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Many non-Catholics question us on the Sacrament of confession.
I, for one, think I would die without it.There is no feeling in this world like the spiritual uplift of being unburdened of sin
The sacrament of confession is also important to me. That feeling of “spiritual uplift” and being forgiven of sins once again re-energizes me, and allows me to focus on what is right with the world and/or what needs to be changed in my own life so that I may be more like Christ. The best part definitely is that it brings me closer to Jesus.
Forgiveness is something very amazing and for it to come alive for a person in the Sacrament of Reconciliation is amazing. I think that being able to hear the words that you are forgiven is an amazing feeling that really lifts you up body and soul.
” title=”Very Happy” />There is a great article about the Sacrament of Reconciliation here: http://www.aboutcatholics.com/viewpage.php?id=5006
It goes into how priests are not trying to take the role of God, but that they are speaking on behalf of him so that you may know and hear that your sins are forgiven. It’s pretty good.
I have been reading a book written by Doctor Phillip McGraw PHD.
You gotta love this guy. He appeared frequently on Oprah before spinning into his own show.The reason I say you gotta love him is because he has no baloney with him. He tells things exactly as they are. He doesn’t speak in platitudes,
he speaks direct. He doesn’t whitewash your problems or pat you on the head- he forces you to [i:3tux6xop]get real[/i:3tux6xop] and face the ugliness inside you.Dr. Phil (as he is called), says things like [i:3tux6xop]you cannot [b:3tux6xop]change[/b:3tux6xop] what you do not [b:3tux6xop]acknowledge[/b:3tux6xop], You gotta [b:3tux6xop]name it [/b:3tux6xop] before you can [b:3tux6xop]claim it[/b:3tux6xop],[/i:3tux6xop] and [i:3tux6xop]Some people [b:3tux6xop]get it[/b:3tux6xop] and some people don’t[/i:3tux6xop].
Reading his book, or watching his show, you don’t see or hear what you see or hear in modern pop psychology. Dr. Phil doesn’t tell you that it’s your parents fault. He tells you that [b:3tux6xop]you own your problems[/b:3tux6xop].
It is impossible for me to do a full review of this book here but I can do a summation. Dr. Phil is right, but what he says isn’t new.
His approach is merely an affirmation of God’s approach. You see it in Moses who demanded of the Israelites; “Who is on The Lord’s side?” before the ground opened and swallowed the disobedient. You see it Jonah’s admonition to Ninevah, causing them to repent in dust and ashes and save themselves. You see it John the Baptist calling the Pharasees a [i:3tux6xop]brood of vipers[/i:3tux6xop] or Jesus calling them [i:3tux6xop]whitewashed tombs[/i:3tux6xop].
More importantly, you see it in the the age old sacrament of confession.
Sacrament exists in scripture all the way back to Old Testament times.
From the days of the Levitical Priests, it was always the Priest who forgave sins.This is a real stumbling block for some. [i:3tux6xop]Why does God need a Priest?[/i:3tux6xop] they say, [i:3tux6xop]He knows my sins.[/i:3tux6xop].
Yes, He does…but [b:3tux6xop]do you?[/b:3tux6xop].
Are you really [b:3tux6xop]facing[/b:3tux6xop] your sin or burying it under layer after layer after layer of rationalization, projection, blame and denial?The fact is that confession is four [i:3tux6xop]your[/i:3tux6xop] benefit because God knows;
You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge, you gotta name it before you can claim it, and some people get it and some people don’t.God [b:3tux6xop]gets it[/b:3tux6xop]….and I’m starting to.
The words of the Consecration show that Christ can be said to have died for Confession, for the forgiveness of sins. This power to “forgive or retain sins” was given to the Apostles, each an ALTER CHRISTUS, “another Christ.” Jesus gave all the divine power and authority He received from the Father to Peter and the Apostles. God works through men, and has since Adam’s creation. “God is glorified in His saints.” Thank God, and “confess ye your sins one to the other,” i.e., face-to-face to a priest.
[quote:htgmw162]The words of the Consecration show that Christ can be said to have died for Confession, for the forgiveness of sins.[/quote:htgmw162]
Could you please go into a little more detail on this? I understand the rest of your post, but I would like to read a little more about what you are talking about here.
Christ told a crippled man that his sins had been forgiven. The temple elders grumbled about Jesus’ ability to forgive sins. To show that the “Son of Man” had the power to forgive sins [u:1wwafcnh]on Earth[/u:1wwafcnh], Christ healed the man’s body. John the Baptist said of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God, Who takes away the sins of the world.”
How can this forgiving and this healing, and John’s declaration that Christ takes away the sins of the world, be effected before Christ’s Passover consecration, and His actual atonement on the cross?
The Lamb of God slain before the beginning of time is an eternal singularity. Christ’s earthly life is the timeless surfacing within time. In the fullness of time, the efficacy of the Lamb of God inaugurates in time, that is, on Earth, a timeless consecration and sacrifice.
Christ affirms that the New Covenant writ in His Blood, that temporal flowering of His everlasting gift as the Lamb of God, is “so that sins may be forgiven.” “Justice and mercy kiss.”
Christ granted Peter and the Apostles all the divine power and authority He received from the Father. Baptism, the first mandate of Christ’s Great Commission, that adoption into the family of the I Am, imparts total forgiveness of sins. Many of old waited to be Baptized on their death bed.
All sacraments impart a grace which remits venial sin, and this grace comes by way of Christ’s New Covenant. Those who are dead in sin may be resurrected within the New Covenant by the successors of those Apostles who were told by Christ, “Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins your retain, they are retained.” The ability to grant eternal life flows from the God-Man’s shed Blood, “so that sins may be forgiven.”
Good Catholicity is good physics. It would be well to note that eternality, the fundament of reality, is one of those divine revelations which we take for granted. But that premise of an eternal, let alone of The Eternal, conflicted with the presumed absolutes of time and space, those dual obsessions of the atheistic Enlightenment. The relativity of time and space was confirmed by Albert Einstein. The eternal is still our home, The Eternal our Aba. With matter and energy not able to be destroyed, it is more importantly able to be expressed in the perfection our Creator willed before the Sin of Adam.
[quote:3ozf3cp5]I have been reading a book written by Doctor Phillip McGraw PHD.
You gotta love this guy. He appeared frequently on Oprah before spinning into his own show.[/quote:3ozf3cp5]I am a big Fan. I have read this book, too. Maybe we can talk about it sometime.
” title=”Very Happy” />
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