A review of the Sacrament of Penance in view of the Jubilee Year as well as your regular Sunday Mass

While in Rome during a Jubilee Year. Many people – Rome is jammed – are coming to Rome for the experience such as entering the Major Basilicas through the Holy Door.  That’s a perk and a novelty that most may never repeat.

It is, however, just a walk through a hole in the wall if you are not in the state of grace.

Going to Communion in the state of mortal sin compounds your sins with sacrilege.

Not being in the state of grace means that none of your acts of mercy are meritorious.

I suspect that a great many Catholics have never heard this from a pulpit, most converts are not told this, and quite a few priests are unaware of it.

That said, and given that I often push people into confessionals on this blog, it behooves me to flesh out some things about the Sacrament of Penance.  It is usually called “Reconciliation” today, perhaps because that doesn’t make people have too many thoughts about sin and doing penance.   That also was the point of the editing of most of the orations of the Novus Ordo.   Thus, I tend to stick to “Sacrament of Penance”.

Some basics.   I can’t say everything there is to say about all aspects of this sacrament in a blog post, but I can hit the more important ones.

In every sacrament there is both a visible, outward sign, a form of words pronounced and and a personal encounter.

Personal: Grace is not transmitted through wires or screens, but through presence, real and embodied, presence.  So it is with the Sacrament of Penance. Absolution must be received from a priest who is really physically present to the penitent as Christ Himself acting through His ordained minister. The Church, faithful to the realism of the Incarnation, teaches that forgiveness of sins is not a virtual event. The Word became flesh, not a signal (cf. John 1:14). Hence, the confessor and the penitent must share the same moral space.

This is important in this age of Artificial Intelligence.  As AI grows in capability, and people grow more dependent (enslaved? subservient?) on it, this will be even more important to communicate.  No circuit will ever be able to absolve a sin, even the least.  Absolution is through a priest.

The old moral theologians were strong about this. St. Alphonsus Liguori wrote that absolution given to someone more than twenty paces away would be doubtful, since the sacramental sign requires true human presence:

“Si poenitens esset longe plusquam viginti passus, esset dubium an absolutio esset valida” (Theologia Moralis, Lib. VI, n. 440).

“Phone absolutions” or “Zoom confessions,” however sentimental the intention, simply do not satisfy the incarnational logic of the sacrament. Pius XII, addressing a Congress on Pastoral Liturgy, reminded confessors that

“The Sacraments are sensible signs; they must be administered through direct contact of minister and recipient” (Allocution Vous Nous Avez Demandé, 22 Sept 1956, AAS 48 [1956] 713).

The priest’s hand of blessing, his voice uttering Ego te absolvo, are the very instruments of the healing Christ.

Keep this in mind.  You can confess your sins to anyone!   A bartender… your psychiatrist… your best friend.  But they cannot absolve you.

What about a person who is unconscious, unable to make a confession?

When a man lies dying, perhaps unable to speak but presumed to desire mercy, the Church provides for a conditional absolution.  In the form of absolution the priest says,  “si capax es, “if you are capable”, that is, capable of receiving the sacrament.  In that moment the priest says the form of the sacrament, trusting that the grace of Christ can reach where human consciousness cannot. St. Augustine explained this generous principle:

“Deus sacramentis alligavit nos, sed ipse non est alligatus sacramentis”—“God binds us to the sacraments, but He is not bound by them” (De Baptismo contra Donatistas 5.27.38; PL 43:185).

The visible Church acts and the invisible Spirit breathes life where He wills (cf. John 3:8). There is hardly a greater manifestation of the Church as Mother than these instances of urgency and need.  Also, in cases where a person is unresponsive, it is possible to administer the Sacrament of Anointing, which in same cases also has the power to forgive sins.  More on that HERE.

The effects of the Sacrament of Penance are breathtaking. Through absolution the soul is cleansed of guilt; the eternal punishment due to mortal sin is wiped away; the soul is strengthened to resist temptations.

The sinner, who by his own will in committing a mortal sin, separated from God is restored to supernatural friendship. St. Thomas Aquinas explains that the words of absolution do not merely declare forgiveness but cause it:

“Verba absolutionis effectum suum habent ex ipsa significatione, sicut forma sacramenti”—“The words of absolution have their effect by their very signification, as is proper to a sacramental form” (Summa Theologiae III, q. 84, a. 3, ad 3).

The confessional, in that sense, is like to a courtroom where penitent is the prosecutor of himself and the Judge is Mercy Himself. If the penitent dies after valid absolution without returning to mortal sin, he dies in the status gratiae, the state of grace, and is thereby capable of eternal beatitude, though perhaps through the purifying fire of Purgatory (cf. CCC 1472–1473).

Absolution also restores the penitent to full communion with the visible Church, enabling him to receive the Eucharist worthily and to act again as a living member of Christ’s Body. What is broken is repaired; what is lost is found.   I have a bit more on this HERE concerning the common absolution form we use during Holy Mass.

Let it not go unsaid: We should confession all the mortal sins we can remember in both kind (what sort of sin) and number (how many times or frequency).  This is why a habitual daily examination of conscience is important: we remember better and we learn more about who we really are and who we really are not.  More on kind and number HERE.

Yet some sins, because they wound not only the soul but the visible order of the Church, carry penalties or censures that cannot be removed by any priest at random. For these, there exist the reserved cases, those to be absolved only by the Holy See, the bishop, or a priest delegated by him (cf. CIC 1983, cc. 1355–1357).  Again, this is about reserved censures not reserved sins.    The sins that incur these censures are very grave.  For example, purposely throwing away the Eucharist or taking it for a nefarious reason, breaking the Seal of Confession, consecrating bishops without Apostolic Mandate, etc.

Such laws may seem severe until we remember that they exist to guard the sanctity of the sacrament itself. The juridical structure of the Church protects the integrity of mercy, just as the walls of a chalice guard the Precious Blood.

Absolution remits guilt and eternal punishment, but not automatically the temporal punishment due to sin. That debt, rooted in in justice and due to the disorder sin leaves behind, remains to be satisfied by penance, prayer, and charity. St. Catherine of Siena likened this process to fire purifying gold:

“Il fuoco della divina carità consuma la ruggine del peccato; ma la giustizia vuole che l’anima sia purgata secondo la misura”—“The fire of divine charity consumes the rust of sin, yet justice wills that the soul be purified according to measure” (Dialogo, ch. 60; ed. Tommasini, p. 208).

This is why the priest in normal circumstances assigns a penance before absolution. It is not a penalty but a remedy. It is the application of Christ’s Cross to the wounds of the soul. The confessional is a tribunal, but it is also a clinic. The priest is judge and physician acting as Christ, declaring sentence but also applying medicine.  More on vague or strange or unreasonable penances or forgetting what you were assigned HERE.

For absolution to be valid, the penitent must confess all mortal sins not yet absolved, must be sincerely contrite, and must resolve not to sin again (cf. CIC 987–988).

The confession need not be eloquent; it need only be honest. God requires truth, not rhetoric (cf. Ps 50:8 [51:6]).

The Act of Contrition, whether memorized or spontaneous, must express sorrow for sins and a desire to change.  I have more on the Act of Contrition HERE.

St. Alphonsus again reminds us that even imperfect contrition, when joined to the sacrament, becomes sufficient:

“Attritio, quamvis imperfecta, conjuncta cum Sacramento sufficit ad remissionem peccatorum” (Theologia Moralis VI, n. 444).

Grace supplies what weakness lacks.

Then comes the moment itself: the formula of absolution.

The modern form begins, “Deus, Pater misericordiarum, qui per mortem et resurrectionem Filii sui mundum sibi reconciliavit…” and concludes, “Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis, in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.”

The beginning recounts the economy of redemption. Father, Son, and Spirit, Cross and Resurrection, the Church’s ministry, are compressed into a single sacramental act.

Réginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., commented that the priest

“ne se borne pas à annoncer le pardon, il le cause instrumentellement, par une puissance dérivée de l’humanité du Christ”—“does not merely announce forgiveness; he causes it instrumentally, by a power derived from Christ’s humanity” (De Gratia, t. II, ch. 8, p. 245).

The same Christ who touched lepers and said “Be thou clean” (Matt 8:3) now touches through the hand of His priest. When the confessor raises his right hand and traces the sign of the Cross, he is not simulating pardon, he is performing it.

In the older Roman Ritual, the theology is expressed with great precision:

“Dominus noster Iesus Christus te absolvat; et ego, auctoritate ipsius, te absolvo ab omni vinculo excommunicationis (suspensionis) et interdicti, in quantum possum et tu indiges. Deinde ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis…” (Rituale Romanum Tit. III, cap. I, n. 1).

The structure moves from petition to declaration, from deprecative to indicative.

First, the priest prays that Christ may absolve. Then, by Christ’s authority, he does absolve. The twofold movement reveals both humility and confidence. The minister is suppliant and judge, intercessor and instrument.

The Council of Trent fixed this forever: “Forma huius sacramenti sunt verba absolutionis, ‘Ego te absolvo,’ quibus significantur et efficiuntur remissiones peccatorum”—“The form of this sacrament consists in the words of absolution, ‘I absolve thee,’ by which the forgiveness of sins is both signified and effected” (Sess. XIV, De Poenitentia, cap. 3; Denz. 1671 = DS 1671).

The post-Conciliar reform retained this essential core while giving more prominence to God’s fatherly mercy. The Catechism of the Catholic Church notes:

“This formula expresses the essential elements of the sacrament: the Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness; he brings about reconciliation through the Paschal mystery of his Son and the gift of his Spirit, through the prayer and ministry of the Church” (CCC 1449).

Both forms, ancient and modern, are equally valid, equally divine. One emphasizes the priest’s delegated authority, the other the Father’s overflowing mercy. Both converge in the same sacramental reality: Christ forgiving through His Church.

Before absolution in the traditional form, the Ritual provides brief preparatory prayers, echoes of the Confiteor (I mentioned, above, and linked more on this):

“Misereatur tui omnipotens Deus, et dimissis peccatis tuis, perducat te ad vitam aeternam.”

And again:

“Indulgentiam, absolutionem, et remissionem peccatorum nostrorum tribuat nobis omnipotens et misericors Dominus.”

These can be omitted for a just reason, but many priests retain them as gentle thresholds to mercy. Some also preserve a venerable addition once printed in the pre-1970 Ritual:

“Passio Domini nostri Iesu Christi, merita beatae Mariae Virginis et omnium Sanctorum, quidquid boni feceris et mali sustinueris, sint tibi ad remissionem peccatorum, augmentum gratiae et praemium vitae aeternae.”

“May the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, the merits of the Blessed Virgin Mary and of all the saints and also whatever good you do or evil you endure be cause for the remission of your sins, the increase of grace and the reward of life everlasting. Amen.”

How rich a theology is distilled there! The Passion, the Communion of Saints, the cooperation of human merit within divine grace.  It’s a miniature Summa Theologiae whispered in the quiet of the confessional.

The priest,father, physician, teacher, judge, is in the confessional the living extension of the mercy of God.

He does not speak in his own name.  He does, and he doesn’t.   The “I” of Ego te absolvo is the “I” of Christ the High Priest. But it really is also the priest speaking.

St. John Chrysostom marveled at this dignity:

“Hanc potestatem Deus neque Angelis neque Archangelis dedit… Quae sacerdotes hic agunt, Deus in caelo confirmat”—“This power God has given neither to angels nor archangels… What priests do here on earth, God confirms in heaven” (De Sacerdotio III.5; PG 48:643).

When the words fall from the priest’s lips, heaven bends low, the chains of sin drop, the soul stands radiant again.

It is the greatest of quiet miracles.

God returning a fallen soul to the state of grace is a greater act than God creating the universe out of nothing.

Given what is at stake, shouldn’t there be more priests?  Shouldn’t there be more priests for more Masses, of course, but for more confessions?  To reduce the odds that you might face your final moments without the last sacraments?

Promote vocations!   Through the ordained you may path to a peaceful passing.

The confessional may seem small and human but in that smallness the infinite mercy of God breaks through.

When the priest lifts his hand and says Ego te absolvo, one may imagine the roar of joy of the holy angels and saints in Heaven.

What was the last time you heard those words?

“I absolve you…”.