Gospel e-Letter

The Lord Jesus Christ obtained forgiveness for sinners by his death on the cross. How would Jesus' sacrifice be of any benefit to us if the story of Calvary remains unknown? When the risen Saviour appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, he entrusted them with an important mission. He commissioned them to make known God’s mercy to the world, by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is what he told them: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld” (John 20:23). The Lord, who alone has the prerogative to forgive sins, gave to the disciples the responsibility to forgive! How was this to be done? What was the role of the apostles and disciples in this regard? The correct answer is not to be found in human opinion or church tradition, but in the very Word of God. The same Scripture which teaches that the disciples forgave sins also informs us how this was actually done. It leaves nothing open or to our imag...

I would like to make two observations about the penitential act at the beginning of the Mass when the priest leads the congregation to pray: “I confess to almighty God and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have greatly sinned, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done and in what I have failed to do, through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault; therefore I ask blessed Mary ever-Virgin, all the Angels and Saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.”

Confession to a priest is not a biblical practice; it is not even a custom of the early church. Our Lord taught us to confess our sins directly to God the Father. He told us to pray, "Our Father in heaven...forgive us our sins as we forgive those who trespass against us." Reading the New Testament we do not find a single instance of the apostles hearing private confession; nor do we find the disciples confessing to a priest. There was no auricular confession to a priest in the early church either. Augustine gives us a snapshot of the church in the 4th and 5th century. In his Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed, Augustine writes: