Sacraments and Confession

If you had asked me a month ago about what I felt about Catholic confession I would have told you that it is a sacrament that is supposed to confer God’s grace and heal you.  In my heart I believed that that was possible, however I had never personally had such an experience in confession that I really felt ‘full of grace’ or even any different afterward, other than knowing I was doing the right thing that I was taught in the process of my conversion to the Catholic faith.  I was hung up on the fact that I knew deep down in my heart of hearts that all the years I spent as a protestant confessing my sins to God directly in prayer that I was forgiven. I had had experiences in my protestant days after asking God to forgive me that I felt different afterward, totally and completely. So why wasn’t I getting that in my new found Catholic Faith knowing deep down that the Catholic Church is the one universal church established by Jesus when he walked among us. 

Then along came Father Joe.  Through my Formation for Ministry class, Father Joe Giroux has been our instructor for our section on the sacraments and sacramental theology. He has been able to express (at least to me) the whole fullness of Catholic sacraments.  I have been able to truly see them in the light of the how the Catholic Church teaches rather than my view in which I pretty much had decided that the protestant actions similar to the Catholic sacraments where close enough for me that it wasn’t a big stretch for me to believe in them.  One of the comparisons that Fr. Joe gave, that I had never really put together before, was the Catholic understanding of what a sacrament is and the protestant understanding of a sacrament, or a comparable action. (The protestant understanding that Fr. Joe uses in his comparison relate to what I personally experienced growing up in a couple different denominations. There are many different beliefs and teachings among protestant denominations, and I use these examples in full knowledge that they are not all the same.)  So the comparison goes like this. For Catholics a sacrament is an outward sign instituted by Christ to give grace.  That is a pretty familiar statement for most Catholics, and not that hard to see by other Christians.  But he went on to break it down for us; a sacrament must have the components of the outward sign, the form, the matter, the minister, and the recipient.  It must also be instituted by Christ as He is the chief actor of the sacrament.  He makes the act present here and now, more than just a remembrance, uniting past, present, and future, a promise and foretaste of Heaven. But the sacrament is also intended to give grace, a share in God’s life and eternal life, they have an effect.  So for Catholics a diagram would look like this:

God

↕

Sacraments

↕

Man

Being that God instituted the sacraments to be shared with Man, in which Man gives glory back to God by the outward sign of the sacrament and the affect that God’s grace has on man. Where the protestant diagram would look like this:

God

↓

Man

↓

Sacraments

The Protestant faiths that I have been a part of don’t necessarily have what they would call a sacrament.  Of course they have actions that resemble Catholic sacraments like baptism and communion but to call it a sacrament was something I had never heard.  So for example, a baptism is celebrated; the diagram above illustrates what has happened in man’s personal relationship with God.  That they have made the decision that they want to follow God and live their life for Him. And because of that they make a public statement, they are baptized, to share that with their church family.  For me, that was eye opening.  I hadn’t seen it in that perspective before.  Of course, having a personal relationship with God is important, it should be desired by all, and is really essential to any faith life.  But if seen through the teaching of the Catholic Church, a sacrament has so much more to offer than just a public statement.

Father Joe has taught us that there are two parts to how a sacrament works. First, ex opere operato “by the work worked”. By the rite affected, grace flows from God through the action of His body, the Church, the gift is given. Secondly, ex opere operantis “by the work of the worker”, it calls for our response, to open the gift and use it.  Through the first four classes on the sacraments, I have come to a clearer understanding of the fullness that comes through the sacraments as they were given to us by Jesus and divinely revealed through scripture and Tradition through the centuries.

So back to confession, I was hung up before because as I said, I was sure that I had been forgiven.  And what I know now is that I was forgiven but I hadn’t received the full grace possible by confession to a priest.  After all, ‘²¹Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” ²² When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:21-23.  So what I have to do now is go to confession with this new understanding and fully receive the gift that God is giving me through this sacrament. With eye’s wide open I look forward to being healed and receiving God’s grace.