Grace and Reconciliation

CREATION, SIN, AND THE GIFT OF RECONCILIATION

INTRODUCTION

Before God created the world, there was nothing. The Trinitarian Godhead existed out of time and space and was perfect in Himself. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, the love between Father and Son, were perfect and needed nothing else. The act of creation was an act of God’s mercy, a free choice that did not need to happen. And this God that created us wants us to share in the love of the Trinity. [1]

In Genesis 1, the Bible teaches the beautiful story of creation, when God created the world ex nihilo, out of nothing, and when the “earth was a formless wasteland and darkness covered the abyss.” [2] As the reader progresses through the six days of creation, we learn about everything God created and which he called, good; light and darkness on day one; the sea and sky on day two; dry land and vegetation on day three; the sun, moon, and stars on day four; and water and sky creatures on day five. On the sixth day, God created all the animals that roamed the earth.[3]

As well, on the sixth day, “God created man in His image; in the divine image God created him; male and female He created them”. [4] Then “God looked at everything he had made, and he found it very good”.[5] Hence “God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work he had done in creation”.[6]  So we have a beautiful accounting of creation, in which everything God created was good.  How then, did things go awry?

Louis Bouyer refers to creation of the world as the first divine kenosis since God, in giving man an intellect and free will, placed limitations on himself by making man’s response to His love dependent on how man exercises his free will. [7] In other words, by virtue of his free will man was able to reject the love that God unconditionally offered him. And man did just that; he turned away from God and ushered sin into our world.

This essay will explore the origin and evolution of sin and how our merciful God is forever calling us back into relationship with Him. It will describe how the sacraments bind man to Christ who is our “guide rope of salvation that pulls us to the shore of God’s eternity.” [8] Importantly, this essay will focus on the Sacrament of Reconciliation, a grace-filled but underutilized gift from God. In our current age of relativism and secularism, and what Louis Bouyer referred to as a bourgeois culture that prioritizes wealth and comfort, along with the evolution and “success of civilization so marked and apparently so secure that the humanization of the universe acted as a screen against the radiance of the divine glory, so that God became as though absent if not inexistent.”[9]  If God has become deprioritized in today’s world, what does that mean for the salvation as well as the sacraments? Before answering this question, I will return to Genesis and the introduction of sin into the world.

SIN ENTERS THE WORLD

According to all Scripture and tradition, the physical world is more than a material universe. The primordial world was the angelic world, which the Bible assumes as the background of all visible reality. Angels were seen as thoughts or messengers of God, without physical bodies. Like man, angels possess an intellect and free will. And like man, angels can glorify or turn away from God.[10]

According to the Bible, the fall of angels, beginning with Lucifer, a fallen angel who became Satan, is closely connected to the Fall of man. Bouyer explains, “All the evil in the world derives from his [Lucifer’s] pernicious influence over a number of his followers in the celestial hierarchy.”[11] Bouyer continues, “Clearly evil may be equated principally with sin, with the creature’s rejection of the Creator’s call to reciprocate the love bestowed on him”.[12] Bouyer adds that “pride, both in the tempter himself [Satan] and in those who are led into temptation, turns into greed and unscrupulous ambition, which enslaves and debases whoever lusts for power and position”.[13]

After creating man, God charged him to, “Be fertile and multiply. Fill the earth and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and all the living things that move on the earth.”[14] Adam and Eve had full authority over the earth and all its inhabitants; however, they were instructed by God not to eat from the tree of life. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptation, as he promised our first parents God-like powers if they ate the forbidden fruit. And so, sin entered the world and Adam and Eve were banished from Eden. From that very moment, mankind has encountered the battle between good and evil, between glorifying God and wanting to be God, which still exists today. And while Baptism washes away original sin, the stain of concupiscence, or the tendency to sin and desire for worldly things remains. How can we overcome the evil forces that try to hijack our pilgrim journey to eternity with God?

Sacraments are linked to the totality of Christian life. In Summa Theological, Thomas Aquinas grounds his use of the exitus-reditus principle in the Christian doctrine of creation; God’s coming out to us and the return of man and women back to God.[15]  “For God so loved the world that He sent His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him might not perish but might have eternal life.”[16] And just as obedience to the will of His Father gained Christ’s admission to the heavenly sanctuary, so our entry is dependent on our obedience to God. And Christ, as the God-man is our guide into the heavenly sanctuary.[17]

Christ’s life is an efficacious sacrament, and efficacious sign, because it leads humans back into relationship with God. The Eucharist is the “source and summit” of Christian life. The other sacraments, including Reconciliation, are bound up with the Eucharist and are oriented towards it.[18]  During the consecration at Mass, the bread and wine offered up on the alter become the body and blood of Christ. “Lying on the altar is the body of Christ; in the chalice is the blood of Christ. One looks like bread, the other like wine.” [19] The unconsecrated bread and wine are the sacramentum tantum, or sign-only. The consecrated bread and wine are the res et sacramentum (reality and sign), the actual body and blood of Christ. And in receiving the Eucharist, we are united with Christ and all members of the Mystical Body of Christ (the Church), the res tantum.  Why is the Sacrament of Reconciliation especially important to Christians today?

RECONCILIATION WITH CHRIST

“Our Catholic faith responds to the deepest needs and aspirations of human beings in their search for meaning and hope,” and the desire for human beings to make up for failures and seek reconciliation is “deeply rooted” in human experience.[20] Prior to the fall, there was no need for either Baptism or the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  In speaking of fall, Vatican   Council II explains original sin as:

“Although he [man] was made by God in a state of holiness, from the very onset of his history man abused his liberty, at the urging of the Evil One. Man set himself against God and sought to attain his goal apart from God…Often refusing to acknowledge God as his beginning, man has disrupted also his proper relationship to his own ultimate goal as well as his whole relationship toward himself and others and all created things.”[21]

During the 2015-2016 extraordinary jubilee of mercy, Pope Francis said that the sacrament of Reconciliation (also known as Confession or Penance) “enables us to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy and experience true inner peace.”[22] To recognize failure and seek forgiveness is deeply rooted in human experience. [23]

Sin has existed ever since the original sin committed by Adam and Eve. In the Old Testament, we learn about the harmful effects of sin as well as God’s steadfast love and mercy. The Ten Commandments were the heart of the moral law and articulated the duties man had toward God and neighbor. Violations of any of the commandments was not only a violation against a law but was also a sin against the covenant and a sin against God[24].

Since sin leads to alienation from God, repentance and conversion are needed. This required turning away from sin and turning back to God.  For example, Old Testament readings From Johah (3:5-8) and Daniel (9:3) indicate that repentance involved exterior signs, such as the wearing of sackcloth and sitting in ashes as well as earnest prayer and fasting. Interior signs involved a conscious conversion of the heart. Importantly, the prophets of Israel reminded people that true repentance must go beyond fasting and include such social justice actions, such as feeding the poor, housing the homeless, and clothing the naked. Hosea 6:6 taught that repentance requires love not sacrifice.[25]

Repentance is a major theme in the New Testament too, and repentance is linked to faith in Jesus. The New Testament joins repentance, faith, healing, and forgiveness together, and illustrates how God welcomes repentant sinners.

“On the evening of that first day of the week, when the doors were locked, where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you’…As the Father has sent me, so I send you’….He breathed on them and said, ‘receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them and whose sins you retain are retained.”[26]

Tertullian recognized the link between Baptism and Penance. He said that if Baptism is the instrumental cause of justification, then the Sacrament of Penance is the “second plank [of salvation] after the shipwreck of lost grace.[27] After His Resurrection, Christ instituted the sacrament of Penance for those who fell into sin after Baptism. Importantly, “Christ breathed the Holy Spirit on the disciples so they could be ministers of his divine authority to forgive sins.”[28] Though apostolic succession, this power has been passed down to bishops and priest, who hear confessions today.[29]

“The power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God’s grace and joining us with Him in intimate friendship. Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, Reconciliation is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation. Indeed, the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true spiritual resurrection; restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.”[30]

Coleman O’Neill states, “to take part in the sacrament [of Reconciliation] with full awareness that the ceremony forms [is] one of the most typical and potentially one of the most fruitful activities of the Church”.[31] Most people will also acknowledge that its

 character makes it uncomfortable in that the penitent must “externalize” (sins) which are internalized.[32]

Scripture recognizes the reality of sin and teaches that certain sins can lead to spiritual death and the exclusion from God’s Kingdom.[33] Two anthropological foundations of the need for Reconciliation are that man is responsible to God, both spiritually and morally, and man’s fallen nature needs healing. [34] As noted earlier, in increasingly technocratic world, man has increasingly believed that he is the master of his destiny and God is often forgotten. Importantly, too, Henri De Lubac spoke of mans “allergy to sin”, which is essentially a denial if its existence or relevance to salvation.[35]

The Council of Trent (1545-1563) Affirmed that:

1.      The Sacrament of Penance (Reconciliation, Confession) was instituted by Christ.

2.      Baptism and Penance are really distinct.

3.      The Church received the power of forgiving and retaining sins from Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

4.      There are three acts required of the penitent: contrition, confession, and satisfaction.

5.      Contrition emerging from hatred of sin is something good.

6.      Sacramental confession was instituted by divine law and necessary for salvation.

7.      It is necessary to confess each and all mortal sins that are remembered.

8.      Confession of all sins is possible.

9.      The sacramental absolution by a priest is a true judicial act.

10. Priests in mortal sin can still absolve.

11. Bishops have the right to reserve certain cases to themselves.

12. Satisfaction to expiate the effect of sin is a good thing.

13. There is a need to make satisfaction for the temporal punishment due to sin.

14. Atoning for sin through Christ Jesus is from God and not from men.

15. Priests, through the power of the keys can impose penances.

The Council of Trent also maintains that imperfect contrition, known as attrition, is sufficient to dispose the sinner to receive grace from the sacrament[36].

“Pride goes before disaster, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”[37]

“When pride comes, disgrace comes; but with the humble is wisdom. The honesty of the upright guides them; the faithless are ruined by their duplicity. Wealth is useless on the day of wrath, but virtue saves from death.”[38]

As the God-man, Christ’s life was the perfect model of humility:

“Have among yourselves, the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found in human appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even on the cross.”[39]

In reflecting on man’s sinful nature, Gaudium et spec summarizes the internal battle faced by man:

“Therefore, man is split within himself. As a result, all of human life, whether individual or collective, shows itself to be a dramatic struggle between good and evil, between light and darkness. Indeed, man finds that by himself he is incapable of battling the assaults of evil successfully, so that everyone feels as though he is bound by chains. But the Lord himself came to free and strengthen man, renewing him inwardly and casting out that “prince of this world” (JN 12:31) who held him in the bondage of sin. For sin has diminished man, blocking his path to fulfillment.”[40]

THE NEED FOR GRACE

Like Thomas Aquinas’ account of the exitus-reditus principle, Henri De Lubac asserts that, “God, from the beginning made himself man’s end, by presenting himself to man as his salvation; and it is because He set man in motion towards that end that man’s essence and existence were given their determination.”[41]Due to man’s sinful nature,  De Lubac continues to explain that God is continuously calling us back in to relationship with him by offering us the gift of Grace.  Sanctifying grace is the gratuitous gift of his life that God makes to us; it is infused by the Holy Spirit into the soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it[42]

Grace is also mercy and forgiveness. St. Paul observed that the struggle between grace and sin is irreconcilable.  Importantly, the sin of pride or self-sufficiency is particularly damaging as it drives man further away from God.  The sacrament of Reconciliation is an opportunity to transform our sinful nature and turn it “inside out”.[43] And the gift of God’s grace helps to make this possible.

THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

The purpose of the Sacrament of Reconciliation is the willing return of the sinner to God. Accordingly, it consists of actions by the penitent and the minister, who is acting in personal Christi, in the person of Christ.  During the sacrament, the penitent must show signs of sorrow, confess his sins, and acknowledge his desire to sin no more. “The sacrament (sacramentum tantum), the words of absolution and the external acts of the penitent, are the cause of perfect contrition (res et sacramentum); and these two together are the cause of forgiveness of sin (res tantum).[44]

Importantly, the sacrament achieves justification by bringing the power of Christ to bear on the penitent’s capacity to make an act of contrition. When a penitent approaches the sacrament of confession worthily, he receives grace, and therefore contrition. Man needs God’s grace for the perfect contrition and resulting absolution.[45]

Besides the gift of absolution, reparation is required, which involves additional sorrow.  Reparation provides a new means of union with Christ, as the penitent can share in his supreme reparation, death on the Cross. Restoration to grace has been tied to the will of Christ and in conformity with the condition of fallen mankind, so that forgiveness is absolutely unobtainable without some desire, explicit or implicit, of the sacraments. [46]

Christ instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation because of his deep understanding of human nature. O’Neill beautifully states that, “The grace He gives in penance is a grace adapted specifically to the individual penitent who [humbly] presents himself to this sacrament precisely as burdened by his own particular temptations and weakness and by his own particular faults.” Importantly, more frequent confessions result in an increase of grace.[47]

WHY THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION IS IMPORTANT

“The sacraments are “efficacious signs of grace, instituted by Christ and entrusted to the Church by which divine life is dispensed to us. The visible rites by which the sacraments are celebrated signify and make present the graces proper to each sacrament. They bear fruit in those who receive them with the required dispositions.”[48]

According to a 2022 survey conducted by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA), the majority (58%) of “practicing Catholics” rarely or never receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation, 18% receive Confession less than once per year, another 10% receive once a year, and 11% receive “several” times a year. So only 21% receive the Sacrament once or more per year, abiding by the Church’s directive that, “after having attained the age of discretion each of the faithful is bound by an obligation faithfully to confess serious sins at least once per year.”[49]

This essay touched upon some of the reasons why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not a highly utilized sacrament, ranging from “allergies” to sin, the humiliation of confessing one’s shortcomings to another human being, albeit in persona Christi, and not appreciating the graces that flow from this awesome gift from God. However, since the fall of Adam and Eve, man has been battling the forces of good and evil in his life and will continue to do so until the Parousia, when Christ returns to earth.

Despite the increased reliance on science and technology in the world where man thinks he is God, a void still exists in his heart, a void that can only be filled by our loving God. Our country is in the midst of a National Eucharistic Revival, “a three-year initiative by the U.S. Bishops that inspires to educate and unite the faithful in a more intimate relationship with Jesus in the Eucharist.”[50] In answer to the question, “why now”, the Revival website states, “Because the Church needs healing. And the world needs Jesus”.[51]

The Eucharistic Revival season is also a good time to promote the graces offered by the Sacrament Penance, reconciliation with the Catholic community. In this way, the faithful can receive more abundant graces that come with communion with the body and blood of Christ and His Church, the Mystical Body of Christ.

Kate Jacullo

Catholic Sacraments

Spring 2024

[1] Father Michael Novajosky, “A Reflection on the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” Fairfield County Catholic, June 1, 2021

[2] The Catholic Study Bible, 2006, Gen 1:2

[3] Gen 1:3-26

[4] Gen 1:27

[5] Gen: 1: 31

[6] Gen: 2: 3

[7] Louis Bouyer, Cosmos: The World and Glory of God (Petersham, MA: St. Bede’s Publications 1988), p. 215.

[8] Joseph Ratzinger, Collected Works Volume II: Theology of the Eucharist (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 2014), p.164

[9] Louis Bouyer, Cosmos: The World and the Glory of God. p. 121

[10] Ibid, p.197-200

[11] Ibid, p. 211

[12] Ibid

[13] Ibid

[14] Gen 1:28

[15] Daria Spezzano, The Glory of God’s Grace: Deification According to St. Thomas Aquinas (Ave Maria, FL : Sapientia Press, 2015) p.20-21

[16] Jn: 3:16

[17] Coleman O’Neill, Meeting Christ in the Sacraments (Staten Island, NY: Society of St. Paul, 1991), p.7

[18] CCC 1324-1327.

[19] O’Neill, p. 161

[20] Robert L. Fasstiggi, The Sacrament of Reconciliation (Chicago, IL: Hellenbrand Books, 2017), p.10

[21] Ibid, p.12

[22] Ibid, p. v11

[23] Ibid, p. 11

[24] Ibid, p. 20-23

[25] Ibid, p. 26-27

[26] JN 20:19-23

[27] Fastiggi, p. 34

[28] Ibid, p. 27

[29] Ibid

[30] CCC 1468

[31] Coleman O’Neill, p. 253

[32] Ibid, p. 254

[33] Fastiggi, p. 4

[34] Ibid. p. 12

[35] De Lubac, p. 128

[36] Fastiggi, p.60

[37] Proverbs 16:18

[38] Proverbs 11:2-4

[39] Phil 2:5-8

[40] Guadium et Spec, 13

[41] Henri De Lubac, A Brief Catechesis on Nature & Grace (San Francisco, CA: Ignatius Press, 1984) p.25

[42] CCC 2023

[43] Henri De Lubac, p.119-121

[44] O’Neill, p. 259

[45] Ibid, p. 260-261

[46] Ibid, p. 265-266

[47] Ibid, p. 269

[48] CCC 1131

[49] Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 1457; Cf. CIC, can. 989

[50] Eucharisticrevival.org

[51] Ibid