Why Confession? A Catholic Explanation

One of the most popular arguments against Catholicism is centered around the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Many Protestants do not understand why the Catholic Church holds this sacrament to be so imperative to the work of salvation, and question why a Catholic would not simply “go directly to God” for the confession of sins. It is a good question, and the answer is broken into three different components: because this is the way Jesus prescribed for the forgiveness of sins, because the discomfort of involving human agency is necessary to the act of repentance, and because it provides definite assurance that the sin has been forgiven.

Jesus Asks It to Be Done This Way

On two separate occasions in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus makes reference to the “binding and loosing” of sins. The first instance is in Matthew 16, after St. Peter’s profession of faith. When Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus responds by telling Peter that, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of Heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven.” (Matthew 16:17-19, NRSVCE). Then, a short while later, when Jesus is explaining to the disciples how they are to handle sinners within the ranks of the Church, He reiterates this: “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven.” (Matthew 18:18, NRSVCE)

So what does all of that mean? Jesus telling Peter that He is going to give Peter the keys to the kingdom might not mean much to us. To the contemporary audiences of the time, it was significant. The Messianic Kingdom that Jesus brought about is modeled on the Davidic kingdom, and the power of the keys in the Davidic kingdom was hugely important. The king would frequently be away for different things: visiting different parts of the realm, traveling abroad to meet with allies, going to war at the head of the nation’s army, etc. The affairs of state still needed to be conducted in the king’s absence, so the king would name a steward to conduct the affairs of the king’s household (and by extension the entire kingdom) in the king’s absence.

But the steward was not merely a placeholder. He had the authority to rule with the king’s voice and make decrees in the king’s name; he was not the king, but all subjects of the kingdom were expected to treat his laws and commands as though he were. Once the king returned, the steward would give up the ruling authority back to the king. If the steward was a good ruler, the king would ratify all his decisions as though they were his own; if the steward was a bad ruler, the king would settle the injustices. So again, the steward was not the king, but he ruled with the king’s authority. That was the power of the keys.

When Jesus hands Peter this authority, Jesus is naming Peter a steward of the kingdom until His return. This line of stewardship is not broken by Peter’s death, either. If a steward died while the king was away in the Davidic kingdom, a new steward would be named to continue to rule in the king’s stead. This was necessary to maintain order in the kingdom. When Jesus bestows the power of binding and loosing on the apostles in Matthew 18, He is charging all of them to assist Peter in the ruling ministry and giving them a share of ruling authority. This does not supersede Peter’s authority, but rather upholds and supports it.

The power of forgiveness of sins, then, is handed specifically to the apostles and their successors. Jesus never publicly proclaims to the crowds, “Come to Me and confess your sins.” He specifically tells the apostles that the power for the binding and the loosing of sins is theirs. That might not make sense to us, but that is the way Jesus wanted it to be done. So therein lies the first reason for Confession: this is the way Jesus asks it of us!

The Discomfort Is Good

Most of us rightly feel a sense of discomfort when we are walking into the confessional. What if the priest judges me? What if the priest yells at me for something that I did? This, and many other questions like it, plague even those of us who utilize the sacrament regularly. Not only are all of those questions normal, they are actually indicators of a healthy spiritual life.

Sin should make us uncomfortable. God is good beyond our wildest imagination, and sin is depravity against that goodness. That goes for even the smallest sins. That discomfort is the first necessary component to having sincere remorse for our wrongdoing, and to kindle our determination to never repeat the offenses. Holiness is hard work, while sin is pleasurable. Renouncing sin and striving to put distance between ourselves and a sinful way of life is a challenge, because it runs completely contrary to our natural inclination towards sin.

Moreover, if we are just “confessing our sins to God,” it is very easy for us to justify all sorts of bad behaviors. Instead of confessing our loss of temper, it is easy for us to validate all the reasons why we lost our temper and downplay the seriousness of the loss of control. Instead of confessing our sins of impurity, we try to suggest that maybe what we were doing was not that bad, and after all we are only human. But when you confess your sins to another person, you are automatically introducing a whole new level of accountability. “Confessing your sins to God,” as many Protestants understand it, is really nothing more than talking out loud to yourself with God as a bystander rather than an arbiter and healer.

This is why St. James says in his epistle, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another…” (James 5:16, NRSVCE) That creates an uncomfortable level of accountability that also serves as an additional motivator not to repeat the same sins. But James goes on in the same verse to say, “...and pray for one another, so that you may be healed.” There is another reason James makes mention of this, in addition to accountability. Contemporary audiences understood the power of the naming of a thing. God tells St. Joseph in the Gospel of Matthew, “...you are to name Him Jesus.” (Matthew 1:21, NRSVCE) St. Matthew words the exchange between the angel Gabriel and Joseph that way so that his audience understands that while Joseph did not conceive Jesus, God was giving Joseph full paternal authority over His Son while He was on Earth. That is conveyed in God giving Joseph the authority to name Jesus.

By extension, naming your sin gives you power over it. Sin thrives in darkness and shadow. If you name your sin aloud, most especially to another person oriented towards sainthood, by God’s grace you are casting light on it and dispelling the power that it has over you. The moment you name it, you see it for what it is, and its grip on you is loosened. That is why this discomfort we feel in the confessional is so good, because it is the last gasp of sin to try and prevent us from throwing light on it!

Definitive Assurance of Forgiveness

One of the reasons why “words of affirmation” is one of the five love languages is because it is essential to human happiness. Every heart thrills when it hears kind words spoken to it. It strengthens our awareness of the good that God is working in us and in the lives of others through us. It is in this part of God’s infinite love where the last great mercy of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is found: we hear the words of absolution spoken aloud.

At the end of the sacrament, the priest says aloud the words, “Through the ministry of the Church may God grant you pardon and peace, and I absolve you of your sins.” Yes, Jesus willingly offers us forgiveness of sins, but hearing those words spoken aloud carries with it a significantly higher level of power than just assuming that the sins have been forgiven.

Think about the woman with hemorrhages mentioned in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (Matthew 9:20-22, Mark 5:25-34, Luke 8:43-48, NRSVCE). Her faith is powerful; she believes that if she only touches the hem of the cloak of Jesus, she will be healed of her affliction. She does not know why, she does not know how. All she knows is with absolute certainty that if she touches Jesus, she will instantly be cured. Even with that faith, in all three Gospel narratives her astonishment at having been cured is evident. In every single one of those Gospels Jesus commands her to come forth and explain why she did what she has done, and then calmly confirms the miracle and sends her on her way.

Mark and Luke both recount in their narratives that the woman’s hemorrhage stopped immediately upon her touching Jesus. But Matthew, the only eyewitness of the three to the event, adds an interesting detail. Matthew says that once Jesus turned and acknowledged the woman’s action, “...instantly the woman was made well.” (Matthew 9:22) Even though the woman has been healed in their accounts before she speaks with Jesus, Mark and Luke still recall how Jesus called her forward and questioned her. Jesus knew what the woman wanted, He knew that the woman had already been healed, and yet He still called her forward anyway. Why? Because that encounter was necessary to give the woman closure. Any lingering doubts she might have had about the goodness of Jesus in that moment were instantly dispelled, when Jesus confirmed the faith she had in Him.

This is why hearing the words of the priest in the confessional are so important. We can trust all we want that God has forgiven us, but deep down we ache to hear the words of forgiveness spoken aloud. Our five senses were made to perceive creation and the world around us, and so God in His mercy approaches us through a medium that we can understand. The priest is speaking with the priest’s tone of voice and the priest’s mouth, but the words and the power contained within them are of Jesus. It is the last, crucial piece; it confirms that the mercy of God has overpowered our sins, and fires our hearts to send us out into the world to tell everyone what God has done for us.

Now is the Time

If you have not been to Confession in a long time, do not be afraid. All the sins of the years can fall away in an instant as soon as the words of absolution are spoken. The priest is not judging you. He hears a multitude of sins day in and day out, so odds are the sins you are confessing are sins he has already heard half a dozen times that day. No matter the faults of the priest, when he speaks the words of absolution the power of Jesus Christ is conveyed through him to grant you forgiveness.

Go to Confession. Why has Jesus done it this way? Because He loves us so fiercely and so deeply that He willingly humbles Himself, descending to a level where we can encounter Him without shying away. If God made Himself fully manifest when we prayed for the forgiveness of our sins, we would be so frightened that we might run from confessing our sins at all so as not to be confronted with the holy terror that comes from being in God’s presence.

I leave you with this last piece of good advice I once received from a priest in the confessional. “If you were the only person on Earth in the history of all mankind, from the Fall to the end of time, to have committed a sin, Jesus would have still come and died just for you anyway.” That is the love waiting for you in the confessional. Go to Him!