Posted on 04/29/2013 4:18:02 AM PDT by markomalley
The Confessional is not a ‘dry cleaners’ where our sins are automatically washed away and Jesus is not waiting there to ‘beat us up’, but to forgive us with the tenderness of a father for our sins. Moreover, being ashamed of our sins is not only natural, it’s a virtue that helps prepare us for God's forgiveness. This was the central message of Pope Francis’ homily Monday morning during Mass celebrated with staff from the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See (APSA) and religious present in Casa Santa Marta. Emer McCarthy reports:
Commenting on the First Letter of St. John, which states " God is light, and in him there is no darkness at all," Francis Pope pointed out that "we all have darkness in our lives," moments "where everything, even our consciousness, is in the dark”, but this - he pointed out - does not mean we walk in darkness:
"Walking in darkness means being overly pleased with ourselves, believing that we do not need salvation. That is darkness! When we continue on this road of darkness, it is not easy to turn back. Therefore, John continues, because this way of thinking made him reflect: 'If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us'. Look to your sins, to our sins, we are all sinners, all of us ... This is the starting point. But if we confess our sins, He is faithful, He is so just He forgives us our sins, cleansing us from all unrighteousness…The Lord who is so good, so faithful, so just that He forgives. "
"When the Lord forgives us, He does justice" - continued the Pope - first to himself, "because He came to save and forgive", welcoming us with the tenderness of a Father for his children: "The Lord is tender towards those who fear, to those who come to Him "and with tenderness," He always understand us”. He wants to gift us the peace that only He gives. " "This is what happens in the Sacrament of Reconciliation" even though "many times we think that going to confession is like going to the dry cleaner" to clean the dirt from our clothes:
"But Jesus in the confessional is not a dry cleaner: it is an encounter with Jesus, but with this Jesus who waits for us, who waits for us just as we are. “But, Lord, look ... this is how I am”, we are often ashamed to tell the truth: 'I did this, I thought this'. But shame is a true Christian virtue, and even human ... the ability to be ashamed: I do not know if there is a similar saying in Italian, but in our country to those who are never ashamed are called “sin vergüenza’: this means ‘the unashamed ', because they are people who do not have the ability to be ashamed and to be ashamed is a virtue of the humble, of the man and the woman who are humble. "
Pope Francis continued: “ we must have trust, because when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, "Jesus Christ the righteous." And He "supports us before the Father" and defends us in front of our weaknesses. But you need to stand in front of the Lord "with our truth of sinners", "with confidence, even with joy, without masquerading... We must never masquerade before God." And shame is a virtue: "blessed shame." "This is the virtue that Jesus asks of us: humility and meekness".
"Humility and meekness are like the frame of a Christian life. A Christian must always be so, humble and meek. And Jesus waits for us to forgive us. We can ask Him a question: Is going to confession like to a torture session? No! It is going to praise God, because I, a sinner , have been saved by Him. And is He waiting for me to beat me? No, with tenderness to forgive me. And if tomorrow I do the same? Go again, and go and go and go .... He always waits for us. This tenderness of the Lord, this humility, this meekness .... "
This confidence, concluded Pope Francis "gives us room to breathe." "The Lord give us this grace, the courage to always go to Him with the truth, because the truth is light and not the darkness of half-truths or lies before God. It give us this grace! So be it. "
Not everything comes down to what is specifically allowed or prohibited by Scripture. That is the way of the Old Testament. The Revealed Word of God establishes the context for how we live our lives.
There are three elements associated with Hope. Hope desires final union with God, sees it as difficult, yet sees union as attainable. The nature of Hope is revealed in the two ways of sinning against it, by presumption and by despair. Despair denies the attainability, the sinner seeing himself beyond the reach of God's power to save. Presumption ignores the difficulty, either by by assuming that no effort on our part is necessary since God will save us regardless of our sins or by assuming that Grace from God is necessary since our own efforts can save us.
Peace be with you
Thanks, Mitch. Those are some deep and heartfelt thoughts you shared. The truth that God creates within a us NEW heart - one of flesh and not stone - is how we can know we really are his. Something intrinsically changes when we come to saving faith in Christ and it is not anything that can be faked before the eyes of God.
Hebrews 4:13 "Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do."
When I practice the presence of God I know I believe,when I'm in the presence of other believers I know I believe but when I look in the mirror I see a lot of unbelief.
Yes.. You should most definitely apologize to those you have offended. It is difficult, but it really does make you feel better. But ask the little Irish girls who ended up in the Magdalene Laundries despite the fact that their sin involved two people about the Catholic Church’s forgiveness.
Neither was His death a propitiation to an angry god.
Strange teachings, good to reject them. Where you got them I have no idea.
Atoned and expiated are neat words, but the simple fact is that he died on the cross for the sins of the world.
Yours, mine and everyones.
Of course that does not mean all are saved, that would be tacking something on to the simple truth, and creating a traditions.
Oh and you did not reply to a statement, but a question.
Why it was changed to a statement and sent you off into Calvinism, I have no clue. I'm glad you got that off your chest though.
Kind of like in the south to have said to you “Bless your heart?”
It's part of that "coming clean" that I was talking about. If we have wronged someone, one of the FIRST things we should do is tell that person how sorry we are, try to make amends if possible and ask for their forgiveness. I think that certainly DOES go along with confessing our sins to God. He IS faithful and WILL forgive us if we are sincere. Another human may not so easily because maybe the hurt is too deep, but it at least frees us from the obligation we have to them. In time, they may be able to forgive and it is really better for them if they do because bitterness comes from unforgiveness. There have been people in my life who have deeply wounded me and, for all I know, they are oblivious to it or don't care. But, I can still choose to forgive them and it frees me from carrying that unforgiveness around with me. I heard a good definition for forgiveness - "it's giving up my right to get even with someone for what they did to me". Our nature, I think, is to get our revenge when someone does us wrong. Forgiving them releases that need for revenge and getting even. It is trusting God to take care of it. "Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay."
Those poor children, really ALL children, who have been so badly wronged by evil God-less people deserve nothing less than their offenders personally confessing, repenting and begging them for forgiveness. All the many victims, young and old, of so-called "religious" leaders should expect a full and heartfelt apology from EVERYONE who not only did them wrong but looked the other way when they did it. The guilty should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. But, in the end, they WILL have to answer to God with whom ALL things are open and nothing is hidden.
Interesting questions, glad to see them asked!
I’m sure you will get a detailed and complex answer with a lot of scholarly fillers.
What does "even the demons believe --and shudder" mean to you?
What do you mean by "faith alone"?
Can you explain your beliefs in your own words?
One could spend a LOT of time 'apologizing' to those who take offense at almost everything.
Purgatory does not remove cardinal sins.
Peace be with you
I think that the key is whether you feel bad or guilty about an action. I agree with Francis that feeling guilty is a good indication that you have done something wrong. I just disagree with what makes you feel better about it.
And yeah.. people who are easily offended should just be ignores
Can I ask what does?
A perfect act of contrition removes cardinal (mortal) sin. This can take two forms:
1. Via Confession with a priest.
2. A prayer directed directly to God.
So, some may say, “Why go to Confession? Why not just confess your sins directly to God?”
The answer: Because it is entirely too easy to fool oneself into believing one’s act of contrition ( or prayer asking for forgiveness ) is indeed PERFECT. It must be PERFECT to be acceptable to the Almighty or it’s just so many words. Why?
Not because God is vengeful or angry or full of hate for us, but because He is Himself perfect. He cannot deny this part of His nature any more than He can tell a lie, even if to placate or soothe. So He cannot accept a request for forgiveness unless it is a perfect act of contrition (or repentance if you prefer)
Let me be clear, to be so perfect you have to hate your sin as much as God does, and you have to be as sad and sorry about committing them as the saddest day you have ever had. THAT is a perfect act of contrition; it’s POSSIBLE (and some may argue even that is only possible with the Grace of God, and I would agree) but it is highly UNLIKELY. Again, it’s all too easy to fool yourself into believing you are truly that sorry.
THAT is why we need the Sacrament of Reconcilliation. What is lacking in our act of contrition (typically called an imperfect act of contrition) is supplied by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, His Sacrifice upon the Cross, through the priest.
Now, if you ask me to “show me all that in Scripture” you will be disappointed, because as I’ve explained earlier, (not on this thread but elsewhere), I refuse to play that game Protestants/non-Catholic Chrisfians demand. It’s their game to discredit the Faith, the very reason for the “reformation” but hardly proof of anything but the fact that when different people read the same Bible they will believe it says different things.
The only reason I answered your question was in good faith; I took your request to simply be an honest request for Catholic teaching on the matter. I didn’t answer to be baited into another round of “Let’s throw Bible verses back and forth until something sticks”, a game often played by many non-Catholics here and sadly a game (really a trap) some Catholics here fall into.
I sincerely hope this helped you understand something about the Sacrament.
Is there a reason that you only cited 2 of the 33 Canons on Justification? Doing so gives the impression that this was all the Council of Trent had to say on the issue and facilitates distortion. The whole of the Canons on Justification paint a much clearer picture. I would suggest you read them all. You will find that the Church teaching is that good works and merit proceed wholly from the Grace of God through the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and in no way from ourselves. They are necessary but they do not earn salvation, which is by grace alone.
Peace
Are you trying to make Catholics think? Hint: They are a people of rote.
I/family had no bad experience w/the CC or their attached school, grammar and high school. I finally left because of their man made teachings which void God's Word. They are a deceiver.
Like all 'man made teaching' groups, it doesn't matter the flavor, their teachings are based in satan who is the prideful one - who always wanted to be like God. So he has his own words to counter God's Word for the masses and now has his little pawns who are deceived from the 'great deceiver'. Pity a man who corrupts another man - who is searching for truth - and they teach them 'man made teachings' which are 'the lie' of satan.
For there is only one Truth, Jesus The Word. Jesus is THE Way, THE Truth, THE Life. Jesus is THE Way to The Father and Jesus is ETERNAL LIFE. 'Man made teachings void eternal life because JESUS is IT. Hearing and obeying 'man made teachings' - they follow man and not God - which leads to the road of destruction.
"Why do you call me good?" Jesus answered. "No one is good--except God alone." Luke 18:19
You start out wrong you end up wrong! It seems you are giving satan satisfaction - because what you said opposes God's Word.
Catholics ARE Christians, unless you are saying that I do not believe in Jesus.
May the Peace of Christ be upon you.
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