Inside the Confessional: What Is It Like for a Priest?

Aletelia ^ | March 4, 2015 | FR. MIKE SCHMITZ

[NYer]

I was once riding in a shuttle-bus with a number of older folks on the way from an airport. 
They noticed that I was a priest and started asking questions about it.

"Do you do all of the priest stuff?"

"Yep."

"Even the Confession thing?"

"Yeah. All the time."

One older lady gasped, "Well, I think that that would be the worst. 
It would be so depressing; hearing all about people’s sins."

I told them that it was the exact opposite. 
There is almost no greater place to be than with someone when they are coming back to God. 
I said, "It would depressing if I had to watch someone leave God; I get to be with them when they come back to Him." The Confessional is a place where people let God’s love win. 
The Confessional is the most joyful, humbling, and inspiring place in the world.

What do I see during Confession?

I think there are three things. 
First, I see the costly mercy of God in action. 
I get to regularly come face to face with the overwhelming, life-transforming power of God’s love. 
I get to see God's love up-close and it reminds me of how good God is.

Not many folks get to see the way in which God’s sacrifice on the Cross is constantly breaking into people’s lives and melting the hardest hearts. 
Jesus consoles those who are grieving their sins . . . and strengthens those who find themselves wanting to give up on God or on life.

As a priest, I get to see this thing happen every day.

I see a saint in the making.

The second thing I see is a person who is still trying – a saint in the making. 
I don't care if this is the person’s third confession this week; if they are seeking the Sacrament of Reconciliation, it means that they are trying. 
That's all that I care about. 
This thought is worth considering: going to Confession is a sign that you haven’t given up on Jesus.

This is one of the reasons why pride is so deadly. 
I have talked with people who tell me that they don’t want to go to Confession to their priest because their priest really likes them and "thinks that they are a good kid."

I have two things to say to this.

1.  He will not be disappointed! What your priest will see is a person who is trying! I dare you to find a saint who didn’t need to God’s mercy! (Even Mary needed God's mercy; she received the mercy of God in a dramatic and powerful way at her conception. 
Boom. Lawyered.)

2.  So what if the priest is disappointed? We try to be so impressive with so much of our lives. 
Confession is a place where we don't get to be impressive. 
Confession is a place where the desire to impress goes to die. 
Think about it: all other sins have the potential to cause us to race to the confessional, but pride is the one that causes us to hide from the God who could heal us.

Do I remember your sins? No!

So often, people will ask if I remember people's sin from Confession. 
As a priest, I rarely, if ever, remember sins from the confessional. 
That might seem impossible, but the truth is, sins aren’t all that impressive. 
They aren’t like memorable sunsets or meteor showers or super-intriguing movies… they are more like the garbage.

And if sins are like garbage, then the priest is like God’s garbage man. If you ask a garbage man about the grossest thing he's ever had to haul to the dump, maaaaaaybe he could remember it. But the fact is, once you get used to taking out the trash, it ceases to be noteworthy, it ceases to stand out.

Honestly, once you realize that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is less about the sin and more about Christ's death and resurrection having victory in a person's life, the sins lose all of their luster, and Jesus' victory takes center stage.

In Confession, we meet the life transforming, costly love of God… freely given to us every time we ask for it. We meet Jesus who reminds us, "You are worth dying for .. even in your sins, you are worth dying for."

Whenever someone comes to Confession, I see a person who is deeply loved by God and who is telling God that they love Him back. 
That's it, and that's all.

[NYer]

After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21-23).

Catholic ping!

[miss marmelstein]

It must be exhausting. I was thrown out of the confessional at age 8 by an enraged priest when I either goofed up my sins or my “Bless me Father...” I’ve now forgotten. But I’ll never forget the horror on the face of the other parishioners when they saw an undersized, knock-kneed kid emerge from behind the velvet curtain! What, I wonder, did they think I had confessed to?

[Jim from C-Town]

Bored. He is often bored.

[NYer]

Lol ... that must have been quite an experience. I had my share as well but that was a long time ago. I also recall reading about the confessions at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in NYC. Apparently, it is not uncommon for protestants and Jews to avail themselves of the possibility to shed their sins, even if they could not receive absolution.

[miss marmelstein]

That’s interesting! Charlotte Bronte tried that in Brussels when she fell in love with her married mentor in the girls’ school she taught at. Priests being made of stronger stuff in those days, she didn’t get a lot of sympathy and was escorted out - pronto.

[Salvation]

On the grief healing weekends that I used to help with many protestants would go in and talk with the priest. Also many divorced individuals came back to God through this wonderful Sacrament.

Great article and description of what the priest really does do.

God bless.

[I want the USA back]

That was a good article!

[verga]

I came back into full communion with the Catholic Church about 20 years ago. I asked a priest friend of mine to hear my confession. It took about 1/2 hour, at the end both of us had sweat on our brows. I walked out floating about 2 feet off the ground.

[NYer]

I walked out floating about 2 feet off the ground.

I know the feeling. A huge burden lifted and you are lighter than air. Thanks for the post and ping.

[Ransomed]

‘Hearing nuns’ confessions is like being stoned to death with popcorn.’

— Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen

[af_vet_1981]

The Confessional is a place where people let God's love win.

Thanks be to God.

Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. And he spake this parable unto them, saying, What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it? And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance. Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it? And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost. Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

Luke, Catholic chapter fifteen, Protestant verses one to ten,
as authorized, but not authored, by King James
boldness mine

[daniel1212]

After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21-23). \

Confession is healthy, but as has been showed, nowhere does the NT prescribe confession to priests, nor is the power of binding and loosing unique to the NT pastorate either.

[metmom]

Also, Matthew 18 is to all believers in how to handle a personal dispute among themselves.

It's not a blanket authority given to a special class of believer to lord it over others with the threat of sending them to hell by retaining their sins.

God's promise is that if we confess our sins, *HE* is faithful and just to forgive us our sins cleanse us from all unrighteousness. There's never any indication given in the least in all of Scripture that God would not forgiven the soul that comes to Him in confession and repentance.

[NYer]

Confession is healthy, but as has been showed, nowhere does the NT prescribe confession to priests, nor is the power of binding and loosing unique to the NT pastorate either.

Just as God empowered his priests to be instruments of forgiveness in the Old Testament, the God/man Jesus Christ delegated authority to his New Testament ministers to act as mediators of reconciliation as well. Jesus made this remarkably clear in John 20:21-23:

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."

Having been raised from the dead, our Lord was here commissioning his apostles to carry on with his work just before he was to ascend to heaven. "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." What did the Father send Jesus to do? All Christians agree he sent Christ to be the one true mediator between God and men. As such, Christ was to infallibly proclaim the Gospel (cf. Luke 4:16-21), reign supreme as King of kings and Lord of lords (cf. Rev. 19:16); and especially, he was to redeem the world through the forgiveness of sins (cf. I Peter 2:21-25, Mark 2:5-10).

The New Testament makes very clear that Christ sent the apostles and their successors to carry on this same mission. To proclaim the gospel with the authority of Christ (cf. Matthew 28:18-20), to govern the Church in His stead (cf. Luke 22:29-30), and to sanctify her through the sacraments, especially the Eucharist (cf. John 6:54, I Cor. 11:24-29) and for our purpose here, Confession.

[ealgeone]

For those who believe in Christ, their sins have been absolved, forgotten, nailed to the Cross, separated as far as the east from the west, etc as per His Word.

[ealgeone]

Paul was not one of the original disciples, yet I don't think anyone would question his ability to preach the Gospel and share the Good News of forgiveness of sins.

IIRC he was quite a prolific writer.

[ealgeone]

You might want to read all of John in context for that.

[boycott]

And, like all of us, priests are sinners too. Why would I want to confess my sins to them?

[aMorePerfectUnion]

“Confession is healthy, but as has been showed, nowhere does the NT prescribe confession to priests, nor is the power of binding and loosing unique to the NT pastorate either.”

Nor is an office of “priest” found in the NT Church...