Reconciliation

Reconciliation
Annointing of the Sick

“The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick” (CCC 1421).

The Sacraments of Healing: Reconciliation

“All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself… So we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us; we entreat you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 18-20).

“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained’” (John 20:21-23).

Sin, in its most basic sense, happens when a person decides to exclude God from his or her life. This usually occurs in small ways, especially at first. One doesn’t usually commit a “big” sin such as murder, or arson, or adultery unless a series of smaller, less significant sins have preceded it. Any sin, however, is a point on a trajectory leading away from God, and comes from the belief that we don’t need God in our lives, that our own autonomous self-sufficiency is quite enough. The longer we continue on this trajectory, the more we rupture our relationship with God, bit by bit. We need to be aware, therefore, of the many ways sin can disguise itself and how wholeheartedly we must believe in God’s desire to turn us around and set us on the path back to him.

Our sins also tear at the fabric of our human community. We cut ourselves off from others by our greed, hate, jealousy, desire for power, insecurity, stubbornness or pride.

Catholic Christians, however, believe that God has given us a special sacrament called Reconciliation that has the grace to heal these wounds – our damaged relationships both with God and with our brothers and sisters. If we recognize that the sacraments have a role to play in all the most significant moments of our lives, then we know how deeply we need Reconciliation, because over and over again sin afflicts us until it moves from a tiny inconvenience we barely notice to a major obstacle in our lives.

If one has committed a mortal sin (a “grave matter … committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent” – that is, you knew what you were doing and no one forced you [CCC1857]), that person must ordinarily confess the sin privately to a priest, even though we believe that God alone can forgive sins. The difficult question then remains, “Why go to a priest, when God already forgives us?” Because the external, physical act of confessing makes real the sin we held within us. When we confess, we acknowledge that we sin; that only God can truly forgive us; that we want God to forgive us, and that we want to do something about our sinfulness. Remember that this applies to mortal, or grave sins, but that the Church encourages each of us to confess our less-serious sins as well because, as noted above, any person can be headed in a direction of sinfulness and the sacrament of Reconciliation can help us fight our sinful tendencies (see CCC 1458).

The Sacrament of Reconciliation includes several steps, all of which point to different elements of true repentance and healing. The person who seeks the sacrament (called “the penitent”) feels contrition, or sorrow for his sins (CCC 1451), and so comes to the sacrament to confess (CCC 1456). The priest gives the penitent a penance, or a tangible response to help the penitent repair the harm of the sins, and strengthen her own spiritual health (CCC 1459-1460). The priest then offers the penitent absolution, or forgiveness of the sins, in the name of God and through the ministry entrusted to him in the Church (CCC 1461-1462).

Reconciliation restores our relationship with God and strengthens our friendship with him. It also heals the unity of the Church community, which cannot help but be damaged by the sins of its members. Because of the communal nature of healing, one very significant form of the sacrament of Reconciliation includes community prayer before individual confession. The people gather to hear the word of God in the Scriptures, and to pray together for each other and for the Church (CCC 1482 – 1484).

“Then the son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his slaves, ‘Quickly, bring out a robe – the best one – and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. And get the fatted calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate, for this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found!’ And they began to celebrate” (Luke 15:21-24).