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April 16, 2005
Homily 3 April 2005
By Fr. Hathaway FSSP
Mater Dei Latin Mass Community

Low Sunday
On Confession of Sins

“Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

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The Sunday of His resurrection, the Risen Christ made his sixth recorded appearance in the Upper Room where His disciples were hiding "for fear of the Jews."  “Peace be to you!  As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you.”  Saying this, He breathed on them and continued, “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

With these few words the divine Savior empowered His first priests to forgive sins.

This is our topic today.

We know very well that many Christians, even some who claim to be Catholics, reject the idea that sins are forgiven through a line of chosen men.  Once a woman in a nursing home, who was in dire need of Confession, told the visiting priest, “I don’t need Confession, I confess directly to God… just give me Communion.”  He patiently explained the Catholic position but she would have none of it, “I confess directly to God, now give me Communion!”  With no choice, the priest gently replied before he took his leave, “Ma’am, because you reject Catholic teaching, I cannot give you Communion; but perhaps you can ask for and receive it directly from God.”

In truth, those Christians who say, “I confess directly to God and that is how my sins are forgiven” make void the will of God and deny the scriptures; for nowhere does the bible read, “Do not confess your sins to a man of apostolic lineage, but directly to God alone.”  On the contrary, however, we have the example of the Divine Savior.  The Risen Christ said to His first apostles, “As the Father sent me, so I send you,” He then breathed on these first priests and bishops of the New and Eternal Covenant, saying, “Receive the Holy Spirit; whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”

Now this brief passage implies two things: first, sins will be audibly confessed to apostolic men; and second, that these same confessed sins will be judged as worthy or unworthy of absolution.

Again, “Whose sins you shall forgive…” implies sins are heard by a human ear; and second, that the power to forgive or not to forgive sin resides in a person so delegated by God.

Those who say, “I confess directly to God…” make void the scriptures to do their own will.

These are unwilling to concede to God His prerogative to do as he chooses; these are so many modern day Naaman’s.  Recall that Namaan was the valiant and wealthy general of the Syrian army in the time of the Prophet Eliseus; he was also a leper.  A captive Hebrew maid of his spoke of the great prophet Eliseus who had power to cure him.  Naaman therefore went to see Eliseus who sent him the message, “Go, wash in the Jordan seven times and you will be clean.”  Naaman became angry, “Are not the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the rivers of Israel that I may wash in them and be cleansed?”  As he stomped away his servants reasoned with him, “Surely, if the prophet had told thee to do some great thing, thou would have done it.  Why not wash in the Jordan seven times and see what comes of it.”  So Naaman relented; washed himself in the Jordan; and became clean.   “Now I now in truth,” he exclaimed, that there is no other God in all the earth but only in Israel.”

At first, Naaman had his own idea about how he thought he should be cleansed of his leprosy.  But it was by submitting to the words of Eliseus that in fact he was cleansed.   There are many modern day Naaman’s who have yet to submit to God’s way concerning the forgiveness of sins.  They want water of their own choosing; the Savior would have them go to His priests.

Take another example.  When the Savior walked this earth two thousand years ago did He not forgive sins?  He did indeed forgive sins and that, in part, is why the Jewish rulers accused Him of blasphemy, “Who can forgive sins but God alone.”  But if God meant for sins to be forgiven directly – without any intermediary – then it would never have been necessary to hear those words of Christ on earth, “Go, thy sins are forgiven.”

But our Savior said those words nor was His speech without necessity.  So that even now these words are repeated by Him through the ministry of His priests.

“Ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis, in Nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti.”

Truly, our Lord now forgives sins through His priesthood.

Why then is it so difficult for Protestants (and some Catholics) to accept this doctrine of Christ?

There are two reasons: lack of faith and the presence of pride.  This will not surprise us too much if we consider how difficult it was for even those first apostles to believe.  Consider the Risen Christ.  Was it not difficult for even the apostles to embrace, at once, the reality that our Lord truly rose from the dead!  Thomas is a special witness of how lack of faith and pride go together.

“I will not believe,” he said, “until I put my hand in His side.”  True, Thomas believed in the end, but the event shows the human difficulty to embrace spiritual realities and that is why the Savior praises those of a pure faith, “Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed.”<>

The Protestant mind (and some Catholic) suffers from that debilitating ailment of a lack of the true faith… and the presence of a slimy pride which vows assent but only on its own terms.

Finally, let us suppose that sins were meant to be forgiven directly by God… what then becomes of scripture?  What then does this mean: “Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”  If our Lord did NOT mean to establish a priesthood which would be the normal way to forgive sins then these words become neither useful nor meaningful.

But the Risen Christ has spoken, “Peace be to you!  As the Father has sent Me, so I also send you… Receive the Holy Spirit; who sins you shall forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you do not forgive, they are not forgiven.”

In the end, we either believe what our Lord said or, by our lack of faith and pride, we make Him a liar, prankster, or fool.

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