The Apostolate of Confession

By Fr. Conor Donnelly

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In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

My Lord and my God, I firmly believe that you are here, that you see me, that you hear me. I adore you with profound reverence. I ask your pardon for my sins and grace to make this time of prayer fruitful. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

One of the prayers of the Liturgy of Advent says, “Arouse our hearts, Lord, to make the way ready for your Son. In spite of all our sins, let your merciful grace hasten the work of redemption” (Collect for Thursday of the First Week of Advent). This liturgical prayer speaks of proclaiming the coming of Jesus by asking pardon for sins.

“Strengthen all weary hands,” says the Book of Isaiah, “steady all trembling knees, and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage, do not be afraid’...God Himself is coming to save you.’ Then the eyes of the blind will be opened, the ears of the deaf unsealed; then shall the lame leap like the deer, and the tongues of the dumb sing for joy; for water gushes in the desert; streams flow in the wasteland, the scorched earth becomes a lake, the parched land revives with springs of water” (Is 35:3-7).

Our Lord has brought everything good with Him. The Messiah is very close to us, and during these days of Advent, we should get ready to receive Him in a new way when Christmas comes. During these days, Our Lord says to us in a special manner, “Strengthen all weary hands, steady all trembling knees, and say to all faint hearts, ‘Courage, do not be afraid.’”

Every day we meet friends, colleagues, relatives, who have lost their sense of what is most essential to their very existence. They feel unable to go towards Our Lord, and they walk along the paths of life as though paralyzed because they have lost hope. We have to show them the way to the humble stable in Bethlehem. There they will find the meaning of their lives.

To do this, we have to know the way ourselves. We must have interior life. We have to talk to Our Lord and strive ourselves to improve in those very things in which our friends have to improve. We need to have an unshakeable hope in the supernatural means.

Prayer, mortification, and good example will always form the basis of the Christian apostolate. The more petition for others is backed by the sanctity of the person asking, the more certain it is to be answered. Apostolate springs from a great love for Christ.

In many cases, bringing our friends closer to Christ means taking them to receive the Sacrament of Penance, one of the greatest treasures Our Lord has left to His Church.

It may be that no way of helping friends is as great as making it easy for them to go to Confession. Sometimes we have to help them, with tact and kindness, to make a good examination of conscience. Sometimes we have to accompany them to the place where confessions are being heard. At other times, again, a word of encouragement and affection will suffice, accompanied by a brief and properly prepared instruction about the nature and value of the sacrament.

It can be great joy each time that we get a relative, a colleague, a friend to receive the Sacrament of Divine Mercy. That same joy is shared in heaven by Our Father God and all the blessed.

In the Gospel, St. Mark tells us that Jesus came to Capernaum and that immediately they knew he was in the house. “Many were gathered together so that there was no longer room for them, not even about the door” (cf. Mk 2:1-13).

Four friends also went to the house carrying a paralytic, but they could not get near Jesus “because of the crowd.” Then, perhaps, they managed to find some steps at the back. In some way, they got onto the roof with the paralyzed man.

They then removed part of the roof, making a hole in the tiles. Through it, they maneuvered the stretcher on which the paralytic man lay. We’re told they lowered the stretcher down and left it “in the midst of Jesus” (Lk 5:19).

Apostolate, particularly the apostolate of confession, is somehow similar; it is to get people to Jesus. Now, as then, Our Lord does the rest. It is He who does what is really important.

The four friends already knew the Master, and their hope was so great that the miracle was worked because they of their trust in Him. It is their faith that somehow makes up for, or completes, that of the paralytic.

The Gospel says that “when Jesus saw their faith (that is, the friends’ faith), He performed the miracle.” There is no specific mention of the sick man's faith, but that of the friends is emphasized and dwelt upon.

They overcame obstacles that seemed insurmountable...and they had to convince the sick man. Their trust in Jesus must have been very great, because only someone who is himself convinced can convince others.

When they reached the house, there were such crowds that it seemed that there was nothing they could do, on that occasion at least. But they were undaunted. They were able to overcome that obstacle with their decisiveness, their skill, and their concern.

What mattered was the meeting between Jesus and their friend. They used all the means within their reach so that this meeting could take place.

This is a great lesson for the apostolate that we as Christians have to do. Doubtless we will meet with resistance, sometimes more, sometimes less. Our mission consists fundamentally of bringing our friends face to face with Christ, leaving them at Our Lord's side...and disappearing. No one can transform a soul but God, and only He. Apostolate is in the order of grace, a supernatural order.

Sometimes it may be our fault that others do not come closer to God, because they feel unable, of their own effort, to reach out to Him.

St Thomas Aquinas says this paralyzed man symbolizes the sinner lying in his sin. Just as the paralytic is unable to move, so too is the sinner helpless by himself. Those who carry the man immobilized by his paralysis represent those who, with their advice, lead the sinner towards God.

If we trust Christ and often seek His company, if we use human initiative as well, we will be able to overcome the obstacles that always present themselves in one way or another in every apostolic undertaking.

Our Lord was impressed by the audacity, which was the fruit of great apostolic hope, of those four friends who did not give up at the first sign of difficulty, or defer things till a more opportune occasion might arise. They did not know when Our Lord would pass that way again, or be so close.

We can ask ourselves whether we behave like this towards our friends, relatives, and acquaintances. Have we given up at the first sign of difficulty when we have decided to help them to go to Confession? That's where Our Lord is waiting for them.

Our Lord looked at the sick man with immense pity. “Have faith, my son,” He says. Then He spoke some words which astounded everyone: “Your sins are forgiven” (Mt 9:2).

We are told in the Book of Samuel that after David had sinned and he went to throw himself at Nathan's feet, Nathan said to him, “Yahweh has forgiven you” (2 Sam 12:13). It was God who had forgiven him. Nathan did no more than transmit the message which made David recover his joy and see again the meaning of his life.

Jesus forgives in His own name. This was a cause of scandal for the scribes who were present. “Why does this man speak thus? It is blasphemy! Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Lk 5:21).

It's quite possible that the paralytic saw his life, all his unworthiness, with special lucidity. Possibly at that moment, as never before, he understood the need to be clean under that most pure gaze of Jesus, which penetrated with deep compassion to the very depths of his soul.

Then he received the grace of forgiveness; it was the reward for having allowed himself to be helped. Straight away he experienced a joy such as he had never before imagined. It's the joy of every contrite and sincere Confession. Now his paralysis no longer mattered to him. His soul was clean and he had found Jesus.

Our Lord reads the thoughts of all men. And He wanted to make it very clear to those of us also who, centuries later, would meditate on this scene, that He has all power in heaven and on earth—even the power of forgiving sins, because He is God. He demonstrates it by performing the miracle of restoring this man to perfect health.

This power of forgiving sins was transmitted by Our Lord to His Church in the person of the Apostles so that through her priests she could exercise it till the end of time. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” we're told in St. John's Gospel. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn 20:23).

Priests exercise the power of forgiving sins not through any virtue of their own, but in the name of Christ—in persona Christi—as instruments in God's hands. Only God can forgive sins, and He has willed to do so by means of the Sacrament of Penance, through His ministers who are priests.

People around us need urgent instruction on this subject, which will enable them to receive this sacrament with greater love.

We can make use of today's prayer by thanking Our Lord for leaving such immense power to His Church, Our Mother. Thank you, Lord, for putting such a great gift so easily within our reach.

In this time of prayer beside Our Lord, we can also try to examine what our Confessions are like.

Do I prepare them with a careful examination of conscience?

Do I stir myself to contrition each time I go?

Do I go to Confession as frequently as I've made up my mind to do so?

Am I completely sincere with my confessor?

Do I strive to put into practice the advice I have received?

And this day, today, could be a good time to see in the presence of God which of our relatives, friends, or colleagues that we can help to make a good examination of conscience. Who are the people who most need a word of encouragement in order to prepare to receive this sacrament in readiness for Christmas? In the depths of their souls, they are hoping for it, and God too is waiting for them to turn towards this source of mercy.

Jesus said to us in St. John, “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly” (Jn 10:10). In Confession, He gives us the opportunity to empty all worldliness from the soul, to have a thorough cleaning out.

St. Augustine says, “Imagine that God wants you to be overflowing with honey, but you are full of vinegar. Where can God put the honey?” (St Augustine, Homily 4 on the First Epistle of St. John). First you have to empty and clean out the container...You have to clean it out even if it takes a lot of effort scrubbing the thing. That is what has to be done to receive this mysterious reality.”

The Holy Spirit will increase the sensitivity of our soul if we make the little effort required to confess our sins frequently, to examine our conscience diligently, and to make good resolutions. We will acquire an interior refinement of the soul characterized by a horror of mortal sin. We will flee from the occasions of mortal sin while we grow in our hatred of venial sin.

In this manner Confession fills us with confidence in the struggle. Those who practice it have found it to be ‘the sacrament of joy’ (cf. Paul VI, General Audience, 23 March 1977). How can we fail to thank Our Lord for this proof of His mercy? Shouldn't we appreciate the sacrament more each time we receive it? Shouldn't we get others to know its immense value?

The Holy Spirit teaches us the meaning of sin through His unceasing action in the Sacrament of Penance. He teaches us to suffer more over sin, to understand the gravity of offending God. We will then be filled with a filial desire to make reparation for our faults. Our spirit of penance will be shown in that our confessions will be punctual, contrite, and well-prepared.

We thank the Holy Spirit for having inspired the Fathers of the Church to encourage frequent Confession. With this aid we make progress in humility. We combat with energy un-Christian customs. We confront lukewarmness head-on.

We strengthen our will and increase sacramental grace in ourselves by virtue of the Sacrament of Penance. So we receive many great benefits through this wonderful sacrament.

The power to forgive sins was given to the Apostles and their successors. The only people who have the faculty to forgive sins are those who have received Holy Orders.

St. Basil compared Confession to caring for the sick. He commented that just as many do not understand the sicknesses of the body, many do not know the sicknesses of the soul. They cannot be healed by just anybody.

The priest gets his power directly and freely from God, unlike the physician, whose power derives from his knowledge, his professional prestige, or his reputation in the community.

By divine decision, the confessor acts in the place of Christ in judging the dispositions of the sinner, his judgment being based on the penitent's sorrow and desire for personal amendment.

This judgment precedes the absolution that leads into a fuller communion with the Church. As a consequence, the Sacrament of Penance is a real judgment to which the sinner willingly submits.

This is the way Our Lord instituted the sacrament: “...whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained” (Jn 20:23). Christ wanted His Apostles and priests to make a judgment about the sorrow of the penitent.

St. Josemaría in The Way, Point 309, says: “Consider what depths of mercy lie in the justice of God! For, according to human justice, he who pleads guilty is punished, but in the divine court, he is pardoned. Blessed be the holy Sacrament of Penance!”

The priest cannot absolve someone who has not repented of their sin. Nor can he absolve someone who will not make restitution for something that has been stolen.

If somebody says to the priest one day, ‘I killed 50 people last week and if I get a chance, I'll kill 50 more next week,’ he cannot be forgiven. He has no resolution to improve.

But if he says, ‘I killed 50 last week and I hope with the grace of God never to kill anybody again, although I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow,’ he can receive the sacrament. Likewise, somebody who has stolen something has to be willing to make restitution, to put justice right.

If a person has stolen $100, they have to be willing to give that $100 back to the person they stole it from. And if that is not possible without grave inconvenience, then donate that amount to the Church or to the poor, but to make up in some material way for the injustice that they have committed.

The priest cannot absolve someone who will not forgo the proximate occasion of sin, much less anyone who will not seriously commit himself to avoiding sin and improving his life.

If somebody knows that their friends are on drugs and are always getting drunk, they have to try and avoid the company of those people because that is the proximate occasion of sin.

An occasion of sin is an external circumstance that leads us into sin. The penitent has to be willing to try and distance himself from that group of friends who are leading him into sin and try and develop other friends.

If we are not willing to distance ourselves from the occasions of sin, we exclude ourselves from the fountain of mercy.

The judgment in the Sacrament of Penance is a foreshadowing of and a preparation for the definitive judgment which will take place at the end of our lives. We can try to understand the profound nature of the grace and mercy that are present when our sins are forgiven.

Our gratitude if we do so will have no limits. It will be shown in our effort to glorify God eternally for His wonderful compassion. Yet Our Lord wants this gratitude to be evident in this life also.

We can thank God and ask that His Church might never be short of holy priests who are willing to impart this sacrament with love and dedication.

We can ask Our Lady, as we prepare for Christmas, that we might prepare our own soul well with a good Confession, and also see how many of the souls around us that we can lead to prepare their souls also for the coming of the Christ Child.

I thank you, my God, for the good resolutions, affections, and inspirations that you have communicated to me during this meditation. I ask your help to put them into practice. My Immaculate Mother, Saint Joseph, my father and lord, my guardian angel, intercede for me.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

BWM