Invitation to the Faith

Every Catholic should be familiar with going to confession. If you have not been in awhile I encourage you to go. God wants to forgive you. Priests should be overjoyed when someone comes to confession and even more so when it has been a long time since your last confession. It means God is working in your heart and moving you to be reconciled with him.

As a lifelong Catholic, confession has thankfully been a part of my life for a long time. It was only recently that I learned that the Second Vatican Council emphasizes the concept of reconciliation within the sacrament. Yes, we need to confess our sins to a priest. Yes, we should do our penance. But why are we going to this sacrament? I think the mainstream answer should be reconciling ourselves with God. 

I grew up hearing there are three names for the sacrament: Confession, Penance, and Reconciliation. I naturally called it “Confession” as that was the easiest for me to pronounce as a second grader. There is nothing wrong with calling it “the Sacrament of Confession.” In fact, the Catechism explains this name is significant because confessing your sins is an essential part of the sacrament. I encourage you to read CCC 1423-1424 for more information on the different names for this sacrament and the reasoning behind it.

Why do I think we should emphasize “Reconciliation”? This could shift people’s fear of the sacrament to awe. Too often are people afraid to confess their sins to a priest. What if he’s mad? What if he’s never heard it before? What if he knows it is me? All these questions are something that would best be answered by a priest. When we emphasize reconciliation it presents the question: Who am I being reconciled with? The answer is God. The priest is acting in persona Christi (which means “in the person of Christ”).

By all means, whatever name for the sacrament gets you there the better. I just find calling confession the Sacrament of Reconciliation brings to my mind a sense of awe. It helps us foster proper fear of the Lord. When we’ve repented and know we’ve sinned against God, we need to humbly come to him for forgiveness. God never tires of forgiving us. I hope everyone reading this no matter what you’ve done, the person you’ve been, or how long it’s been becomes reconciled with God.