Chapter XXVII: Continuation

NOW, the Sacrament of Penance, or Confession, is the grand remedy for sin. It is the medicine of the Saviour, established to heal the wounds of the soul — the great cure for all its sicknesses. When we make a good Confession, and the priest pronounces over us the Absolution, or sentence of forgiveness, our sins are forgiven. Nor is this all: Confession cleanses the heart, and inspires us with a hatred of sin. All that we do to prepare for it has a tendency to make us see the hateful nature of sin, and in the sacrament itself the grace of God confirms this hatred in us in a remarkable way.

The power of this sacrament comes from the words of Christ Himself. He gave to His priests, in the most solemn way, the commission to forgive sins, saying: “As my father hath sent me, so I send you. Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose soever sins you remit, they shall be remitted unto them; and whose soever sins you retain, they shall be retained” (St. John xx. 23).

Some one may say to you: “God alone can forgive sins. Why do you go to a priest, or to any man, and not directly to God?” I answer: “True, God alone has the power to forgive sins; but it is by God’s power that the priest forgives sins, and not by any power of his own. Why do I not go to God directly for forgiveness rather than to the priest? Because He has committed His power to the priest, and told me to go to him.” For the same reason that I pay my fare to the conductor and not to the president of a railroad: he is the one delegated to receive it.

It is not for me to set up my own notion in place of God’s ordinance. When God said to the priest: “Whose sins ye forgive they are forgiven,” that is enough for me. When I know the road He has told me to travel, it is not for me to turn off from it, no matter how flattering or pleasant any other way may appear. It will be very bitter at the day of judgment, after having gone astray from following our own notions, to hear our Lord’s reproach: “Why were you not satisfied with My way — the way that in My infinite wisdom I saw best for you? and why did you, in your short-sighted wisdom, set up another in place of it?”

The priest is a man, it is true; but he is the agent of the Lord Jesus Christ. All his acts, within the limits of the commission or agency committed to him, will be held good by his Lord. If he steps out of that he is no longer an agent, and his Lord will not hold such acts good. It is like any other agency, and the same principles govern it.

Therefore, when the priest exercises his ministry of mercy and reconciliation, he applies the blood and merits of the Saviour to the penitent for the washing away of sins. When he absolves, it is the Holy Ghost that absolves through his means, washes us clean with Christ’s most precious blood, and confirms us in God’s holy love. Hence, after Confession, sin seems to have lost its hold on our affections, and the devil is afraid to bring forward his temptations for some time, lest he be driven back in disgrace.