Last weekend’s Gospel is about reconciliation; it begins with a very important statement about the authority Jesus gives to His Church. He says to the Apostles, “Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” Jesus gives the Apostles—and through them, their successors, the bishops and priests—the authority to bind and to loose. In a particular and beautiful way, He gives them the power to loose the bonds of sin: to untie what sin has bound, to lift the burden of sin from our shoulders, and to set us free through the Sacrament of Penance. This is not simply a human practice that the Church came up with. It is something Christ Himself entrusted to His Apostles. The priest is given the authority to say, in the name of Christ, “Your sins are forgiven.” And because we have such a unique experience of confession here at St. Francis—with the sheer number of people who come to confession each weekend—all of us priests sat down together and worked on this homily. We wanted to help all of us understand how we can make a good and concise confession, especially in regard to our parish.
We are very blessed here at St. Francis. We have a large parish, and many of us take seriously the call to go to confession. We hear a tremendous number of confessions every weekend, and that is something for which we should be deeply grateful. It is a sign that the Holy Spirit is working in our souls, drawing us deeper into the holiness of God. So how do we best cooperate with that movement of the Holy Spirit and make the most of the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
The best way to begin a good confession is actually outside the confessional, before we ever walk in. Take some time to make a good, thorough examination of conscience. Pray. Ask the Holy Spirit to show us our sins honestly. Look at the commandments, the seven deadly sins, and our duties toward God, our parish, our family, our coworkers, and our neighbor. Ask ourselves not simply, “What have I done wrong?” but, “Where have I failed to love God and love my neighbor?”
Once we have examined our conscience, then when we come to confession, simply tell the priest what we have done. We don’t need to tell the whole story leading up to the sin, and we don’t need an explanation or an excuse for why it happened. We simply need to say the sin and say the sin for what it is. We shouldn’t be vague. For example, don’t simply say, “I committed one of the seven deadly sins,” or “I was prideful,” or “I was greedy.” Tell the priest what we actually did. That is what allows the priest to understand the sin and, most importantly, allows us to bring that sin into the light of Christ’s mercy.
When it comes to mortal sins—serious sins—we need to confess the kind of sin and the number of times, or an approximation of the number of times, that we committed it. We should do this as best we can. And if you are unsure whether something is a mortal sin, simply ask. That is one of the reasons the priest is there.
But remember something very important: we are really talking to Christ. The priest is not sitting there primarily as a judge, hearing your case and deciding whether you are a good or bad person. The priest is an instrument of Christ’s mercy. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the priest acts *in persona Christi*—in the person of Christ. Christ is the one who forgives. The priest lends Christ his voice, his hands, and his ears so that Christ’s mercy can be heard and received in a concrete, sacramental way.
And Christ already knows everything we are going to tell Him. He knows the sin. He knows the circumstances. He knows the weakness of our heart. He knows the excuses we might be tempted to give before we even give them. What He wants from us is honesty, humility, and repentance. This is why the priest hearing the confession doesn’t need the backstory or the explanation of every sin.
That is also why confession is not meant to be a long consultation. Sometimes we need spiritual direction. Sometimes we have complicated struggles and need someone to help us work through them. And we priests would be happy to do that with you. But that is better done outside of the sacrament, by making an appointment with a priest so that we can have the time and attention you need.
There is another important point about confession. If we are not conscious of mortal sin on our soul, we should not think that we need to go to confession before we can receive Holy Communion simply because we have committed venial sins. The Eucharist itself is a powerful means of reconciliation and forgives venial sins. So if our struggle is primarily with venial sins, we certainly encourage regular confession—perhaps every month or two—but we should not think that every venial sin requires us to go to confession before we can receive Holy Communion or receive God’s forgiveness.
Instead, let us come to the Eucharist with humility, repentance, and trust in God’s mercy. Think about the words of the Roman centurion, which the Church places on our lips immediately before we receive Holy Communion: “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” That is the attitude with which we should approach Jesus. We acknowledge that we are sinners. We acknowledge our unworthiness. But we also trust that Jesus can heal us. We come to Him saying, “Lord, I know I have sinned, but I trust in your mercy. Say the word, and my soul shall be healed.”
Now, because we are a large parish with many people coming to confession, we also need to be good stewards of this sacrament. We want confession to be accessible, but we also need to understand what confession actually requires of us. Confession is not simply an opportunity to have our sins forgiven so that we can go right back and commit them again. Confession is about repentance. It requires a sincere desire to turn away from sin and to cooperate with God’s grace.
That means having a firm purpose of amendment. We may know that we are weak. We may know that we struggle with the same sins over and over again. And God knows that too. But there has to be within us a genuine desire to change. We cannot presume upon God’s mercy by treating frequent confessional opportunities as though they give us permission to continue deliberately choosing the same sin without any intention of changing. God’s mercy is free, but we have to cooperate with that grace. We prepare ourselves. We examine our consciences. We confess honestly. We accept our penance. And we make a sincere effort to amend our lives.
That is also why we have made some changes to our weekend confession schedule. In consultation with the diocese, and in solidarity with the other parishes in the diocese that hear confessions during Mass, we have also recently stopped hearing confessions once we reach the Sanctus: “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
We are not doing that because confession is unimportant. Quite the opposite. We are doing it because the Mass is so important. When we reach the Sanctus, we are entering into the Eucharistic Prayer—the very heart and summit of the Mass. At that moment, all of us—priests and people—need to be focused completely on what is taking place upon this altar.
So when you come to confession on the weekend, please come prepared, precise, and focused. Make your examination of conscience beforehand. Tell Christ your sins simply, honestly, and briefly, as much as possible. Give the priest whatever information is necessary, especially concerning mortal sins. Ask questions when you need clarification. Receive your absolution. Accept your penance. Commit yourself to amend your life. And then go in peace.
Father James Schibi, Pastor