Transcript

Welcome back to Catechism, and let's begin.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee.

Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.

Amen.

Come, Holy Ghost, fill the hearts of thy faithful and enkindle in them the fire of thy love.

Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and thou shalt renew the face of the Earth.

Let us pray.

Oh God, who did instruct the hearts of the faithful by the light-

Of the Holy Ghost

of the Holy Ghost.

Grant that in the same spirit we may be truly wise and ever rejoice in his consolation.

Through the same Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Our Lady Seat of Wisdom, pray for us.

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.

Amen.

All right.

Welcome back to Catechism, and we are gonna have a good class today.

We are gonna talk about, um, a very, very important sacrament, and to do that, to introduce that, I'm gonna ask you, why would I have this here in front of me today?

Which sacrament are we gonna talk about?

We're gonna talk about the Sacrament of Penance.

So the Sacrament of Penance, confession, uh, some people may know it as, uh, reconciliation, a more, uh, modern term that people will use, but Sacrament of Penance, Sacrament of Confession it's sometimes called.

And, um, this is, uh, a most important sacrament, and let's define it first, okay?

We have a, a definition of sacrament, and so the Sacrament of Penance is a sacrament of the new law whereby through the confession of sins by the penitent and the absolution administered by the priest, sins committed after baptism are remitted.

Okay?

So, uh, those sins committed after baptism, that's what this sacrament is about.

So it's the sacrament of the new law, and that means the new covenant that our Lord instituted, and this is how sins are forgiven in this new law, and it's done through the confession of sins of the penitent with the absolution administered by the priest.

Absolution is the untying of the sin, we'll, we'll get to that a little more, uh, releasing of the person from the sin, is administered by the priest, and by this means, those sins committed after baptism are remitted.

We know that baptism remits sins, doesn't it, right?

Washes away original sin.

Any sin that might be there on the soul, baptism takes away.

Well, what happens after baptism if a person falls into sin?

So if the person falls into serious sin, there is the important, um, Sacrament of Penance to take away that, uh, that sin.

It's, it's necessary for salvation as the Catechism of the Council of Trent says.

We're relying on that, uh, tonight, the Catechism of the Council of Trent to go through this, uh, great sacrament.

So we can look at penance in a couple of different ways.

So the Catechism of the Council of Trent talks about penance as a sacrament, and then i- there's also the virtue of penance.

Okay?

The virtue of penance.

So the virtue of penance consists in turning to God sincerely from the heart and in hating and detesting our past transgressions, with a firm resolution and amendment of life, uh, hoping to obtain pardon, uh, through the mercy of God.

Okay?

So that's the virtue of penance, it's a turning to God sincerely, okay, from the heart, the heart When we say from the heart we don't necessarily mean emotions, but it means in our will, 'kay?

That's what we mean by that.

Hating and detesta- de- detesting our past transgressions, okay?

We also have to have a firm resolution, uh, for the amendment of life so that we obtain, uh, pardon and mercy from God.

Um, where do we get this word penance?

It's an odd word, isn't it?

Where does it come from and what does it mean?

So this, uh, this word penance we see used in the very first sermon given after Pentecost, on Pentecost Sunday by, uh, Saint Peter.

Um, after the Holy Ghost descended upon the apostles on that first Christian Pentecost, uh, he, he preaches a sermon to the people who are gathered around that upper room, the people who are outside the house there, they heard the great noise, the f- tongues of fire fell from heaven, and Saint Peter, um, Saint Peter says, uh, he gives this long s- you know, discourse, and he says to them, uh, you know, You need to, you need to be, uh, you know, save yourselves from this wicked generation.

And so the people said, Well, what shall we do?

And then said, What do we do?

After he preached this sermon saying that, You crucified Jesus, the author of life, and he says, you know, uh, You need to save yourselves from this generation.

And so the people said, What do we do?

Saint Peter answered, and this is Acts 2:38, Saint Peter said, Do penance.

Do penance and be baptized every one of you for the remission of your sins.

Penance is actually from a, uh, Greek word, penitemini, which means to turn away from, to turn away from something.

So we want to turn away from our sins.

That's what the virtue of penance is about, a turning away from our sins and a turning towards God.

That virtue is necessary for a valid absolution.

We need to turn away from our sins so that we have a valid, uh, absolution when we go to the Sacrament of Penance.

This is the first, first the, uh, virtue of penance.

Later on we'll talk a little bit about the sacrament itself.So therefore, um, this, uh, you know, when we consider penance as a virtue, it's a virtue of quality in the soul that we need to keep, you know, and, and keep going, just like any other power in our soul.

You gotta practice it to keep it sharp.

It's like you have to need to practice piano, you need to practice violin and that sort of thing to keep those skills sharp.

You need to practice your sports so you can stay good at the sports.

So also, we need to practice this virtue, and that's why it's good to go to confession frequently.

So penance therefore considered as a virtue, it assists us, uh, in, uh, you, you know, sort of staying within the, the bounds of moderation regarding our sorrow.

So there are some people that realize they've sinned, and then they exceed in sorrow and they become depressed.

You know, think about Judas.

Judas even gave back the money, the sil- the 30 pieces of silver.

But his sorrow was so intense, so bad, he didn't have the virtue of penance, and he fell into despair.

So penance is actually a virtue that keeps us in the middle, in the middle ground.

We don't go to excess by despair, but we also don't go too less that we don't turn away from the sin, okay?

We need to have that middle ground that keeps us repenting from sin, but not going so far that we're sad, depressed over our sins, okay?

Now, there are certain, uh, ends of the true penitent, okay?

The ends of the true penitent.

The ends are the goals, the purpose, you know, the, the, the, the, the object, uh, the goal of the, the true penitent.

The ends of the true penitent are these.

There are three of them.

The first end of the penitent is to destroy sin in himself, okay?

He wants to efface from his soul everything, uh, every spot and stain of sin, okay?

That's the first end of the penitent when he goes to confession, he repents of his sins, y- yet he wants to destroy sin in himself.

The second end of the penitent is to make satisfaction to God for those sins committed.

And that's, uh, an act of justice, right?

He wants to make up to God for the sins he has committed.

That's the second end of the penitent.

The third end of the true penitent is to, uh, reinstate himself in favor with the friendship of God, in favor with God.

You know, he is Um, he's offended God, uh, he's, um, you know, sort of deserved chastisement from God by his sin, so he wants to reinstate himself in a good standing, be, be right with God, be made just, and be made right with Almighty God.

Okay, we're gonna go on to the, the steps which lead up to this virtue.

And as we do this, we also wanna, uh, remind you that you can, uh, submit your questions on, uh, Facebook so we can answer those at the end of the class.

Okay, the steps which lead up to this virtue.

So first, the- there's several steps that lead up to this virtue of penance.

The first is that the mercy of God goes before us.

The mercy of God goes before us first and converts our hearts to Him.

There's a passage in the Book of Lamentations, uh, chapter three, um, and, uh, no- the other one that is similar to it in Lamentations 5:21, where we see these words.

Convert us, O Lord, to thee, and we shall be converted.

If God converts us, if He goes before us and converts us, then we will be converted, right?

So the mercy of God has to go before us, opening the doors to penance.

That's what moves our heart to be repentance.

God moving in the soul, we can't even sense that it's God moving us to repentance.

That's the first then, first step which leads up to this virtue of penance.

Next thing that leads to the virtue of penance is the soul tends to God by faith.

So now faith comes in and says, I believe in God.

I believe that I've offended him, and the soul tends t- towards God, moves towards God.

It's a returning to God.

That's the next step in, which leads to, uh, to true, uh, uh, penance.

Then there The next thing is there's a salutary fear of God's judgments, a salutary fear of God's judgments.

No one wants to go to hell.

No one should want to go to hell.

People should have a certain, you know, fear of going there.

So we wanna have, uh, a salutary fear of God's judgments.

Again, not a despair, not a depression, not a terror of God, but we have to have a good, holy fear of God's judgments.

And so, uh, this helps re- recall people, uh, from vice and back to virtue.

Did you know that God, our Lord Jesus, spoke more times of, uh, of hell?

In- in If you look in s- in the Gospels, uh, there's times where he speaks about, you know, y- y- you know, this will happen, you'll go to hell, and that sort of thing.

He kind of warns people.

So it's, it's, uh, not that He's trying to scare everybody.

He knows what people, uh, need to be motivated to turn away from sin.

A salutary fear of God's judgments.

Again, not a, not a fear of God as a good loving Father, but, uh, but a h- a healthy, uh, fear.

Um, there's a right, right fear of God, um, that doesn't lead to depression or sadness.

Then the next step, uh, which leads to this virtue of penance is the, a hope of o- obtaining God's mercy, okay?

And, uh, this gives us the hope that we can amend our life, we can improve our, our life.

And then finally, the last step which leads to that h- having this virtue of penance is that our hearts are inflamed by charity.

We're inflamed with love of God.

Even if it's not moved, the heart isn't moved by emotion necessarily, charity is an act of the will.

And so, uh, that, that springs from filial fear, right?

The fear of, uh, a son towards one's father in a, in a good way and, um, we have a fear of offending God in His majesty.

God is so good, we, we don't wanna offend him, and that's, uh, motivation of charity.Okay, so that's penance as a virtue.

Okay, it's a virtue of quality we should have in our soul.

What about penance as a sacrament?

Penance as a sacrament.

So properly speaking, the Sacrament of Penance consists in external penance.

Now, we need this internal penance of the virtue of penance inside, but then we express it in an external way, and that's where the Sacrament of Penance comes in.

Okay, so the Sacrament of Penance consists in the external, uh, penance, the external manifestation of what is our interior condition penance in our soul .

and form.

Okay?

So there's, there's the matter and then there's the form that makes, uh, this, the sacrament.

Okay, so what is the matter with the Sacrament of Penance?

What's the matter?

The matter are the acts of the penitent, namely contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

These are the acts of the penitent.

This is the matter of the sacrament.

We can also rightly say, as the Catechism of the Council of Trent says, that the sins themselves are the Just like you need, uh, in order to have a fire, you need to have the wood to burn, so also for a Sacrament of Penance to be there, you need to have something that is consuming, and these are the sins of the penitent, right?

So in the same way, just like wood is destroyed by fire, so also sins are destroyed by penance, uh, and that's why it's the matter for the sacrament.

It's the sins that are destroyed, and that is Those sins are given by contrition, confession and satisfaction for those sins.

Those are the acts of the penitent.

That's the matter of the sacrament.

What's the form of the sacrament?

Every sacrament has matter and form.

What's the form of the sacrament?

It's actually the words of the priest, I absolve thee.

Ego te absolvo.

As we say when we absolve people in the, uh, traditional, uh, form of the Sacrament of Penance.

Ego te absolvo.

I absolve thee.

That's the form of the sacrament.

So since the sacraments, uh, signify what they affect, they're al- they're a sign of what they also bring about.

In other words, they're signs, outward signs instituted by Christ to give grace, but they bring about the very thing that they signify.

These outward signs actually bring about the effect that they are signs of, so also i- in the Sacrament of Penance, the, the I absolve thee, the words I absolve thee signifies the remission of sins, and it also brings about the remission of sins.

So not only is it a sign, but it also brings about the effect, just like all the sacraments.

There are signs that also bring about the effect that they are signs of.

Okay, so it signifies that the remission of sins, remission is a resending away, a sending away of sins.

That's effected by the words of the priest when he absolves, saying, Ego te absolvo.

So you might think of this, um, you know, chain- chains hold things down.

They tie people down, right?

They can chain things down.

Sins are our chains.

Mm-hmm.

So we need to be set free from our sins, and that's what happens when the priest says those words, Ego te absolvo.

To absolve means to untie or to release someone from being bo- being bound, being tied.

So we are bound by our sins, and so in the Sacrament of Penance, the priest unbinds you, unties you from your sins by the words of the form of the sacrament, I absolve thee.

Okay?

So what are some effects of the sacrament?

The sacrament brings a couple of effects.

So the first effect of the Sacrament of Penance is there is a restoration of grace, and if the person has not lost grace, he receives an increase in grace, a restoration of grace.

So, uh, this sacrament then restores us to the grace of God and unites us to Him in a close friendship.

So we think about this, um, if, if someone has had the horrible misfortune of falling into mortal sin, that person needs to be restored to grace.

Grace is Sanctifying grace is that quality in the soul that enables us to live the life of heaven.

We can't live the life of heaven unless we have grace in our soul.

If we have had the misfortune of losing this grace by, uh, by a, a sacrament, um I'm sorry, by a, uh, um, a mortal sin, if we lose this grace, we need to have it restored to us.

This sacrament, its first effect is that it restores us to grace.

If a person confesses only venial sins and that person only has venial sins and confesses those, then the pers- the person receives an increase in the grace that's there in the soul, and there's a repair of the damage, uh, done by, by sin.

The second effect listed in the Catechism of the Council of Trent of the sacrament is actually peace, peace and tranquility.

So, um, the, uh, s- the, the, the, um, uh, catechism says that, In pious souls who approach this sacrament, uh, with devotion, there, they will have in them a profound peace and tranquility of conscience together with an ineffable joy of soul, when they go to the Sacrament of Penance.

Now, that might not always happen, you know, but i- in devout souls, it does happen.

Sometimes God puts even a devout soul through a test to see if that person will still persevere in doing what is right even though the person doesn't feel the tranquility, the joy, the peace that sometimes comes from this sacrament.

So in those moments, God is actually testing the soul to see how faithful this soul is gonna be.

Is this soul gonna be faithful?

Is this soul gonna persevere?

Does this soul have faith so that the soul will still persevere and believe in Almighty God?Uh, so, uh, th- that the person will have those sins, uh, absolved, and, and therefore, uh, really trust and continue to come to this sacrament, even though he may not feel the peace in the soul.

But that is an effect, uh, for this, of this sacrament.

Okay.

Getting into some details here.

What are s there what are some parts of penance?

There's actually different parts of penance.

So there's three integral parts of penance.

We've mentioned them before.

Three parts of penance; contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

Those are the three integral parts of the Sacrament of Penance.

Contrition, confession, satisfaction.

So what are these three parts?

Uh, first, contrition, it's a detestation of sin.

Contrition is, is literally it's from a word that means, uh, uh, uh, you know, a, a, a brea- uh, a breaking, right?

So the person, it's like the heart is broken.

The person is kinda crushed by the sins.

So there should be a detestation of sin.

The person should detest the sin.

Contrition produces sorrow.

Okay?

So, uh, the sorrow is however, uh, like I mentioned before, it's not necessarily an emotion.

This sorrow is actually an act of the will.

So by sorrow, the, uh, church fathers understood a hatred and detestation of sin.

Okay?

So it's not necessarily, uh, an emotion, but this sorrow is a act of the will that's a detestation of sin.

You'll see other names for this, this word contrition.

Uh, you'll see this in Spiritual writers will talk about, uh, contrition.

They'll talk about compunction, compunction of heart, right?

You'll also see rending of the heart.

You'll see that in the Bible.

Rending of the heart, okay?

And so the- these are, uh, aspects of, uh, of contrition.

Okay?

Other names for, for contrition.

Okay?

So it produces sorrow.

Contrition produces sorrow.

Now what about this sorrow?

Let's talk a little bit about this sorrow.

This sorrow should be three things.

It should have three qualities.

The sorrow for our sin should be supreme, it should be intense, it should be universal.

What do I mean by supreme?

The sorrow should be supreme in that it should be with our whole heart, that we love God above all things.

Okay?

God is the supreme being, infinitely perfect, who made all things and keeps them in existence, and our love for him should be supreme.

We should love him above all things.

So our sorrow should be supreme.

Th- our sorrow should also be intense.

That means it's sh- should be so perfect that it excludes, um, all apathy, i- all indifference, right?

So we should, um, you know, eh, b- be free from the apathy that keeps us from fixing ourselves, right?

And or we should n- uh, be, not be indifferent, right?

So this, uh, sorrow should be intense, that it moves us to change our lives, right?

Then this sorrow should also be universal.

Okay?

This sorrow must include all mortal sins for a valid confession.

In order to have a valid confession, all mortal sins, uh, have to be I- included in this, uh, this sorrow, this detestation of sins.

Um, so, um, w- let's take a l- little more, uh, look at, uh, uh, the next one, right?

So we have, uh, contrition, uh, for our sins.

Uh, we have the, uh, confession, right?

So, um, we should have, uh, the confession of sins.

We should express our, our sorrow, right?

God is faithful to forgive if we confess our sins.

That's in, uh, the first letter of John, chapter one, verse nine.

God is faithful to forgive if we confess our sins.

So, um, we should have, uh, uh, n- you know, this contrition.

We should also then have the confession of our sins.

Okay?

So there's a necessity, uh, for this confession, uh, and that's because our Lord, uh, um, m- you know, wants us to express, uh, um, this, uh, these sins.

We o- you know, He wants us to repent of these sins through an expression of the, of the sin to a designated mi- minister.

Later on we're gonna look at some places in the Bible where, uh, where this is shown.

But first I just wanna mention here that, you know, we have a, a, a we should have a this, this confession of sin.

We need to express it, right?

As, uh, uh, first John 1:9 says, God is faithful to forgive if we confess our sins.

Gonna tell you a story that might help illustrate the point.

Uh, one time someone was, uh, was asking me I was walking through an airport, and they said, you know, Oh, Father, yeah, I b- I believe everything the Catholic Church, uh, believes, uh, except the part about confessing your sins to a priest.

I don't think you should have to do that.

So I told the person, I said, Oh, well, uh, I guess what you're telling me then and just tried to say it as nicely as I could, is that you don't really have faith.

You just have a coincidence on your hand.

The person looked at me, like, What are you talking about?

You don't really have faith.

You have a coincidence, right?

It just happens to be.

It's just a coincidence that you happen to believe all the things that the Catholic Church believes, with the exception of, uh, the Sacrament of Penance.

That's just a coincidence, whereas faith says, 'I believe everything that God believes and r- has revealed.' That's what I'm gonna believe, everything that God has revealed, whether or not I agree with it or not, whether or not I see it or not, whether or not I like the idea of confessing my sins to a priest or not.

I believe everything that God has revealed.

Otherwise, it's just a coincidence that my beliefs happen to line up with the Catholic Church's beliefs in all things except for this one issue of penance.

Right?

So really it is, uh, God's will that we, uh, confess our sins, right?

And that was, that was really the issue.

And so I brought up another, um, uh, Old Testament, uh, uh, verse that shows this.

I said, Look, if I can show you a place in the Bible Uh, because the person brought up this objection.

All right?

So I'm putting on my apologetics hat, 'cause this is something that you may have to do.

You may have to explain why you, as a Catholic, confess your sins to a priest.

People will say to you They might say to you, You know what?

I confess my sins to God.

Why should I have to confess my sins to a priest?

Right?

They'll say that, right?

Why should I have to confess my sins to a priest?

I'm gonna confess straight to God.

But you can answer the person, Well, if I can show you a place in the Bible where someone did have direct access to God, and was in a conversation directly with God, and God, instead of receiving a confession of sins from that person, instead sent that person to a man, to have that man pray for him.

A man who is more in favor with God, closer to God in some way or another, and had that man pray for him that his sins may be absolved, would you believe that God actually does use this?

This method of confessing your sins to a man through whom, through whom God forgives the sin?

And the person looked at me and said, Well, where is that in the Bible?

I said, Well, look.

Come to me Come with me to Job chapter 42.

So in the Old Testament, Job chapter 42, uh, verse eight through 10, uh, there is a place that shows this, okay?

So what happened was, uh, these three friends of Job, when Job had his great moment of suffering Y- you know, the devil really struck him.

He'd lost land, cattle, you know, children even, and he was covered with sores.

His three friends came.

They spoke some foolish things to him.

They said some things that were wrong, that were imprudent.

Not a consolation to Job at all.

They were accusing him of things.

Then God appears.

God appears to the four of them, Job and these three friends.

God appears and He says to these three friends of Job You can see this in the very last chapter.

If you, if you can't remember the, the chapter and verse, just remember it's the very last chapter of the Book of Job, which comes right before the Psalms.

Go to the last chapter of the Book of Job and you'll see this story.

In Job chapter 42, God tells these three friends So now God is having a direct conversation with these three friends, and they could confess directly to God, 'cause God appeared to them and is talking to them.

And God tells these three friends He doesn't say to them, You need to confess your sins to me.

You've spoken foolish things.

You've spoken sinful things.

Go ahead and confess to me, 'cause now I'm here before you.

He actually says to them, You've spoken foolishly Right?

Sinfully.

Go to my servant Job and have him pray for you that folly be not imputed to you.

Even tells them the sacrifice that they are to give to Job and Job is to offer, uh, for them, for their sins.

That's in Job chapter 42, verse eight through 10.

So if you can show the person from the Bible, places there where g- someone had direct access to God, and God sent them instead to a man to have that man pray for him, uh, and have the sins, uh, abs- absolved, then you might see You might be able to get them to see that yes, God did this from the Old Testament, and we're gonna see, uh, in a m- in a moment, when we look at some of the, um, New Testament, uh, uh, verses, we'll see that God does it in the New Testament as well.

But now let's get to this confession part, okay?

We mentioned contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

So the confession part, okay?

It's necessary.

There's these advantages of confession.

It brings humility to have to go to someone and confess your sins.

It causes humility.

Do you know what the foundational virtue in the spiritual life is?

You've guessed it if you said humility.

It is.

Humility is the foundational virtue.

It's like the excavation that's dug that the That, uh, is necessary for the foundation for the building to be built on.

The building of the spiritual life is built on the foundation of humility.

So that's an advantage of the sacrament of, uh, uh, p- penance by confessing, uh, uh, our sins, right?

Um, so also, uh, this confession then, um, we should, w- we should describe what, what exactly do we mean by this confession?

Well, it's a sacramental accusation of one's sins made to obtain pardon by, uh, the virtue of the keys that God gave to, uh, Saint Peter and to the church, right?

Uh, our Lord gave, um, certain powers, certain keys to unlock, unbind people's sins.

Yeah.

We see that in Matthew chapter 16, verse, uh, 18.

Um, you know, so it's that, the power of the keys and it's a, it's a, uh, um This confession then is a accusation of one's sins.

It's very interesting, because in the sacrament of penance, when you go to confession, you're the witness, you're the prosecution, you're also the victim in a certain way.

So it's like a court in which you are the accuser, you're the witness, you're the one making the accusation, you're also, uh, the prosecutor, right?

You are stating, uh, you know, This is what I did.

Here are my sins.

And you're also the victim, 'cause you're the one who got hurt by them.

You're the one who, who was damaged by them, right?

So that confession is made with the intention of, uh, obtaining sorrow, or ob- obtaining pardon, rather.

So that's the purpose of, uh, the sacramental confession.

Uh, it's, it's to, uh, to obtain, uh, to obtain pardon.

So, um, Saint Augustine calls this, uh, a disclosure of a hidden disease.

You have a hidden disease and you disclose it to a priest with the hope of obtaining the medicine of pardon.Uh, Saint Gregory calls confession, uh, a detestation of sins.

Right?

So this is necessary to be done in confessing, um, confessing the, uh, the sins.

All right.

Let's get to a couple of Bible verses.

Let's look at some places in the Bible where this happens, right?

Where we see this.

So, uh, we can We will see that confession was instituted by Christ.

Let's take a look.

We have, uh, um, uh, a verse there from, uh, John 20:21-23.

So this happened on the day of the resurrection.

Our blessed Lord appears to the apostles, and He says to them He appeared to them, described in John 20:21-23.

He said to them, 'As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.' And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and He said to them, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost.

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.' So in this verse from John 20:21-23, our Lord gave those apostles the power to forgive or even to retain the sins of those people that come to them in confession.

Okay?

In other words, those apostles were given the commission to be a judge, to see, is this person sorry for the sins?

Is there true sin here?

Is there true sorrow for the sin?

And so, uh, is this person changing his ways?

Is this person getting out of the near occasions of sin?

Willin- willing to do so?

And based upon that, then the person gives the absolution.

So He gave them this power, and that's a good verse to know in your, in your mind and your heart.

Uh, a good apologetics verse to have in your, in your mind.

John 20:21-23.

If it's easier, just think 2020, John 20:20, and then you can just start from there.

That's easy to remember.

John 20:20.

It's about confession.

Okay?

There's another verse in the Bible, uh, and that's from 2 Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 5:18-20 is another place where penance shows up in the Bible.

And this is what we read here in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20.

All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself by Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.

For God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing to them their sins.

So this ministry is definitely about reconciling people from sin.

And He hath placed on us the word of reconciliation.

That's where that term comes from, where they describe the sacrament as the sacrament of reconciliation.

For Christ, therefore, we are ambassadors.

God, as it were, exhorting by us.

For Christ, we beseech you, be reconciled to God.

So there we have it in 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, where, uh, this, uh, sacrament is being described.

It's described as a ministry of reconciliation.

He's saying that we have been given this ministry, e- exhorting you to be, um, to be reconciled to God.

But the we and the you that are being discussed here are not we Christians and you pagans, 'cause Saint Paul is actually writing to Christians.

This is his second letter to the Corinthians.

They've been Christian for some time, and yet he's saying, We ambassadors of Christ, we apostles, we priests, have been given this ministry of reconciliation, and we are ambassadors to you, Christian Corinthians.

It's not, You pagan Corinthians.

No.

It's the, the Christian, uh, church, uh, uh, at Corinth.

And so you can see then, even in the very early church, there's this distinction between those people that needed to be reconciled to God, as we all do when we sin, and these ambassadors of Christ that, uh, Saint Paul calls the we who have been given the ministry of reconciliation.

Those are the priests.

So you can see that it is there in sacred scripture.

Uh, the sacrament of penance, it shows up, uh, in the Bible.

So our Lord instituted this, this, uh, sacrament, and, uh, it goes all the way back even to the Garden of Eden.

He already knew what Adam did, but He wanted Adam to confess it.

You know, Adam, where are you?

He said when, um, Adam had fallen and sinned, right?

So He wants us to confess that, uh, sin, and we can see from the earliest days of the church, certain ambassadors of Christ, certain priests, were given this ministry of reconciliation, to reconcile people to God.

Okay, so, uh, we, um, we need to, um, make this confession.

Uh, this law of confession obliges one It starts to oblige one when the person reaches the age of reason.

Once he can start to reason and see, um, you know, I, I, I know what good and bad is.

I know r- right and wrong.

Right?

So the, the age of reason, that's when the person, uh, uh, begins to have the obligation to, to make the, uh, make obliged to confess .

It helps our soul very much.

Let me ask you something.

How much good will food do for a dead man?

You put a hamburger in a dead man's mouth, is that gonna do him any good?

So in the same way, we cannot receive holy communion if we have even one mortal sin on our soul.

It does the body In fact, on the contrary, we commit the grave sin of sacrilege if we receive Holy Communion with a mortal sin on our soul, a mortal sin that hasn't been absolved by a sacramental confession to a priest.

That's necessary to be done before we receive Holy Communion if we have even one mortal sin on our soul.

If the person has venial sin, the person should make an act of contr- venial sin.

With venial sin, one can receive Holy Communion with venial sin, not mortal sin.

Mortal sin always has to be absolved by a sacramental confession to a priest first, and re- the sin repented of, and the person receives absolution of that mortal sin before going to Holy Communion.

P- p- please, please, please, if you know anyone who has ever done this or if, God forbid, you've ever been tempted to do this, don't do it.

Don't receive Holy Communion with a mortal sin on the soul.

It does no good to your soul.

It places God in a place where He ought not be, and think about it.

Why would someone do this?

Perhaps it's because they're ashamed.

They don't want people to know that they are in mortal sin, so they hide.

But think about the gravity of this sin.

One is using God's own body to hide one's sin.

That's part of the sacrilege of receiving Holy Communion in a state of mortal sin.

You're using the flesh of Christ to hide behind, and you're also using the priest to be an accomplice, even though the priest doesn't know it.

If the priest gives Holy Communion to someone who's in mortal sin, that priest is being an accomplice.

He doesn't know it.

He's not at fault.

The priest isn't at fault 'cause he doesn't know this person's in mortal sin.

But you see, you're using a priest to be an accomplice to your, accomplice to your sin if you're in the state of mortal sin and receive.

You're using God's body, blood, soul, and divinity to hide your sin, and you're also hiding your sin by an appearance of piety while one is committing a mortal sin.

It's a horrible thing.

It is a horrible thing to receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin.

Please don't ever do that.

Or if you know someone who is doing that or h- who has done that and has not repented of it, please get them to stop.

Please get them to not receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin.

It is a horrible, horrible sacrilege, and, uh, um, y- you know, it, it, it does no good to the soul.

The soul is dead in sin.

When the person is in mortal sin, that soul is dead.

Food will do no good to that dead person, just as a hamburger's gonna do no good to a dead man.

So the s- the food of life, the food of, of, uh, uh, the bread of life will do us no good if we are in mortal sin and we receive it.

We need then this sacrament of penance to revive.

It's spiritual CPR that gets us alive again, 'kay?

That's what we need before we can start eating.

We need to be breathing.

We need to be alive first before we can start taking food, receiving food.

Okay, so, um, what are the qualities of the confession, right?

That confession should be entire.

It should include everything, 'kay?

We cannot leave out any mortal sin.

If we leave out even one mortal sin, um, or the number of mortal sins, right, then it's not a complete confession, right?

So if we go to confession, we have mortal sins, we need to confess the number of times, you know?

I did, you know, this, this many times a month for this many months, or whatever, you know?

Uh, you know, the, or the- you add up the number of times for any mortal sins that would, uh, need to be, uh, confessed, right?

So, um, it should be complete and entire, an integral confession.

Venial sins don't have to be confessed, so you don't have to include all your venial sins.

But mortal sins, all of them do have to be included.

Um, so, uh, the, the Council of Trent, uh, um, uh, defined this, right, that we need to do this.

Uh, so, you know, the, the sins that we hide, that, that's a horrible, that'd be horrible sin.

So say a person goes to confession, hides a mortal sin, uh, or hides the number of t- hiding the number of times of a mortal sin, you know, gives a false number, that person would leave that confessional with none of his sins forgiven, and in fact, he would have another mortal sin added on top of that, the sin of sacrilege.

Because again, he's using that confessional, that sacrament of penance to hide his sin under the appearance of piety, and he purposely We're talking about someone who purposely holds back a sin, who purposely, you know, holds that sin back, doesn't confess it, uh, or, or pur- purposely omits the number of times or lessens the numb- purposely, on purpose, uh, lessens the number of sins, um, concealing, uh, the sin.

Then that person, um, y- you know, the, uh, does not make a sacramental confession.

That person, uh, has profaned the holiness of the sacrament, and therefore another sin, a mortal sin of sacrilege is added to that person.

Okay, so the person would need to repent of that, confess, and make a complete and entire confession, uh, of all mortal sins, 'kay?

That's very, very important.

Okay, so that's for concealed sins.

What about forgotten sins?

Sometimes people have that question, right?

Um, so say the penitent, uh, forgot some grievous sin, some mortal sin, right?

Um, or maybe, you know, even though he was intent on confessing all his sins, all her mortal sins, uh, somehow maybe he didn't examine the full recesses of his conscience with sufficient accuracy, right?

He, he didn't, uh, maybe fully get it.

You know, he tried, he tried to make his, uh, examination and, um, complete confession, but forgot something.

That person is not obliged to repeat the confession, 'kay?

He's not obliged to repeat the whole confession as the sacrament, as the Council of Trent, the catechism of the Council of Trent says.If he remembers a sin that he forgot, a mortal sin that he forgot, he is obliged to mention that at his next confession.

If it's a mortal sin that he just forgot, you know, then he would be, uh, uh, obliged to, uh, uh, mention that when he remembers, when, when, i- if he remembers, and then he, he has to mention that at his next confession.

Um, but say he forgot because he was kind of careless and indifferent in examining his conscience.

He didn't really examine it.

So negligent, you know, he is so negligent in recalling, uh, the sins, uh, almost as if he's unwilling to remember them, y- you know, uh, didn't really wanna shine a light on his soul, didn't really take the time to examine th- the conscience.

If this is the case, then th- as the catechism of the Council of Trent says, then by all means, he should make that confession over again, if he, you know, was, n- just didn't examine his conscience, just went in there and forgot mortal sins, 'cause he didn't examine his conscience.

Right?

Okay?

So what else, what else about this confession?

What are some of the other qualities of, uh, confession?

The confession should be plain, simple, and sincere.

Okay?

Simple.

Uh, the priest doesn't need the full backstory.

You know, he doesn't need, you know, So I was going to this, and then I saw, and then I said this to so-and-so, and then Just, you know, be simple.

I did this sin, sin of detraction, this many times.

Whatever it was.

You know, uh, damaging someone's good name, or t- you know, you just focus in on that.

You don't have to give the whole story or the reasons behind it and all these things.

But, m- this is what I was trying to do, and Uh, uh, you know, y- y- you don't have to make yourself appear good, unless, you know, sometimes people, like, they'll try and give all these reasons behind it to try and, uh, you know, make it not sound so bad.

Um, just be simple, sincere, and plain in your, uh, your confession, right?

The confession should be prudent, right?

Not giving details that are unnecessary, like, going, you know, unnecessary to go into.

It should be modest, and it should be brief.

Okay?

Um, the confession should also, uh One should also go to confession often, so although the church obliges us once a year, you know, so that we, uh, have all, uh, mortal sins absolved, um, make sure there are no, none of those.

Um, we, um, we should go m- it, we should go monthly.

It's a good idea to keep things, keep things going, um, maybe even every couple weeks.

Right?

It's, it's good for the soul to often apply this medicinal sacrament, uh, to our, our souls.

Okay?

So the minister of the, uh, Sacrament of Penance is a priest; can't be a deacon, it has to be a priest, or, or a bishop, of course, it could be a bishop.

Um, uh, a priest who has received, uh, faculties, uh, to, um, to absolve, right?

Um The n- the confessor is actually obliged to observe the seal of confession.

He cannot repeat anything that he has heard in that confession, nothing that would connect a sin with the sinner.

He cannot say that.

He has to, uh, keep, uh, an inviolable seal on that sacrament.

And, you know, the priest, even though h- uh, no one else would know it, the priest would be automatically excommunicated from the church if he were to reveal some sin of a person, you know, and revealing the sin of that person or that, you know, that, that sort of thing.

Uh, a direct violation of that seal, that would be an excommunicable of- offense, and he would know it, even if no one else would.

So he would be kicked out of the church.

He would be excommunicated from the church, and that is an excommunication that can only be lifted by the Pope himself.

He couldn't even just go to his bishop and get it cleared.

He would have to go and get it cleared through the Holy Father, the Pope himself.

So that's how serious the church takes that seal, and so you should have no fear in going to confession.

Have no fear of the sacrament.

I'll tell you another story about a priest, and then we'll get to some questions.

Um, another, uh, uh, story from a priest, uh, um, and, uh, I've seen this myself, where, um, sometimes there are not people, you know, coming in line for confession, and then the priest says a prayer that any spirits that may be keeping people from the sacrament because of fear, those spirits may be put to flight, and then all of a sudden, people start coming into the confessional.

It's interesting because the, the Devil tries to give us a fear of this sacrament.

Don't listen to that.

Don't be afraid.

Come to confession.

Our Lord will give you his pardon, you'll get counsel.

You know, you, you'n- you might g- get some things that you've n- never thought of from a priest as to how to help you out of that sin, and, uh, you'm- maybe, you might n- need to do some things that the priest, uh, uh, w- wants you to do to get out of that sin.

And so, it will help your soul very, very much.

But have no fear of the Sacrament of Penance.

Okay?

Um, so, uh, once the person, uh, you know, ɪn- n- takes those steps of, of the confession, right?

Uh, eh, finding out his sins, being sorry for the sins, um, make up their mind never to sin again, tell the sins to the priest, and then do the penance that the priest gives, right?

Then you've made a good confession.

Okay?

Be complete, entire, simple.

All mortal sins have to be confessed with the number of times.

That has to be done for a complete confession.

Otherwise, it's not a complete confession.

It would be a sacrilegious confession to leave out any mortal sin, uh, and, and, or, uh, leave out or hold back the number of times.

If you happen to forget, just mention, you know, the, the sin at your, your next, uh, your next confession.

We cannot receive Holy Communion with any mortal sin that hasn't been absolved, forgiven by a sacramental confession to a priest.

Okay?

That's very important.

Uh, and, um, you know, have, have no fear, have no fear of this sacrament.Okay.

Uh, when the priest gives you your penance, that's when you make your satisfaction.

You make up for it by the penance, there may be something you have to do.

Maybe you have to say sorry to someone, uh, maybe pay someone back.

If you've stolen something, you do have to pay back what you've stolen.

Maybe making up for the damaging of the good name; that's the satisfaction.

The penance, the prayers that the priest gives you, that's making up for the sin.

That's the last part of the sacrament of confession, um, is that satisfaction.

So, um, contrition, confession, satisfaction; those are the parts of the sacrament.

Okay.

Let's take a look and see if there are any questions that have come in.

Okay.

Um, so, mm-hmm, uh, there's one question I can answer, uh, uh, briefly, yes.

Uh, so, okay, Does the Holy Spirit leave a person when he commits a mortal sin?

He does.

The person pushes God out by putting, uh, sin, mortal sin in his soul.

Mortal sin kills the life of Christ in the soul.

We learned that right from the catechism.

That means the Holy Ghost leaves that person.

It's a horrible thing.

So that's the, that's the, the great evil of mortal sin, is that our bodies are no longer temples of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost is not dwelling in our body.

Wisdom chapter one, verse four says, The Holy Ghost Spirit of God will not enter in to a body subject to sins.

Wisdom chapter one, verse four.

So we have to be free from mortal sin.

Very, very important, okay?

Um, okay.

Then, um, Can we a- can I address briefly a devotional confession?

Okay.

Um, so, um, looks like, um Well, okay, a devotional confession is a, is a confession where you're not Uh, you're not trying to, um, make up for, uh, um Like say for example, a person Y- y- maybe talking about a general confession of devotion.

Saint Ignatius speaks about this in his spiritual exercises, a general confession of devotion.

A g- general confession of devotion is where a person, um, maybe reached a new point in his life, maybe he's about to get married or he's ab- about to enter religious life, it's a good time to make a general confession.

Or maybe every five years, every 10 years.

Uh, some different spiritual authors advise this, um, making a general confession of devotion.

Now in a general confession of devotion, that means you- you've just, you know, maybe you're growing in your spiritual life.

It's been 10 years, you wanna make a new confession, you know, of, of y- your past.

So your whole life, you're confessing.

Uh, in the general confession of devotion, you don't actually have to mention the number of times.

If you've already In other words, you're talking about the confession where all the mortal sins have already been absolved.

Okay?

That's a general confession of devotion.

But if it's a general confession of necessity, in other words, you realize, Oh, I haven't done all my I- I haven't I- I've never confessed the number of times of my mortal sins, that would be a, you know, you might need to cover the whole life or something like that.

So that's the different thing.

T- there you would have to mention the number of times.

But just out of devotion, that's, um, what, what that is.

So, um, that's usually done in entering a religious life or entering marriage even, you know, just a change in the state of life, or maybe You know, some will say every five years, some every 10 years.

That's a good one to do, okay?

All right.

Now, um, mm-hmm.

Uh, let's see.

Um, okay.

So if you told the priest that you could reveal your confession, could he reveal it?

No, he couldn't.

So even if you give him permission, he can't reveal that confession, okay?

Um, so, uh, here's another thing I should counsel.

I probably should have mentioned this in the, in the middle of the class part.

Um, don't tell others what the priest has told you in the confessional.

Don't tell others what the priest has told you in the confessional.

That priest may be giving you counsel based upon very specific things that he hears in there.

Maybe he can pick up, and priests can pick up, is this soul scrupulous?

Is this soul Does this soul have a lax conscience?

His advice to the lax is going to be very different from his advice to the scrupulous, or if the person has a well-formed conscience.

That's the other one.

There's three types of consciences, huh.

Um, his advice is gonna be different for all three of those scenarios.

So don't go repeating what the priest told you, and invariably, people are gonna get it wrong.

People will go out, they'll remember part of it, even if it's specific to a scrupulous and he knows that and he's addressing this to another scrupulous person or something, invariably he's gonna get it wrong, you know?

So don't do that, you know?

Just keep that advice to yourself.

At most, you might say, You might wanna talk to Father about that, and, uh, leave it at that.

If you hear someone else and you had a similar situation and you hear someone else talking about, you know, sins they've committed, you know?

But, uh, uh, uh, so, but the priest cannot divulge, uh, anything he has heard.

Even if you give permission, he can't do that, okay?

All right.

Here we got another question.

Um, Sometimes it's hard to feel sorry for sins.

Okay?

What are some ways that we can make ourselves understand and be truly sorry for sins that we don't really feel all that guilty about?

Good question.

Okay.

So remember, sorrow for the sin is in the will.

It doesn't ne- it doesn't necessarily, uh, it's not necessarily in the emotions.

It doesn't have to be in the emotions.

You don't bo- You might not feel the sorrow, but it has to be in the will.

Your will has made up your mind, I am not gonna sin again.

That's the sorrow we're talking about, and that's the sorrow we have to have for, uh, a good confession.So what are some ways that you can help yourself make Have that, that real sorrow?

That true sorrow for our sins?

That's that step.

Remember, we, uh, first we find out our sins, make up our mind not to sin again, right?

Be sorry for our sins, tell our sins to the priest, and then do the penance.

That making up our mind not to sin again, and that being sorry for our sins, that's where you have the sorrow part.

That's what you can do when you go before our blessed Lord.

You go before our blessed Lord in the blessed sacrament.

You go before our Lord, before a crucifix, and you think about what your sins have done to him.

This is actually a more important part than the examination of conscience.

Uh, don't get me wrong, we have to do the examination of conscience, but we should take about equal time to be sorry for our sins, to arouse that proper sorrow, to bring up that real sorrow, I have offended Almighty God.

Consider what God has done for me.

God has done so many good things for me.

You look at Him on the cross-

Mm-hmm.

You know, a good crucifix, a very vivid, you know, bloody crucifix or something like that.

You consider what God has done for you.

That will help arise, you know, have that sorrow arise in your heart, so that you make up your mind not to sin again.

That'll be how you do it.

So really think about what G- God has done for you.

Saint Ignatius used, used to say, God died for me.

What have I done for God?

What am I doing for God?

What Wounds, you know, how, how your sins have caused wounds in our Lord, you know?

Sins of the flesh, all the scourging of, on, on our Lord's body, all the bloody scourging, right?

Sins of pride, where I think myself better than others, or I don't want to obey 'cause I'm too proud, that's the crown of thorns.

It hurts our Lord's head, those kinds of sins, right?

You know, sins where we steal things, that h- hurts our Lord's hands, right?

So we consider that.

Sins where we, it took some effort to go somewhere, to commit a sin.

We went to a bad place, or we went to bad We went with, we went walking around with bad fri- The nails in the feet of our Lord, that's, that's, that's what the suffering is that our Lord endured, uh, to, to make up for, um, for that, uh, sin.

Okay?

So those are some things, uh, to, to stir up that sorrow, okay?

And let's see, um, Is the seal of confession a prudent discipline, or is it from the deposit of faith?

Okay.

So it is from the deposit of faith, because, um, God wanted this sacrament to be between you and Him.

It's really between you and God.

The priest is just like a cell phone that you're talking through to Almighty God.

Okay?

The priest is the visible person to whom you're talking, even, you know, he should be on the other side of a screen, but, you know, that's the p- that's the voice you're hearing, is just that priest's voice.

But that, you're really talking to God.

Because it's between you and God, and the priest is just relaying the message to God and relaying God's message of forgiveness to you, um, that, that goes all the way back to the beginning.

Uh, that it is, uh, uh, not just a, a prudent discipline.

Okay?

All right.

So, um, let's see.

We might have time for a couple more questions.

Um, How do you know how detailed you should be about explaining sins?

Okay, just enough to get the type of sin and the number of times for mortal sins.

We only need the number of times for mortal sins.

We don't need number of times for venial sins.

But so he knows the type of sins.

In other words, it can't be, you know, w- we talk about genus and species, it should be the specific sin, right?

A person might say something really general, you know?

I was bad.

Well, that doesn't tell the priest very, very much, does it, right?

Um, you might, you, you do have to say more than, than that, to be more specific, right?

Um, uh, I, I, I did, eh, you know, uh, a sin, uh, against lust.

Okay, that's pretty general, but you'd have to be more specific, okay?

We won't go into more specifics since there's probably little ears listening out there.

But you do wanna give the specific sin, the specific sin.

You know, you don't need to give, like, all these descriptive details that But just so he knows what type of sin it is.

He has to know what type of sin it is, what specific sin.

And for mortal sins, the number of times, okay?

So, okay.

Uh, so let's see.

Habits of sin, How do we break out of habits of sin?

Agere contra, says Saint Augustine, that means, Fight against.

You have to do the opposite thing.

You have to do the opposite thing.

Now, there are three things that grow together like the evil claws on a, on a, you know, talons on a claw, you know?

Um, so sins of lust, sins of laziness, right?

Uh, you know, and also sins of, uh, gluttony, okay?

These three grow together.

So work on If you're having trouble with any one of those, work on the other two as well, and that will help reduce those sins.

Fight against them.

Get rid of the occasion of sin.

Do you really want to have an eternity of regret?

Don't have an eternity of regret for half an hour of emotion.

Souls in hell are sitting there going, Why on earth did I not break this habit?

Pray for faith.

Pray for faith, 'cause if you knew what sin was, you would never do it.

They're, they couldn't give you enough pleasure, they couldn't give you enough money to commit a sin.