Penance

I recently had a discussion with someone regarding the Sacrament of Penance within the Church.  After a while, we came around to the topic of the merits of auricular confession versus general confession as we celebrate it within the Polish National Catholic Church.  Ultimately the person I was discussing this with said that he did not like the practice of general confession because it made things too easy for the penitent, he said that having to confess to a priest made him confront the issue of sin and then deal with it.

This is certainly something that I do not believe,
because if there is any sort of compulsion involved within any Sacrament, then it is not somehow in its perfect state.  We know from our catechism that “To receive the Sacrament of Penance worthily I must: 1) Examine my conscience, 2) Be sorry for my sins, 3) Make a firm resolution to sin no more, 4) Confess my sins before a priest, and 5) Perform the penance which the priest gives me.”  While the idea that
auricular confession may have a stronger connection to the concept of confessing our sins before a priest, I have often felt and even noticed from the people I hear who go to auricular confession in other
Churches that the other important aspects of
confession are left out.  Most look upon “going to confession” as some sort of unpleasant duty that must be endured so that they can go to communion.  And remember, this is from the people who actually go to confession.  Unfortunately many people in churches that only have auricular confession, simply no longer go; they just abrogate this important part of their own spiritual life.  This becomes especially easy as confession is separate from the most important act of public worship.

This is what may be the most important part of
general confession as we celebrate it within the Polish National Catholic Church.  It is something that is open to us each and every time we gather for Holy Mass.  In having confession as a part of our Sunday worship, it encourages us to make it a regular part of our spiritual life.  It also comes right at the beginning of the celebration, reminding us that confession is not only so that we can receive communion, but also so that we can truly worship God as the One Who comes to us to forgive and strengthen.

But in this we must also be reminded that Confession is more than just a few moments of looking over our lives of the past week and trying to remember the things we did wrong, so we can quickly take the time to bring these things to mind during that moment of silence before the absolution is pronounced.  If this is all that we are doing, we too are missing out on the full effect of the Sacrament of Penance.  During the Fourth General Synod, held in Scranton, PA in June of 1921, Bishop Francis Hodur put forward the

following ruling concerning general confession which was unanimously accepted, “Public
confession, general or particular, has in the Polish National Catholic Church the same significance as private or auricular confession.  It is one of the
necessary conditions of penance, that holy act
ordained by Jesus Christ for the rebirth of a person and the uniting of him with God.”  After the Synodal meeting, all the delegates went to St. Stanislaus
Cathedral to hear Bishop Hodur speak about Penance and to receive the Sacrament.  In that discussion
concerning the sacramental rites he said, “At the
bottom of all these rites and penitential functions
always inhered and inheres Christ’s principle that without contrition, confession of errors and the desire for a change in life, there is no forgiveness,
absolution and spiritual regeneration.  Without these three acts, external penance is meaningless.”

In a very special way general confession allows us to spend some time to bring about the required
contrition and a desire for change.  Each of us is
encouraged to come to Mass a bit early in order to spend some time in prayer and preparation for the Holy Sacrifice of Mass.  It is during this time that we can turn our attention to our lives in preparation for the Sacrament of Penance.  In the Mass Books found within our pews there are some excellent prayers and a very thorough examination of conscience.  This examination is broken into four sections with 155 questions concerning our thoughts, words and deeds as well as the omission of good.  This is not
something that can be gone through in a minute or two.  Being a mathematician, if we give just 10
seconds to each question, this examination of
conscience should take us over 25 minutes.  And of course we also know that many times these 155
questions break off into 100 more questions and concerns about our thoughts, words and deeds.

Getting back to the discussion that I mentioned at the beginning of this article, the real problem is that if someone is looking for a way to get out of the
stringent requirements of our spiritual life, then they certainly will find it and no rule or process will be able to stop them.  But who are we really cheating?  We are only cheating ourselves.  Our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ, has given us the Sacraments so that we can encounter Him in our daily lives and grow closer to Him day by day.  And in particular He has given us the Sacrament of Penance so that we can accept the salvation that He won for us upon the cross and then approach Him in the Eucharist.  This will lead to the beginning of a new and regenerated spiritual life.  Likewise the Church provides for us opportunities to participate in these rites and
sacraments, but ultimately it is up to each and every one of us.  This is especially true for something like the Sacrament of Penance.  While it may be
challenging to face our own sinfulness, it is certainly worth the effort in seeking forgiveness and growing closer to God.

So I encourage each of you to take the time to
worthily participate not only in the Sacrament of Penance and Eucharist but in all of the worship of the Church.  The time that we use in preparation to
encounter Jesus Christ will certainly reap benefits in the regenerated life and in our growth as Catholic Christians.