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Question 59.
Dear Fr Christopher,
Greetings in Christ.
The absolution of our sins in mainly granted through the sacrament of
penance but other sacraments and sacramentals are also considered as
means of forgiveness and absolution since this request appears quite
often in their texts. What is the right approach towards the absolution
granted through the sacrament of penance compared to other sacraments or
services?
Thank you.
Constantine
Answer to Question 59.
Dear Constantine,
Everything we do in the Church is to help man achieve salvation which
should be his only goal in life. We begin with the Sacrament of Baptism
which is the Mystery through which man becomes a living member of the
Body of Christ. Man is transformed and divinized by the grace of the
Holy Trinity, which brings light into the darkness of his soul. Man’s
regeneration and rebirth lie within God’s plan for the salvation of
mankind. Though Baptism, Jesus Christ himself reshapes and makes man
partaker of divine nature. The baptized person is spiritually initiated
in the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, integrating
himself as a living member of the body of Christ – the Church. Baptism
is a procession towards eternity and a spiritual power towards
resurrection. It signifies the beginning of a potentially dynamic
process in one’s path towards the Kingdom of God. The Sacrament of
Baptism becomes the “vehicle to Heaven” and the baptized person regains
the “archetypal beauty” the original beauty that was lost with the fall.
This is the very essence of Baptism which is the regeneration of man,
through his initiation in death and resurrection, “so as to be able to
walk towards a liberated new life.” Baptism introduces people to the
place of their salvation – the Church – and grants them the right to
participate in the other Sacraments.
With the Sacrament of Baptism we are cleansed from all sins and are
spiritually reborn for righteous living. However, we still have the
predisposition towards sin, which is interwoven with our free will. As
time passes, we fall into sin due to careless ways of living,
inexperience, and different temptations. We become spiritually sick as
it were, but also our sins make a barrier between us and God, they
restrict us from progressing spiritually and to re-establish our
relationship with God and eternal life: we must cleanse ourselves of
these barriers.
To help us in the healing process, the Church has given us various other
Sacraments to help us like, Holy Unction, Holy Confession and Holy
Communion. All the Sacraments are for the forgiveness of sins and to
help strengthen man on his journey to heaven, but each work in a
different manner.
Holy Communion for example is the Sacrament of all Sacraments. The gifts
– the bread and wine offered for the Divine Liturgy are our offering of
thanksgiving to God for having saved us. They represent an offering of
our lives which God accepts upon his holy altar, sanctifies and
transmakes them into the Body and Blood of Christ which are then
returned to us as the divine Sacrament of salvation. They are for the
forgiveness of sins and the healing of both soul and body. We partake
and join ourselves to the very Body of our Lord and participate in the
resurrection and salvation, but not everyone is free to unreservedly
walk up to the chalice and partake.
Christ said to his disciples: “Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the
altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee;
Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be
reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift. (Matt.
5:23-24)
Also in the parable of the Marriage feast which symbolically represents
the Banquet of Love after the Second Coming of Christ, the king saw a
man without the proper wedding garment and he was bound hand and foot
and cast into outer darkness. (Matt. 22:1-14). The proper wedding
garment means the garment of the soul untainted by the stains of sin.
St. Paul also says: “Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink
this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood
of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that
bread, and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh
unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the
Lord's body. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many
sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But
when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be
condemned with the world. (1 Cor 11:27-32)
The Sacrament may be for the forgiveness of sins but we are not at
liberty to take this for granted and partake in an unworthy state lest,
instead of being for our salvation, it becomes our judgment and
damnation. Accordingly we should each examine ourselves before
contemplating to partake and if we discern in ourselves that we do not
fulfil the requirements specified by Christ and St. Paul then we need
another Sacrament to help us prepare ourselves.
This is where the Sacrament of Confession comes in. It prepares us so
that we do not partake of the Holy Mysteries unworthily. It works like a
second baptism helping us to cleanse ourselves from the sins that have
accumulated since our baptism and it allows the healing power of God to
restore the broken relationship between us and Him caused by our sin. In
Confession, as in Baptism, a rebirth takes place and this is why after
Confession we feel cleansed and renewed, as a newly baptized infant. We
obtain new strength to battle the evil within us and to restart a
righteous life. On our part, it involves an act of humility which shows
that we do not consider ourselves righteous and worthy to approach the
Mysteries without the fear of condemnation. We confess our most inner
sins, thus doing everything we can humanly possibly do to make sure we
do not approach the Holy Mysteries negligibly and trivially as just
something that Christians do.
Holy Unction (Anointing of the sick) again is another Sacrament that
helps us prepare for Holy Communion. Although the Sacrament is for the
healing of body and soul, spiritual healing involves, first of all, the
forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins is so central to the rite that,
since approximately the 13th century, a prayer of absolution, adapted
from the rite of Confession, was added to the rite of Anointing just
before the dismissal. The rites of both Confession and Anointing of the
sick are closely related. Both address our fallen condition and provide
a remedy. But they are not the same, and to use one as a substitute for
the other is to misunderstand them both. The Sacrament of Confession
addresses the reality that we all sin after baptism and provides a means
for reconciliation. The Anointing of the sick, while it does address the
forgiveness of sins, focuses also on the reality of physical and mental
suffering, and it should not be used as a substitute for sacramental
confession.
All the Sacraments lead to the reception of the Eucharist which is the
deepest and fullest expression of our membership in the Church. The
Eucharist is also the greatest sign of reconciliation with God and with
each other. It is the ultimate goal of the Sacraments of Baptism and
Chrismation, in which the newly baptised are grafted into Christ’s body,
the Church. It is the goal of the Sacrament of Confession, which
reconciles us when we fall into sin and restores us into the communion
of the Church. It only stands to reason therefore that the Sacrament of
the Anointing of the sick which also grants healing, forgiveness, and
restoration, should also culminate in the reception of the Eucharist.
(Paul Meyendorff – The Anointing of the Sick)
As mentioned in the beginning, our main goal in life is to find
salvation. The Sacraments are the tools which help us achieve this goal.
Each offers the forgiveness of sins because sin is the only thing that
keeps us from union with God, but each works slightly differently from
the other and one Sacrament should not be substituted for another. We
should therefore take advantage of what each offers, keeping in mind
that even though they are separate Sacraments, they are all interwoven
with the Sacrament of the Eucharist.
With love in Christ
Fr. Christopher
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