I began with a short primer on what a sacrament was and what they were here, then I expounded deeper on the sacrament of Baptism here.
Today I will talk about what is perhaps the most beautiful of Sacraments and that is Reconciliation or confession. Confession is a difficult Sacrament for even the most devout Catholic let alone the non-Catholic. The notion of going to another man, himself a sinner and perhaps even a worse sinner than me, and telling them my sins is to many like walking into the confessional and stripping naked. In truth a proper confession is a stripping naked of the soul, which is why it is uncomfortable to so many. It is also true that some of the same people that would never dream of taking their sins to a priest, will gladly spend hundreds of dollars to bear their souls to a psychotherapist only to be given advice that is morally dubious at best and being left the underlying sinful issue unaddressed and no sense of healing or reconciliation. The fact is that Jesus knew what he was doing in John 20:23 When he gave sinful men to power to forgive sins. The one who created men knew mans nature and understood that human worship involved both body and soul and that hearing the words "go in peace you sins are forgiven" would have more healing power than any psychotherapy or the latest feel good self-empowering don't sweat the small stuff fad ever could.
Sin destroys our relationship with God and in turn with is body the church, So it is God alone who can in the end forgive sins, it is however through the Church and through his duly appointed minister, the priest, the Shepperd of his body the Church , that he has chosen to grant us his forgiveness
The theology of confession like that of the other Sacraments and every other Church doctrine is far deeper than I could give it justice here, but it is my earnest hope and prayer that this will help those of you who may be struggling with this most beautiful of church treasures.
