The Sacrament of Reconciliation & Rising Again to New Life

Catholic Churches everywhere offer the Sacrament of Penance & Reconciliation (that is the official name given by the Church) every week in order to hear people’s confessions and give them absolution for their sins. This sacrament is also called the Sacrament of Confession.

The sacrament is a wonderful blessing as it helps us open our hearts and souls to God’s help!

If we are not in “the state of grace”, coming to Mass might be helpful because of the homily, prayers, people, etc. but receiving Holy Communion won’t be helpful because our souls are not in a position to benefit from it.

But when we repent and receive the sacrament of Reconciliation for our mortal sins, that places us in the "state of grace" and then we can receive God’s help in a very real and personal way in Holy Communion. It is not easy to live the Christian life and so these two sacraments (Confession and Holy Communion) are how God fills us with his strength and power to live the way he is asking us to live.

Helpful Resources

Here are some helpful resources for you to learn more and/or prepare to receive this wonderful sacrament.

A video about Confession and Holy Communion

Two minute video about mortal sin vs. venial sin

A 3-minute video about “The State of Grace”

Another video that is shorter by Fr. Mike Schmitz

Another explanation by Fr. Mike Schmitz

More Helpful Resources

  • The Sacrament of Reconciliation: Rising Again to New Life

    Many Catholics treasure the sacrament of Reconciliation.

    The peace of mind and soul which this sacrament imparts to us is one for which there is no substitute. It is a peace that flows from a certainty, rather than from an unsure hope, that our sins have been forgiven and that we are right with God.

    Although many converts to the Catholic Church initially fear it, they quickly come to love the sacrament of Reconciliation once they get over their nameless fears—fears which come from a misconception of what the sacrament really is.

    Read it

  • Mortal Sin and the Christian Life

    Understanding mortal sin can make the difference between life and death.

    This is a critical topic to understand!

    This article will tell you what mortal sin is. But this topic is so important, first we'd better look at why you should care deeply about it...

    Read It

  • A Guide to Confession

    Before Confession - Pray and Prepare-

    Confession can seem intimidating for a lot of people, but with some simple preparation, it can be a healing encounter with Christ that will leave you filled with peace.

    Read It

LENT IS A GREAT TIME TO LEARN ABOUT WHY WE NEED TO FORM THE HABIT OF PENANCE

No matter what you’ve ever done, if you authentically repent (turn away), receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation (for mortal sins this is necessary )and then follow that with sufficient PENANCE…God will bring a greater good out it and this will become clear at the Final Judgement at the end of time.

And just like he has done with St. Mary Magdalen, St. Peter and King David, He will show the world the good he brought out of our sins because we humbled ourselves before him, sincerely repented and did our best to make amends for the harm we caused.

Some of you might be thinking, if we have repented and said we are sorry for our sins, why do we need to do penance? Doesn’t that take away from the finished work of Christ who died for our sins? 

We need to understand, as Catholics, we see penance as one of the ways that the grace flowing from the finished work of Christ is applied to our souls.

To help you understand this better I am going to spend a few minutes explaining Church teaching on the two-fold consequences of sin.

So, when we allow ourselves to be entangled in sin, we suffer consequences:

And there are Two Types of consequences – the Church uses the word punishment - that God in His Justice Imposes for Sin, namely eternal and temporal.

Eternal Punishment (consequences): Refers to hell, the permanent separation from God by persisting in a state of unrepentant mortal sin.

Thus, the eternal aspect refers to whether or not we are forgiven.

Because of the redeeming sacrifice of Christ, God mercifully removes our eternal punishment when we repent of our mortal sins & confess them in the sacrament of Reconciliation.

The temporal punishment (consequences) of sin, on the other hand, refers to the way in which our sins wound us and others.

It is a matter of “repairing the damage,” we might say. We have the obligation and need to do our best to make amends. It isn’t enough just to say we are sorry.

Temporal punishment is God's method of loving discipline: "Do not disdain the discipline of the Lord . . . for whom the Lord loves, he disciplines; he scourges every son he receives" (Heb. 12:5).

This is where Purgatory comes in. Purgatory is not a second chance or a middle ground. Rather, purgatory is for those who die in friendship with God (i.e., the eternal consequence of sin has been dealt with), but not yet completely purified (i.e., some of the temporal consequence/punishment of sin remains).

God wants not only to forgive our sins, but to heal and transform us.

If we were to imagine our sins as nails driven into a piece of wood, and forgiveness as the removal of those nails, we would still be left with holes in the wood where the nails previously were.

In other words, the work of God is not complete upon mere forgiveness, but seeks to go further through healing and transformation accomplished by our cooperation with supernatural grace through penance (i.e., filling in the holes of the wood).

After we have received forgiveness “Acts of Penance” are the way God continues to apply his grace to heal the wounds, left by our sins, on ourselves & others.

Another analogy is this image of a broken window. Imagine that the boy maliciously threw his baseball through his neighbor’s window. He repents from this sin and asks his neighbor for forgiveness. His neighbor forgives him - their relationship is restored and the police will not be called - but there is still the broken window to deal with. Temporal punishment would be the boy fixing the window or earning money to do that.

It is in this light, that the Catechism of the Catholic Church #1472 explains:

  • Sin has a double consequence.

  • Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the "eternal punishment" of sin.

  • On the other hand, every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.

  • This purification frees one from what is called the "temporal punishment" of sin.

  • These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. 

We know this is true because we see the temporal consequences of sin everywhere. Even after we have repented of our sins and received forgiveness it is still obvious that further healing is necessary, not only for ourselves but also for the people we have hurt by our sins.

Forgiveness and temporal punishment/consequences are not opposite ends of a spectrum. They are two sides of the same coin. Together, they establish an essential part of the Lord's plan for believers.

Forgiveness is relational. It puts us back into a right relationship with someone. The Father sent Jesus to make a sacrifice on our behalf, and by so doing reconciled us to Himself. By His mercy alone, we can have communion with the Lord.

On the other hand, consequences are circumstantial.

Often God does not remove consequences simply because we trust Christ as Savior or confess sin. He leaves them in place for us to struggle with and to grow from for many important reasons. Here are three:

  1. To learn from our mistakes; 

  2. In order to fortify us for future temptations because when we experience the consequences or realize there is a punishment accrued, it makes it easier to resist future temptations. 

  3. To grow in humility and empathy for others who are in the same boat. 

God gives a punishment (consequence) because He not only wants to forgive us, but to heal and transform us completely not merely superficially.

We do this as parents. When our children get in trouble, and they say they’re sorry, we respond both with forgiveness and their punishment.

The punishment is not for them to earn our forgiveness back, but to redress the disorder wrought in their souls by the wrongdoing.

In Hebrews 12:6-11 we read:

It’s precisely because we believe in this dual consequence of sin (eternal and temporal) that we do penance, believe in purgatory, and embrace the doctrine of indulgences.

So, what exactly is Penance?

Penance, in the sense it is being used here, is an act of self-denial or devotion performed voluntarily to show sorrow for a sin or other wrongdoing in an attempt to remedy the negative consequences.

Penance is, first and foremost, retribution for wrongdoing such as returning stolen goods, trying to restore a person’s reputation that we have damaged through detraction, calumny or slander, kind acts to a person we have hurt, etc. – this will be different for each person and each sin.

As we do all we can to repair the damage we have caused (which will never be enough) we precede, accompany and follow those actions with prayer, fasting & almsgiving, works of mercy, patient endurance of suffering & indulgences.

Penance, as understood in this way, is a channel of God's grace for the purpose of our own transformation and for the healing the temporal consequences of sins in ourselves and the people affected by our sins.

In the Catechism of the Catholic Church 1450 it speaks of “The Acts of the Penitent”

Contrition, Confession & Satisfaction.

This is important!

When we repent for our sins, we are the penitent and the “acts of contrition, confession & satisfaction” are referring to what we have to bring with us to the Sacrament of Reconciliation in order for it to be a valid confession (in other words, the disposition of our heart & will).

This also goes for acts of repentance made outside of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

More than likely we know and understand the need for contrition (true sorrow) and confession (the act of confessing our sins) but we might not know and understand what satisfaction is.

So, what is satisfaction?

Catechism of the Catholic Church 1459

SATISFATION DEFINED:

“Many sins wrong our neighbor. One must do what is possible in order to repair the harm (e.g., return stolen goods, restore the reputation of someone slandered, pay compensation for injuries). Simple justice requires as much.

But sin also injures and weakens the sinner himself, as well as his relationships with God and neighbor.

Absolution takes away sin, but it does not remedy all the disorders sin has caused.

Raised up from sin, the sinner must still recover his full spiritual health by doing something more to make amends for the sin: he must "make satisfaction for" or "expiate" his sins. This satisfaction is also called "penance."

Furthermore, penance can be considered a "win/win/win"

Catechism of the Catholic Church #1473

The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains.

While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the "old man" and to put on the "new man"(Eph 4:22,24).

This is why the priest gives us a penance after we have confessed our sins in the sacrament of reconciliation.

As I was relearning about the need for penance, I asked one of my teachers, Dr. Troy Hinkel,

“how do you know if the penance the priest gives you is enough?”

He didn’t miss a beat and responded that

“it is NEVER enough. As Catholics, we are called to live a life of penance. The priest is assuming that we know this.”

This is why the Church gives us penitential seasons (Advent and Lent = purple and every Friday as a day of penance…

But we can even go further and form the HABIT OF PENANCE by doing many little things each day always keeping this in the front of our minds.

Some examples would be:

In the early 1900’s God sent the angel of Peace and Our Lady of Fatima to remind us of how important it is to form a “habit of penance” by making our whole day into an offering for others.

The angel of peace told Jacinta, Francisco and Lucia (6, 8 & 9 years old) to:

“Make of everything you can a sacrifice (a penance), and offer it to God as an act of reparation for the sins by which He is offended and in supplication for the conversion of sinners…Above all, accept and bear with submission, the suffering which the Lord will send you.”

Those words are for us too!

What can you offer as sacrifice, an act of penance?

“Patiently bearing the sufferings and trials of all kinds” is one of the chief forms of penance; one of the chief means of paying the debt of temporal punishment due for our sins. Seen in this way, sufferings and trials are a gift from God.

This is something that we seem to have forgotten in our day and age. Pope Benedict XVI said “It used to be that people would pray for a long death in order to make complete amends. Now it is the exact opposite.” How far we have strayed in our understanding of satisfaction and temporal punishment.

If we are faithful to trying to live this way, we will be like St. Mary Magdalen, St. Peter and King David and we will be so happy at the Final Judgement to see the good that God brought out of our sins.

LENT IS A GREAT TIME TO FORM THE HABIT OF PENANCE!