Forgiveness

Forgiveness

Christ Jesus some two thousand years ago came into this world to bring redemption for our sins. He did this through his death and resurrection, or what we refer to as the pascal mystery. We still encounter the saving presence of the

Lord in the sacraments and in the Word. In each and every sacrament we come face to face with "the grace of God our Savior" (Titus 2:11). It is this redemption of sins aspect of the sacraments that I will be examine. In the past couple of century we have focused are attention primarily on the Sacrament of Penance as the means to obtain forgiveness of sins after Baptism. We have come to focus on it so much that it has come to be, for most Catholics, understood as the only sacrament though which forgiveness of sins is obtained. This belief as we will see is an incorrect understanding because we encounter the saving presence of the Lord in other sacraments and ways not only in the Sacrament of Penance.

However the Sacrament of Penance is always to be understood as the primary sacrament for forgiveness of mortal sins after Baptism.

To better understand how this can be let us first look at the general background of the development of the Sacrament of Penance. The Sacrament of

Penance has it's roots even as far back as the day of resurrection when Christ breathed out the spirit on the disciples and said to them, 'Receive the Holy

Spirit. If you forgive anyone's sins, they are forgiven; if you retain anyone's sins, they are retained.' (John 20:22-23). In Paul's second letter to the

Corinthians we see Paul developing this teaching of Christ, when he says 'All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you...be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God( 2 Cor. 5:18-21). These two passages would seem to be part of the sacrament's biblical foundation. The sacrament itself would seem to have come about as a result of the early Church's struggle to recognize that Baptism may forgive sin but it didn't end the str...

... middle of paper ...

... a form of reconciliation that reconciles the sinner with the whole Body of Christ, the Church. It would seem to me sense the early Church did not see all sins as needing the Sacrament of Penance there is no reason not to belief that venial sins are forgiven in other sacraments and rituals. We even have proof that saints such as St. Benedict and St. Augustine held that we could find forgiveness in other ways then just that of the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

Bibliography

Dudley, Martin: Confession and Absolution: 1990, The Liturgical Press (243.4,

D848).

Hamelin, Leonce: Reconciliation in the Church: 1980, The Liturgical Press (243.4,

H213).

Jeep, Elizabeth: The Rite of Penance: Commentaries Volume Two, Implementing the

Rite: 1976, The Liturgical Conference (243.4, L782r v.2).

Keifer, Ralph: The Rite of Penance: Commentaries Volume One, Understanding the

Document: 1975, The Liturgical Conference (243.4, L782r v.1).

Longley, Alfred: Healing and Forgiveness, A New Penitential: 1976, World Library

Publications Inc. (243.4, L856)

Mitchell, Nathan, OSB: The Rite of Penance: Commentaries Volume Three,

Background and Directions: 1978, The Liturgical Conference (243.4, L782r v.3).