Sacrament of Reconciliation

One day a short man walked into the place of King, David. None of the guards dared to stop him. When he reached the presence of the King he said, “O King I have to tell you a story and you should grand me time to listen to it. He said, “There were two men in a certain town,
one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.

“Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
King David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!
David remembered what he had done. One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked Uriah, “Go down to your house. But Uriah did not go down to his house. So David sent him back to the battle field with a letter to Jacob.  In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
Thus Uriah was killed in the battle and David took Bathsheba to be his wife. When David became conscious of his sin he said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
This awareness that we have sinned is the primary condition for rebuilding the broken relation with God.
The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the most unique and beautiful aspects of the Catholic Church. As Scriptural basis for this sacrament, the Catechism of the Catholic Church quotes the words of Jesus:  “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:23)
The sacrament of reconciliation has four elements: contritionconfession, satisfaction and absolution.
The first element is contrition. It is the humble acceptance that we have sinned. When David realized his mistake he declared “I have sinned.”
There are many examples of act of repentance in the Bible. It includes individuals, societies and nations. After the terrible sentence pronounced by Elijah upon Ahab for his enormities follows this account of his repentance. He "rent his clothes" in token of deep grief.  He put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly. (1 Kg 21:27-29).

Peter denied Jesus three times. But when he realized it he was filled with repentance.

We read the account of Peter’s denial of Jesus and his repentance in the Gospels. Then they seized Jesus and led him away, bringing him into the high priest's house, and Peter was following at a distance. And when they had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and sat down together, Peter sat down among them. Then a servant girl, seeing him as he sat in the light and looking closely at him, said, “This man also was with him.” But he denied it, saying, “Woman, I do not know him.”  And a little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” But Peter said, “Man, I am not.”  And after an interval of about an hour still another insisted, saying, “Certainly this man also was with him, for he too is a Galilean.”  But Peter said, “Man, I do not know what you are talking about.” And immediately, while he was still speaking, the rooster crowed.  And the Lord turned and looked at Peter. And Peter remembered the saying of the Lord, how he had said to him, “Before the rooster crows today, you will deny me three times.”  And he went out and wept bitterly. (Luke 22:54-62). Peter became conscious of his mistake and he wept bitterly. This is real repentance.

Jesus makes it all the more clear in the story of the Prodigal son.  “There was a man who had two sons.  The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’ So he divided his property between them.
“Not long after that, the younger son got together all he had, set off for a distant country and there squandered his wealth in wild living. After he had spent everything, there was a severe famine in that whole country, and he began to be in need.  So he went and hired himself out to a citizen of that country, who sent him to his fields to feed pigs.  He longed to fill his stomach with the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything.
 “When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.  I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’  So he got up and went to his father.
 “The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. (Luke 15:11-32):
When the Prodigal son came to his senses he realized his mistake. The first thing that we require is to be accepting the fact we have sinned.
A man woke up in the morning deeply repentant after a bitter fight with his wife the previous night. He noticed with dismay the care of beer bottles that had caused the fight. He took it outside and started smashing the empty bottles one by one into the wall. He smashed the first bottle telling, “You are the reason I fight with my wife.” He smashed the second bottle, “You are the reason I don’t love my children.” He smashed the third bottle, “You are the reason I don’t have a decent job.” When he took the fourth bottle, he realized that the bottle was full and still sealed. He hesitated for only a moment and said, “You stand aside, I know you are not involved.”
Contrition must be real and sincere sorrow of heart, and not merely an external manifestation of repentance. The Old Testament Prophets laid particular stress on the necessity of hearty repentance. The Psalmist says that God despises not the "contrite heart" (Ps. I, 19), and the call to Israel was, "Return to me with all your heart . . . and rend your hearts, and not your garments" (Joel 2:12-13). Job did penance in sackcloth and ashes because he reprehended himself in sorrow of soul (Job 13:6).
Accepting the fact that we have sinned is the most difficult part. When God called Adam to question about his disobedience he put the blame on the Eve, and she put it on to the serpent.
But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.”
 And he said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
 The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.”
Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.” (Gen. 13:10-13)
It is human nature to push the responsibility of our actions to someone else. But we should be able to take ownership of our actions and accept responsibility for our actions.
Repentance is a decision that we will not repeat it. When the Prodigal son came to his sense he decided to get up and go to his father. So we should decide to get up from the situation we are, and move forward.
In the act of contrition we pray “My God, I am sorry for my sins with all my heart.
In choosing to do wrong and failing to do good,
I have sinned against You Whom I should love above all things,
I firmly intend, with Your help, to do penance, to sin no more, and to avoid whatever leads me to sin.”
Once this decision is made we go to the next level.
The second element is confession.
We see many examples in the Bible once people realize that they have sinned, they accept it and declare it publicly.
In the book of Numbers we read about the confession of Aaron. Then Aaron said to Moses, "Oh, my lord, I beg you, do not account this sin to us, in which we have acted foolishly and in which we have sinned (Num 12:1)
The book of Samuel gives the account of the public confession of people of Israel. They gathered to Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day and said there, "We have sinned against the LORD." And Samuel judged the sons of Israel at Mizpah. (1 Sam 7:6)

Simon peter’s encounter with Jesus made him conscious of his sins and confessed that he was a sinful man.
When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, “Put out into deep water, and let down the nets for a catch.”
Simon answered, “Master, we’ve worked hard all night and haven’t caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets.”
When they had done so, they caught such a large number of fish that their nets began to break. So they signaled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats so full that they began to sink.
 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!”(LK 5:4-8)
"And the prodigal son returned to his father and said, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight; I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' (LK 15:21)
Another beautiful example of confession is given by Jesus in the parable of the Pharisee and the Publican.  “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.  The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.  I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’  “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ (Luke 18:10-13)
In the early Church, publicly known sins were often confessed openly or publicly in church. Beginnings of practising the sacrament of penance in the form of individual confession as we know it now, i.e. bringing confession of sins and reconciliation together, can be traced back to 11th century.
Once during the annual retreat in a parish the preacher gave a very enlightening message about the elements of confession and prepared the congregation to go for confession. Many priests were stationed at different locations in the church. People queued for confession. In a few minutes in most of the places the queue became less and practically the priests were left alone. But they noticed in one confessional a long queue. The queue was almost extending to outside the door. Others became curious about it. They envied the great confessor who was so much sought after. Most of them thought they too must make a confession to him so that they would be able to guide the people as he does. One of the priests asked a young man, “Who is in that confessional and why is everybody standing in that queue?”
The young man replied, “That father cannot hear. He is deaf.”
In 1215, the Fourth Council of the Lateran canon 21 required that every Christian who has reached the age of discretion must confess all their sins at least once a year to their own priest.

A Canadian Priest tells of hearing the confession of a rough-and-ruddy fellow who said it had been two years since he last confessed. He explained that he was a trapper in a remote part of Canada; that it took him the better part of two years to get to confession, travelling on foot, by canoe and then by train and bus and that usually he could not afford to leave his trap lines unattended for that long.
“You’re way behind the times,” the priest said, “You could fly to the city, go to confession and communion, and be back home in thirty-six hours. Why not take a plane next time?”
“I have thought of that, Father,” the man said, “But for venial sins, it’s too expensive and for mortal sins, it’s too risky.”
The principal source of conflict in the human spirit is the sense of guilt. Psychologists tell us, it is the mysterious feeling of guilt which lies at the root of most people’s disquiet of mind and disturbance of will. On both levels, the sacrament of Confession is the Lord’s great gift to His followers. Jesus himself is present to listen to you. The more frequently we confess our failings, no matter how minor they may seem to be, the more deeply peaceful we shall be.
The Seal of Confession is the absolute duty of priests not to disclose anything that they learn from penitents during the course of the Sacrament of Penance (confession). In recent years, some have been concerned by pushes from governments in locations such as Louisiana and Australia who challenge the secrecy of the sacrament of confession, asking that priests betray the solemnity of penitents’ confessions when they hear of serious crimes in the confessional. However, no one need to be afraid, because keeping the secrecy of the sacrament of confession is one of the most important promises priests make.
St. John Nepomucene was an example of the protection of sacramental secrecy, being the first martyr who preferred to die rather than reveal the secret of confession. When he was Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Prague, the now- saint servedas confessor of Sofia of Bavaria, the wife of King Wenceslaus. The king, who had infamous outbursts of anger and jealousy, ordered the priest to reveal the sins of his wife. The saint's refusal infuriated Wenceslaus, who threatened to kill the priest if he did not tell him his wife’s secrets. Filled with rage, the king ordered the torture of the saint, whose body was then thrown to the Vltava River in 1393.
Saint Mateo Correa Magallanes was another martyr of the seal of confession. He was shot in Mexico during the Cristero War for refusing to reveal the confessions of prisoners rebelling against the Mexican government.
Fr. Felipe CĂ­scar Puig was a Valencian priest who was martyred after keeping confessions secret during the religious persecution of the Spanish Civil War. Fr. Fernando Olmedo Reguera was also a victim of the Spanish Civil War who opted to die rather than break the secrecy of confession.
The Third element is Satisfaction.
Satisfaction is doing what is possible to repair harm of offence. The two parts of satisfaction are penance and prayer of sorrow (act of contrition). Penance is when the priest states the satisfaction to be made (this could be returning stolen goods, paying compensation for damage done or a prayer).
One of the major bible references to reconciliation is the Reconciliation of Zaccheaus (Luke 19:1-10).
'Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3 He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. 4 So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.
When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.
All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”
But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”
Zaccheaus confessed his sins, just as people do today. After this, Zaccheaus resolved to fix his sins and undo the harm he did to others. 
A man in Amsterdam feels the need to confess, so he goes to the priest.
Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. During world war II, I hid a refugee in my attic."

"Well," answers the priest, "that's not a sin."'

"But I made him agree to pay me 20 guilders for every week he stayed."

"I admit that wasn't good, but you did it for a good cause."

"Oh, thank you, Father. That eases my mind. I have one more question."

"What is that, my son?"

"Do I have to tell him the war is over?"
When Jesus meets us in the Sacrament of confession we should be able to say like Zaccheaus, “If I have cheated any one, I will pay back. If I have offended anyone I will fix it. If I have gone against any commandment of God and the church I will resolve it.”
Then comes the last element “Absolution”
Jesus gave his disciples authority to absolve penitents of their sins because the authority was given to them by Jesus. In the Gospel of John (20: 22-23), Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." This authority was passed down from the disciples to their successors, the clergy of the church.
After imposing a penance, the priest pronounces the absolution using this formula: "I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."
These are the same words Jesus told the sinful woman who washed his feet. One of the Pharisees asked him to eat with him, and he went into the Pharisee's house and reclined at table. And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.
And he said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
These are the words Jesus told the woman caught in adultery.  
Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?”  This they said to test him that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.  Jesus looked up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.”(John 7:53-8:11).
These are the words that Jesus told the paralyzed man.
 Four men came to Jesus carrying a paralyzed man.  Since they could not bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, they made an opening in the roof over the place where Jesus was. Then they lowered the cot on which the paralyzed man was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the man, “My son, your sins are forgiven.” (Mk. 2:1-6)
Today in the confessional we hear the consoling words of Jesus through the priest, “Your sins are forgiven; go, and do not sin again.”
As I mentioned in the beginning the Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the most unique and beautiful aspects of Catholic Church. Make use of this opportunity to obtain forgiveness for our sins and reconcile with God and the Church.


Satish