Confession

Yes, we can always confess our sins directly to God, and ask his forgiveness.  But we need to stop and ask ourselves: why did God send Jesus, and why did Jesus in turn send others to bring the message of mercy and forgiveness to others?  One of our basic beliefs is that we want to see and hear and touch and thus know the goodness of God in some tangible human way. Jesus is God’s forgiveness in the flesh. He is God’s intermediary in a unique way. Because God wants us to have the experience of knowing we are forgiven. Likewise, Jesus breathed on the apostles at Easter and gave them the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins in his name.  This is what priests do so that the power of God’s mercy can continue to reach us through human beings who are sent by him. Confession “works” in some respects the way that counseling works.  People go to a counselor or psychiatrist to unburden themselves to another human being whom they can trust to listen to them, to hold what they say in confidence, and to assure them that they are going to be ok. Long before we discovered that this is therapeutic from a psychological point of view, the church saw that it was beneficial from a spiritual point of view. The priest can also offer advice and help, to challenge the sinner who may need to be gently corrected, and to lighten the conscience of the sinner who is overly scrupulous. The church did not invent this desire of Jesus to carry on his healing, nor did it invent our need for a human being to help us feel closer to God, knowing that we are truly forgiven.