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Question Title	Posted By	Question Date
Confession?	Clyde	Saturday, August 16, 2008
Question: I was born and raised a Southern Baptist, and remained a Baptist until I was 21 when I joined the Roman Catholic Church. For awhile I was faithful, and dedicated to the Church, but as time passed, I became increasingly aware of a problem that I had. That problem has to do with the sacrament of reconciliation. I tried both the private confessional route, as well as the face to face approach and both left me feeling totally empty; ill at ease; and almost sick at my stomach. Add to this a feeling that I've done something wrong by going to confession. I have no problem with the concept that a priest can forgive sins, but I have a big problem…as you can tell…with myself going to a priest for forgiveness of my sins. I believe it is due to how I was raised by a Baptist family, in a Baptist church. I finally left the church about 20 years ago because just going to Mass and setting there without receiving communion made no sense at all to me. This brings me to my point. I am ready and I need to recommit myself to a church community. I would prefer that was the Catholic Church, however I cannot deny my feeling as far as confession is concerned. I have spoken to a number of priests, and quite frankly I left our meetings wondering what was said. I had one priest tell me that God did not forgive sins since Jesus was here, that only a priest could forgive sins. I’ve had other priests talk all over the place without really addressing my question. I have read and reread book after book on the subject of the sacrament of reconciliation, including the writings of the Church Fathers, and that simply doesn’t address my concern. My question is this, would it be best for me to reenter the market place for another church community. Frankly, the idea of having to ‘shop’ through a list of 30,000 or so different denominations leaves me completely cold, or perhaps scared is the better word. I would appreciate your reply and or comments. Clyde
Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM Dear Clyde: No matter what your "feelings" you cannot leave the True Church of Christ under Peter. There is a story in the Bible where some disciples felt like they could not take what Jesus was teaching. They left him. John 6:48 "I am the bread of life. John 6:49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. John 6:50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die. John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh." John 6:52 The Jews therefore began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?" John 6:53 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. John 6:54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. John 6:55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. John 6:57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. John 6:58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever." John 6:59 These things He said in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum. John 6:60 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?" John 6:61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? John 6:62 "What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before? John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. John 6:64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. John 6:65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father." John 6:66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore. John 6:67 Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. Jesus did not waver in his teaching of his Real Presence in the Eucharist. He stood his ground. He did not call back those disciples by saying, "Guys, I was only kidding, it is just symbolic." No. He turned to his beloved twelve and risked losing them too over this teaching. While the apostles did not know exactly what this teaching meant at the time, Peter spoke for them all and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life." Clyde, if you leave the Catholic Church, you leave the Eucharist, which means you leave Christ. The Apostles I am sure were confused and may not have "felt" like this teaching of Christ made sense, but they stayed with him anyway. You say you have no problem with the teaching that priest can forgive sins. I am glad to hear that because the Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ himself: John 20:23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." We cannot rely on our "feelings". We need to accept the Truth of God because it is the objective Truth of God. How we feel about it is irrelevant. When I converted to the Catholic Church, after being a Baptist preacher for fifteen years, I believed in all that the Church taught, but I had problems with the idea of praying to Mary and the saints. I KNEW, however, that the Church had the authority to declare the Marian doctrines and the doctrine on the Communion of the Saints. Thus, I accepted the doctrines even though I did not believe it or felt it. Only after I submitted to the Church did I come to believe and then to feel it. By this act of submission to Christ and His Church I went from a baptist who thought Catholics worshiped Mary to a Marian Catholic in less than eight months. You can read the story on this in the essay, Obedience: the First and Foundational Virtue. Sometimes we have to go with what we KNOW to be true instead of what we believe to be true or feel to be true. Christ, himself, has instituted the Sacrament of Confession. Venial sins may be forgiven in an ordinary way, but mortal sins must be forgiven in a Sacramental way. I will explain what that means in a moment. God says that the Church has the authority to declare doctrine. Christ Himself instituted the Sacrament of Confession. The Church further declares it and requires it of us when we have committed grave sin. When the Church speaks God speaks and God is not a liar. Thus, this need for the Sacrament of Confession has been declared by Christ himself. Was he lying to us? Was he instituting this Sacrament for the fun of it? The Church affirms this Sacrament and requires us to participate. When the Church declares doctrine it is actually God talking. Thus, again, is God lying? God requires this of us and thus we have an obligation to it. That is either true or God is a con artist tricking us into doing something not really needed. I don't think God is a liar or a con artist, and neither do you. Thus, we KNOW that the Sacrament of Confession is necessary regardless of whether or not you "feel" it to be necessary. Put away the feelings and obey God. Once you do that the feelings will catch up with what you KNOW eventually. There is another possibility. Who has the motivation to keep you from the Sacrament of Confession? Satan hates confession almost as much as he hates our Blessed Mother. Confession is what allows us to reconcile with God and thus be with Him in heaven forever. Satan wants to spoil that. The "feelings" you are experiencing may be demonically sourced. Something similar happened to St. Peter when he felt like Jesus ought not to follow his mission to the cross. Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan!" Matt 16:22-23 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. Jesus did not rebuke Peter, but Satan. Jesus knew where these feelings were coming from. I would recommend that you rebuke this spirit against Confession. There is a Rebuking prayer in our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog. I have established that the Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ and affirmed and declared by the Church, meaning it is required by God for us to participate. But, why? Why is the Sacrament of Confession needed? St. John explains to us: 1Jn 5:16-17 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death. Some sins wound our relationship with God. These are called venial sins. This is similar to when a friend hurts us. Our relationship with the friend is wounded, but not ended. Our friendship can rather easily be restored by an apology. With Venial sin we can apologize to God privately or before our Lord in the Eucharist and we are restored to full friendship. In mortal sin, however, our relationship with God is not merely wounded, it is severed. It no longer exists. We have rejected God by our serious sin (even if we have not cognitively rejected God). Because justification comes to us originally through the Sacraments of the Church, we must now come back to the Church to Sacramentally restore our relationship with God. Thus, Christ has commissioned his priests to be the "ministers of reconciliation" with the power to forgive or to retain as alter Christos standing in for Christ in this ministry. Another analogy can be made with a lamp. Venial sin is like a short in the electric cord. The light flickers on and off as the electricity flows and doesn't flow with the short. In Mortal sin, the electric cord has be cut in two and no electricity at all gets to the lamp. We can easily repair a simple short ourselves, but if the cord is cut in two we must call the electrician to rewire the lamp. The priest is the electrician. There are limitations with that analogy, but I think people can get the idea. The bottomline is that God loves us so much that He gives us a way to reconciled with Him even when we have committed a serious sin that severs our friendship with Him. God is not willing for our friendship with Him to end and us walk away. He lovingly provides a way to restore that relationship. What a wonderful God! Jesus, the Apostles (as seen in the Bible), the Church Fathers, and the Church for 2000 years has taught the beauty and necessity of the Sacrament of Confession. Against all that evidence and history and teaching of God do you not think that your feelings are misplaced? based on the bias of baptists? or even influenced by the devil? Perhaps you need to do what I did and just make the step of obedience and come back to the Church and give your "feelings" to God. God will help you to understand. I do not know, Clyde, if all this answers your question, but Clyde, there is no where to shop. Jesus established his Church upon Peter (Matt 16:18-19; proven by Isa 22:21-22). To whom will you go, Clyde, if not to the Catholic Church? It is the Catholic Church who has the Fullness of the Faith and has the valid Eucharist. John 6:53-57 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me." Come back to the only True Church in the Fullness of the Faith. God is calling you back to His Church, not any of the 30,000 man-made groups out there. The choice is yours of course. You can choose to be part of the Church that Jesus founded, or choose to be part of a group founded by Luther, Wesley, Smithe, Calvin, or the deacon down the street. I chose the Church Jesus founded even when I wasn't sure of everything. Will you? God Bless, Bro. Ignatius Mary Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below: Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum. Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum

Question Title

Posted By

Question Date

Confession?

Clyde

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Question:

I was born and raised a Southern Baptist, and remained a Baptist until I was 21 when I joined the Roman Catholic Church. For awhile I was faithful, and dedicated to the Church, but as time passed, I became increasingly aware of a problem that I had. That problem has to do with the sacrament of reconciliation. I tried both the private confessional route, as well as the face to face approach and both left me feeling totally empty; ill at ease; and almost sick at my stomach. Add to this a feeling that I've done something wrong by going to confession.

I have no problem with the concept that a priest can forgive sins, but I have a big problem…as you can tell…with myself going to a priest for forgiveness of my sins. I believe it is due to how I was raised by a Baptist family, in a Baptist church.

I finally left the church about 20 years ago because just going to Mass and setting there without receiving communion made no sense at all to me. This brings me to my point.

I am ready and I need to recommit myself to a church community. I would prefer that was the Catholic Church, however I cannot deny my feeling as far as confession is concerned.

I have spoken to a number of priests, and quite frankly I left our meetings wondering what was said. I had one priest tell me that God did not forgive sins since Jesus was here, that only a priest could forgive sins. I’ve had other priests talk all over the place without really addressing my question.

I have read and reread book after book on the subject of the sacrament of reconciliation, including the writings of the Church Fathers, and that simply doesn’t address my concern.

My question is this, would it be best for me to reenter the market place for another church community. Frankly, the idea of having to ‘shop’ through a list of 30,000 or so different denominations leaves me completely cold, or perhaps scared is the better word.

I would appreciate your reply and or comments.

Clyde

Question Answered by Bro. Ignatius Mary, OLSM

Dear Clyde:

No matter what your "feelings" you cannot leave the True Church of Christ under Peter.

There is a story in the Bible where some disciples felt like they could not take what Jesus was teaching. They left him.

John 6:48 "I am the bread of life.

John 6:49 "Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.

John 6:50 "This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, so that one may eat of it and not die.

John 6:51 "I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; and the bread also which I shall give for the life of the world is My flesh."

John 6:52 The Jews therefore began to argue with one another, saying, "How can this man give us His flesh to eat?"

John 6:53 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.

John 6:54 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

John 6:55 "For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink.

John 6:56 "He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him.

John 6:57 "As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me.

John 6:58 "This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate, and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever."

John 6:59 These things He said in the synagogue, as He taught in Capernaum.

John 6:60 Many therefore of His disciples, when they heard this said, "This is a difficult statement; who can listen to it?"

John 6:61 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble?

John 6:62 "What then if you should behold the Son of Man ascending where He was before?

John 6:63 "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.

John 6:64 "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him.

John 6:65 And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me, unless it has been granted him from the Father."

John 6:66 As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew, and were not walking with Him anymore.

John 6:67 Jesus said therefore to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?"

John 6:68 Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life.

Jesus did not waver in his teaching of his Real Presence in the Eucharist. He stood his ground. He did not call back those disciples by saying, "Guys, I was only kidding, it is just symbolic." No. He turned to his beloved twelve and risked losing them too over this teaching.

While the apostles did not know exactly what this teaching meant at the time, Peter spoke for them all and said, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life."

Clyde, if you leave the Catholic Church, you leave the Eucharist, which means you leave Christ.

The Apostles I am sure were confused and may not have "felt" like this teaching of Christ made sense, but they stayed with him anyway.

You say you have no problem with the teaching that priest can forgive sins. I am glad to hear that because the Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ himself:

John 20:23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."

We cannot rely on our "feelings". We need to accept the Truth of God because it is the objective Truth of God. How we feel about it is irrelevant.

When I converted to the Catholic Church, after being a Baptist preacher for fifteen years, I believed in all that the Church taught, but I had problems with the idea of praying to Mary and the saints.

I KNEW, however, that the Church had the authority to declare the Marian doctrines and the doctrine on the Communion of the Saints. Thus, I accepted the doctrines even though I did not believe it or felt it. Only after I submitted to the Church did I come to believe and then to feel it. By this act of submission to Christ and His Church I went from a baptist who thought Catholics worshiped Mary to a Marian Catholic in less than eight months.

You can read the story on this in the essay, Obedience: the First and Foundational Virtue.

Sometimes we have to go with what we KNOW to be true instead of what we believe to be true or feel to be true.

Christ, himself, has instituted the Sacrament of Confession. Venial sins may be forgiven in an ordinary way, but mortal sins must be forgiven in a Sacramental way. I will explain what that means in a moment.

God says that the Church has the authority to declare doctrine. Christ Himself instituted the Sacrament of Confession. The Church further declares it and requires it of us when we have committed grave sin. When the Church speaks God speaks and God is not a liar.

Thus, this need for the Sacrament of Confession has been declared by Christ himself. Was he lying to us? Was he instituting this Sacrament for the fun of it? The Church affirms this Sacrament and requires us to participate. When the Church declares doctrine it is actually God talking. Thus, again, is God lying? God requires this of us and thus we have an obligation to it. That is either true or God is a con artist tricking us into doing something not really needed.

I don't think God is a liar or a con artist, and neither do you.

Thus, we KNOW that the Sacrament of Confession is necessary regardless of whether or not you "feel" it to be necessary.

Put away the feelings and obey God. Once you do that the feelings will catch up with what you KNOW eventually.

There is another possibility. Who has the motivation to keep you from the Sacrament of Confession?

Satan hates confession almost as much as he hates our Blessed Mother. Confession is what allows us to reconcile with God and thus be with Him in heaven forever. Satan wants to spoil that.

The "feelings" you are experiencing may be demonically sourced. Something similar happened to St. Peter when he felt like Jesus ought not to follow his mission to the cross. Jesus turned to Peter and said, "Get thee behind me, Satan!"

Matt 16:22-23 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.

But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.

Jesus did not rebuke Peter, but Satan. Jesus knew where these feelings were coming from.

I would recommend that you rebuke this spirit against Confession. There is a Rebuking prayer in our Spiritual Warfare Prayer Catalog.

I have established that the Sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ and affirmed and declared by the Church, meaning it is required by God for us to participate. But, why?

Why is the Sacrament of Confession needed?

St. John explains to us:

1Jn 5:16-17 If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask and God will for him give life to those who commit sin not leading to death. There is a sin leading to death; I do not say that he should make request for this. All unrighteousness is sin, and there is a sin not leading to death.

Some sins wound our relationship with God. These are called venial sins. This is similar to when a friend hurts us. Our relationship with the friend is wounded, but not ended. Our friendship can rather easily be restored by an apology.

With Venial sin we can apologize to God privately or before our Lord in the Eucharist and we are restored to full friendship.

In mortal sin, however, our relationship with God is not merely wounded, it is severed. It no longer exists. We have rejected God by our serious sin (even if we have not cognitively rejected God).

Because justification comes to us originally through the Sacraments of the Church, we must now come back to the Church to Sacramentally restore our relationship with God.

Thus, Christ has commissioned his priests to be the "ministers of reconciliation" with the power to forgive or to retain as alter Christos standing in for Christ in this ministry.

Another analogy can be made with a lamp. Venial sin is like a short in the electric cord. The light flickers on and off as the electricity flows and doesn't flow with the short. In Mortal sin, the electric cord has be cut in two and no electricity at all gets to the lamp.

We can easily repair a simple short ourselves, but if the cord is cut in two we must call the electrician to rewire the lamp. The priest is the electrician. There are limitations with that analogy, but I think people can get the idea.

The bottomline is that God loves us so much that He gives us a way to reconciled with Him even when we have committed a serious sin that severs our friendship with Him. God is not willing for our friendship with Him to end and us walk away. He lovingly provides a way to restore that relationship. What a wonderful God!

Jesus, the Apostles (as seen in the Bible), the Church Fathers, and the Church for 2000 years has taught the beauty and necessity of the Sacrament of Confession. Against all that evidence and history and teaching of God do you not think that your feelings are misplaced? based on the bias of baptists? or even influenced by the devil? Perhaps you need to do what I did and just make the step of obedience and come back to the Church and give your "feelings" to God. God will help you to understand.

I do not know, Clyde, if all this answers your question, but Clyde, there is no where to shop. Jesus established his Church upon Peter (Matt 16:18-19; proven by Isa 22:21-22). To whom will you go, Clyde, if not to the Catholic Church? It is the Catholic Church who has the Fullness of the Faith and has the valid Eucharist.

John 6:53-57 Jesus therefore said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me."

Come back to the only True Church in the Fullness of the Faith. God is calling you back to His Church, not any of the 30,000 man-made groups out there. The choice is yours of course. You can choose to be part of the Church that Jesus founded, or choose to be part of a group founded by Luther, Wesley, Smithe, Calvin, or the deacon down the street. I chose the Church Jesus founded even when I wasn't sure of everything. Will you?

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary

Footer Notes: This forum is for general questions on the faith. See specific Topic Forums below:
Spiritual Warfare, demons, the occult go to our Spiritul Warfare Q&S Forum.
Liturgy Questions go to our Liturgy and Liturgical Law Q&A Forum
Liturgy of the Hours (Divine Office) Questions go to our Divine Office Q&A Forum
Defenfing the Faith Questions go to our Defending the Faith Q&A Forum
Church History Questions go to our Church History Q&A Forum