Confessing your sins to a Priest
I told a friend the other day that I needed to go for confession and wouldn’t be home early, and he said; “Why in the world would you confess to a mere man!” I tried to explain as much as I could but he wouldn’t even listen. He kept asking; where is it in the bible? I reminded him of the part where James instructed that we confess our sins to one another James 5: 16, and another passage where before His resurrection, Christ told His apostles that if they forgive people’s sins, they are forgiven, and if they do not forgive them, they are not forgiven John 20: 23. I tried to make him understand that these passages clearly make it obvious that confessing to a man is not wrong.
Now, the day I became a catholic, I agreed to abide by the teachings of the Catholic Church. The church is infallible therefore the fear of doing things against the bible is unfounded, because the church herself wrote (through the apostles of course), compiled and translated the bible.
Now if the church comes together and agrees that all Catholics should as a true sign of repentance confess their sins to the priests before forgiveness is granted them, who are you to begin to argue or try to find justification for it?
In as much as it was not stated as compulsory in the bible, it does not give anyone the right to do as one pleases. As long as you are a member of the Catholic Church, the sacrament of confession has to be diligently observed by you.
Now confessing to a priest does not mean you are not confessing to God. Rather, you could see it as confessing to God in the presence of a priest. The power Christ gave to the apostles to forgive sins was also transferred to the priests, so when a priest tells you that your sins are forgives, they are truly forgiven.
Protestants have no such teachings guiding them so they can confess to God directly, but it’s different for you as a catholic.
Now that it is agreed that confessing to a priest is not a sin, let us now weigh the pros and cons of confessing to a priest;
Pros
- It makes you really ashamed of all the sins you committed because you feel naked and humiliated spilling your dirty secrets to a “mere” man
- You’ll find yourself swearing never to go through such humiliation by avoiding those sins in the future.
- The priest advises you like a child and helps you to understand that no earthly pleasure is worth your precious soul.
- The priest tackles each sin, one by one, helping you to conquer them in the future when the temptation arises
- The priest prays for you. He prays to God for His grace to abound in your life so that you’ll stop remaining a slave to sin and learn to be victorious over the schemes of the devil
- The entire process of confession is refreshing, you find yourself feeling anew. You’ll clearly feel like God is now happy with you
- You’ll repent truly and make a resolution never to sin again. God would see the sincerity in your heart and be happy with you.
Cons
- You would feel humiliated (You definitely should, you sinned!)
- The priest would know your deepest secrets. (No need being afraid; he knows a thousand others. You think he’ll remember yours out of the thousand others that confess to him?)
- The priest might use your secrets against you. (This is not true as the priest is bound by oath to not reveal anyone’s sin to anyone)
- You might start depending on a priest for forgiveness rather than on God (whatever this means! Confessing to a priest makes you even more aware of God’s mercy, because once the priest absolves your sin, you know immediately that God has forgiven you John 20: 23)
The church has agreed that all Catholics must confess to the priest as a sign of true repentance, obey humbly, and stop finding reasons and justifications to disobey. As long as it is not against Christ’s teachings, it is not wrong.
FOR A GUIDE ON HOW TO GO TO CONFESSION, CLICK HERE>>>>>
