Why Do We Confess to a Priest?
Why Do We Confess to a Priest?
Why should I confess to a priest? Why not confess directly to God?
Thus asked brother (A. M.) in Shoubra, as many others have asked…
For Permission to Receive Communion:
† The priest, my beloved brother, is the steward of the Holy Mysteries, and he cannot offer them to the unworthy. Therefore, it is his duty first to make sure of the repentance of the communicant before giving him Communion. The Body and Blood of the Lord must not dwell in a heart that is defiled, loving sin and unwilling to leave it. Hence the Sacrament of Repentance precedes the Sacrament of Communion. The priest must hear your confession, because it is within his authority to allow you to approach the Holy Mysteries or to prevent you. If he finds you repentant… he permits you; otherwise, it is his right to forbid you.
As for those priests who give Communion to everyone who approaches the Mysteries without ensuring repentance and confession, undoubtedly they are mistaken.
To Know the Sin:
† Some imagine that they can confess their sins between themselves and God. Yet man is limited in reality and may not even know what his sins are in order to confess them. There are people with a broad conscience that can tolerate many faults or minimize their seriousness; they may even see in some sins a source of pride. And there is a narrow, scrupulous conscience full of doubts, imagining sin where there is none. The priest stands between the two, clarifying the truth as it is. If a person were left to himself, he would remain in his errors and in his faulty judgment of matters.
To Prescribe the Remedy:
† He who believes that confession to a priest is unnecessary misunderstands confession itself. It is not merely sins confessed by the guilty in order to receive forgiveness and then return to repeat them again. Rather, there is an important duty of the father of confession, which is to provide the necessary remedy. That is why he has been likened to a physician, for he heals souls. He who does not confess to a priest—how will he obtain the remedy? From where will he find a solution to his problems? For this reason, in former times not every priest was permitted to hear confessions; rather, the Church entrusted this sacrament to an experienced and wise elder priest. In any case, it is your right to choose the father of confession whom you see fit to hear your confessions and prescribe the appropriate remedy for you.
For the Sake of Forgiveness:
† And you, my beloved brother, confess your sins to the priest so that he may grant you absolution from them, according to the authority given to him by God for the forgiveness of sins. If you do not confess to the priest, from where will you obtain this great blessing—the blessing of forgiveness? When the priest hears your sins, he places them upon the holy sacrifice, so that the Lord Christ may bear them on your behalf and blot them out with His precious Blood.
For Psychological Reassurance:
† The sinner goes to the father of confession, acknowledges his sins, and the priest reads the absolution over him. The sinner then departs reassured, fully certain that he has received forgiveness, feeling that the heavy burden that was exhausting and oppressing him has been completely removed and borne by Christ on his behalf. Thus the sinner’s heart finds rest and receives from confession an inner peace that he greatly needs.
But he who does not confess to a priest may be attacked by thoughts and doubts, and his heart remains unsettled. At times he is convinced of the forgiveness of his sins, trusting in God’s love and mercy; at other times his sin is magnified before him, and he may think that his iniquity is greater than can be forgiven. Satan may fight him from this side, bringing him to despair or at least tormenting him with doubt.
Do you not see, my beloved brother, that it is God’s compassion to have given us this holy sacrament? How greatly we are in need of it…
To Relieve the Burden of Concealment:
† The sins a person commits and hides from others continue to torment his thoughts. His heart is distressed by them, and he feels the need for someone to whom he can pour out himself and share his troubling secrets so that their burden may be lightened. Hence arises the need for a friend. But a friend—no matter how faithful—cannot always be entrusted with secrets, especially the serious, shameful, and base ones. It is difficult to disclose to a friend what dishonors the soul and invites contempt and disgust, nor can you guarantee that your friend will keep your secrets.
The priest, however, is a true and faithful friend. He does not recoil from hearing your sins, for he is accustomed to hearing sins; he sees in hearing them repentance, not pride; he is a father and a physician; and by virtue of his office he is the most discreet of men, for he would expose himself to excommunication from the Church if he revealed the secret.
For Exhortation and Teaching:
† The priest is a teacher of the people. Imagine a priest standing to preach without knowing the problems that overwhelm the people and the sins into which they fall. Surely his teaching would be, in practical terms, far less effective than that of a priest who has heard the confessions of the people and before whom their thoughts, hearts, and deeds have been revealed.
He stands upon God’s pulpit and speaks, knowing how to choose the subject most beneficial and necessary for the people, and from what angle to approach it so as to touch needy hearts. Those who prevent the priest from hearing confessions strip his preaching of one of its most vital and effective elements. They want the people to live withdrawn with their problems in one valley, while the priest stands shouting imaginary cries in another valley… What kind of priest is this?! And what kind of people?!
That the Priest May Be a True Father:
† The priest is not merely a teacher; he is a father who has compassion and tenderness, assisting the bishop in shepherding and visiting the people. He cannot be so unless he knows the condition of his flock, both outward and inward, so that he may work as much as possible for their happiness. By hearing confessions, he comes to know the sins of the people, their causes and consequences, and the interconnected problems that bind one person to another. He also comes to know their feelings toward one another. Thus he can reconcile them, unite their hearts, provide for their needs, and soften their hearts toward one another.
The sect that does not believe in the Sacrament of Confession also does not believe in the fatherhood of the priest toward his people, depriving both of these noble sentiments.
Because of the Necessary Element of Shame:
† We have explained how the Sacrament of Confession is beneficial for all, and we add that it is necessary and obligatory. It is necessary because of the element of shame present in it. Just as a person obtained a certain pleasure which he felt in his sin, so also he must feel a pain that shows him the other face of sin. In shame there is a kind of pain, making the sinner feel the vileness of himself before the priest, the baseness of his conduct, and the meanness of his behavior. We see in practice that this shame prevents many sinners from committing sin, for they fear confessing those sins before the priest. Since he is thus bodily, let him confess before a man in the flesh and feel shame, as he stands before God’s steward and the representative of the Law.
Because God Willed and Commanded It:
God established this great sacrament in the Old Testament and confirmed it in the New Testament:
A- In the Old Testament:
The sinner would bring the sacrifice to the priest, confessing and acknowledging his sins: “If he is guilty in any of these matters, he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing. And he shall bring his trespass offering to the Lord…” (Lev. 5:5–6).
Thus the priests knew the sins of the people and prayed for them. This appeared on the Day of Atonement, when God commanded Aaron to lay his hands on the head of the animal: “and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions, concerning all their sins…” (Lev. 16:21). It also appeared in the story of Achan the son of Carmi, to whom Joshua said: “My son, I beg you, give glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession to Him, and tell me now what you have done; do not hide it from me.” And Achan answered Joshua: “Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and this is what I have done…” (Josh. 7:19–21).
Likewise, people came to John the Baptist “confessing their sins” (Matt. 3:6). The examples in the Old Testament are many, and this is also supported among the Jews by what is mentioned in their Talmud regarding the necessity of sinners confessing their sins before the priests “in all their deeds.”
B- In the New Testament:
The Lord Christ said explicitly: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them; and whose sins you retain are retained” (John 20:23).
How can the priest forgive or retain sins unless the sinner confesses them? The early believers understood the matter in this way and practiced the Sacrament of Confession, as the Book of Acts says: “And many who had believed came confessing and telling their deeds” (Acts 19:18). Saint Augustine explained the words of the Apostle James, “Confess your trespasses to one another” (James 5:16), saying that what is meant is confession of sinners to the priests, just as the phrase “teach one another” means that the one who knows teaches the one who does not know.
The Practice of Confession in the Holiest Ages:
The Church practiced this sacrament in the first generations, in her holiest ages. This was testified by Saint Athanasius, Saint John Chrysostom, the scholar Origen, the historian Eusebius, and others among the saints and scholars.
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