. Perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. . . . In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance and confessing (Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D. 395]).

4. Let’s Get Biblical

Yes, the act of confessing sins IS in the Bible, you just have to know where to look (sadly, many Catholics do not). Here’s what I could dig up quickly:

Leviticus 5:5 Then whoever is guilty in any of these cases shall confess the sin he has incurred

Matthew 18:18 "Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

John 20:22-23 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "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."

1 Corinthians 11:27-29 Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord unworthily will have to answer for the body and blood of the Lord. A person should examine himself, and so eat the bread and drink the cup. For anyone who eats and drinks without discerning the body, eats and drinks judgment on himself.

2 Corinthians 5:18 And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation

James 5:16 Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,

1 John 1:8-10 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.

5. It’s advantageous!

Is the Catholic who confesses his sins to a priest any better off than the non-Catholic who confesses directly to God?

Yes, in five ways.

First, he seeks forgiveness the way Christ intended, as shown by the Scriptural passages and the words of the Church Fathers. Second, by confessing to a priest, the Catholic learns a lesson in the virtue of humility, admitting his or her faults and failings out in the open, which is avoided when one confesses only through private prayer. Third, the Catholic receives sacramental graces the non-Catholic doesn’t get; sins are forgiven and erased through the sacrament of reconciliation, and we are given more graces from God. Fourth, the Catholic is assured that his or her sins are forgiven; he does not have to rely on a subjective "feeling." Lastly, the Catholic can also obtain sound advice on avoiding sin in the future.

Pope Pius XII discussed advantages of frequent confession during his papacy. By frequent confession, Pius XII explained:

• genuine knowledge of one’s faults is increased,
• Christian humility grows,
• bad habits are corrected,
• spiritual neglect and indifference are resisted,
• the conscience is purified,
• the will is strengthened,
• a helpful self-control is attained,
• grace from God is increased by participation in the sacrament instituted by Christ.

Conclusion

During His lifetime Christ sent out his followers to do his work. Just before He left this world, He gave the apostles special authority, commissioning them to make God’s forgiveness present to all people. All of Christianity accepted this until the Protestant Reformation. We’ve seen Scriptural and Traditional evidence for the value of confession. The sacrament is clearly not an “invention of the Catholic Church.” If there is an "invention" here, it is not the idea that the sacramental forgiveness of sins is not found in the Bible or in early Christian history.