Blessed Issac Of Stella Analysis

For various concerns and wonders throughout time, many Catholics have wondered why must we confess our sins and express our sorrow for having commit said sins to a priest rather than directly to God himself who is available to us at all time. Blessed Issac of Stella who lived from the early to mid-12th century expresses the reason for this situation in penance in his Sermon 11. Although he states initially in his sermon that is is God Because of the role of the Church as the Bride of Christ, the Bridegroom -- Christ Himself -- wishes to involve the Church, His Bride, in all His plans and remain as one. As humanity knows by doctrine, God is the one who grants us salvation, and as the subsistent Being that we as contingent beings depend on, many simply believe that it is only "God alone [who] is able to really forgive sins, [and] we have no business in confessing to anyone else" (CP5 20). Yes, though God is divine and omnipotent, it should be remembered that He chose to come down in the flesh of a human in order to complete His plan for salvation. Issac of Stella speaks of how even though God does have the power to do all, including pardoning us for our misdemeanors, He "the Almighty, the most High, has wedded what was weak and lowly" (CP5 20). Through the Incarnation,

This act, by bestowing upon the same powers as He as God had to the Church, gives those who belong to the Visible Church of the Mystical Body the same powers as Christ so did, and by confessing to a priest "who is perhaps unclean" (CP5 20) and has sinned like us, it reminds us of the unity shared between God the Son and His Christ, Bridegroom and Bride that love each other dearly as