In the sacrament, we truly meet our heavenly Father in His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit
By Father Randy Stice
Every celebration of a sacrament, says the Church, “is a meeting of God’s children with their Father, in Christ and the Holy Spirit,” a dialogue in liturgical signs, actions, and words.1 In previous columns, I have explored in detail how we encounter the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit in the Mass. In this column, I want to discuss the sacrament of penance—confession—as an encounter with the Trinity.
The priest, by virtue of his ordination, signifies and acts in the person of Christ the Head. In the celebration of confession, “the Christ whom he makes present and who accomplishes the mystery of the forgiveness of sins is the Christ who appears as the brother of man, the merciful high priest, faithful and compassionate, the shepherd intent on finding the lost sheep, the physician who heals and comforts, the one master who teaches the truth and reveals the ways of God, the judge of the living and the dead, who judges according to the truth and not according to appearances.”2
The sacrament of penance, like the other sacraments, is a dialogue. The priest begins the celebration with the sign of the cross and welcomes the penitent. The words of welcome suggested in The Order of Penance emphasize the sacrament as a personal encounter. “Come with trust to the Lord, who does not wish the sinner to die but to turn back to him and live” (Ezekiel 33:11); “May the Lord Jesus welcome you. He came to call sinners, not the just. Have confidence in him” (Luke 5:32); “May the grace of the Holy Spirit illumine your heart, so that with confidence you may confess your sins and come to know the mercy of God.”3
The penitent then confesses his sins to the priest. This, too, is an interaction between the penitent and God, as St. Augustine explained: “Whoever confesses his sins…is already working with God. God indicts your sins; if you also indict them, you are joined with God.”4 The priest then proposes and the penitent accepts a work of penance, also known as satisfaction. This is an interaction between the penitent and God, for it is “the sign of the personal commitment that the Christian has made to God in the sacrament to begin a new life.”5 The penitent then makes an act of contrition, expressing to God his sorrow for his sin. In doing so, the penitent is guided by his conscience, which is “the place, the sacred place where God speaks to man.”6
The priest then imposes his hand over the penitent—the sign of the invocation of the Holy Spirit—and says the formula of absolution that concludes with the sign of the cross. “At this moment the contrite and converted sinner comes into contact with the power and mercy of God. It is the moment at which, in response to the penitent, the Trinity becomes present in order to blot out sin and restore innocence. And the saving power of the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus is also imparted to the penitent as the ‘mercy stronger than sin and offense.’”7 This is in a way the work of the Holy Spirit, who “is in His person ‘the forgiveness of our sins’: where the relationship with the Father has been lacking or has even been broken, the Spirit, who is ‘the Father’s tender love,’ pours Himself out and becomes the living bond of love that unites persons.”8
The sacrament of penance is vital not only for each of us but also for the life of the Church. “We shall, through the healing of our sin, recapture the freshness proper to the Church; we shall rediscover the true face of the Lord, no longer obscured by the idols that our moral conscience and frustrated superego erect; above all, we shall enter into the joy of the Father, as our return gladdens His angels and the communion of saints.”9
When we go to confession, we encounter the Trinity in signs, words, and actions. The liturgical language includes the priest, the sign of the cross, the imposition of hands over the penitent at the invocation of the Trinity, and words of welcome, comfort, sorrow, forgiveness, and peace. Here we truly meet our heavenly Father in His beloved Son and the Holy Spirit.
1 Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), 1153
2 St. John Paul II, Reconciliation and Penance (RaP), 29
3 The Order of Penance, 67, 68, 69
4 CCC, 1458
5 RaP 31.III
6 St. John Paul II, The Splendor of Truth, 58
7 RaP 31.III
8 Jean Corbon, The Wellspring of Worship, p. 169
9 Corbon, p. 170
Father Randy Stice is director of the diocesan Office of Worship and Liturgy. He can be reached at frrandy@dioknox.org.