THE SACRAMENT
OF
RECONCILIATION
RECONCILIATION AS PART OF HEALING
•We should all be aware of our failing short of
the perfection required of us as Christians.
•This was the original understanding of sin.
•Jesus’ whole ministry was directed towards
reconciling sinners with God.
•The authorized person (bishops or priests) can act on
behalf of Christ and of His Body the Church, to reinstate a
repentant sinner into a proper relationship with God.
•This is done through the Sacrament of Reconciliation or
Confession.
•The Church teaches that a Catholic in a serious state of sin,
should seek the Grace of God offered through the sacrament.
•If no serious sin has been committed, then private
confession is sufficient or in the Penitential Rite at
the beginning of Mass.
•However, the Church encourages us to celebrate
the Sacrament regularly in order to benefit from
the graces it bestows.
THE GRAVITY OF SIN: MORTAL AND VENIAL
•Sins are rightly evaluated according to their gravity. The distinction
between mortal and venial sin, already evident in Scripture, it
became part of the tradition of the Church. It is corroborated by
human experience.
•Venial sin weakens charity; it manifests a disordered affection for
created goods; it impedes the soul's progress in the exercise of the
virtues and the practice of the moral good; it merits temporal
punishment.
•Mortal sin destroys charity in the heart of man
by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man
away from God, who is his ultimate end and his
beatitude, by preferring an inferior good to him.
Venial sin allows charity to subsist, even though
it offends and wounds it.
3 CONDITIONS OF MORTAL SIN
•For a sin to be mortal, the three must met the conditions:
•Grave Matter - the act itself is intrinsically evil and immoral.
•Full Knowledge - one should know that the act is wrong in
the first place.
•Deliberate Consent - one must freely choose to commit
the act or plan to do it.
Before taking the sacrament of confession,
one must have a good examination of
conscience.
The essential elements are:
• repentant confession of sin.
• a penance determined by bishop or
priest.
• reconciliation effected by the or priest in
the name of Christ.
THE MEANING AND EFFECTS OF THE SACRAMENT
OF RECONCILIATION
Those who approach the Sacrament of Penance
obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense
committed against Him, and are, at the same time,
reconciled with the Church which they have
wounded by their sins and which by charity,
example, and prayer labours for their conversion.
MYSTERY OF RECONCILIATION
Jesus during His life and ministry
welcomed sinners and reconciled
them with the Father.
The Church continues to call
men from sin through Baptism
and the Eucharist and in the
Sacrament of Reconciliation.
RECONCILIATION AND THE COMMUNITY
The sin of one harms another –
hence it is fitting that they should
help each other in doing penance.
•True conversion demands contrition and
acts of penance, which is a remedy for sin.
•God pardons the sinner and renews the
broken covenant.
THE RITES OF THE SACRAMENT OF
RECONCILIATION
•Rite 1 Individual Confession
Can be celebrated behind a grill or face to face.
It should be a ‘serene and tranquil dialogue’ with
no pressure on time. It should be accompanied
by prayer and reading from Word of God.
•Rite 2 Communal Confession
This can powerfully improve the quality and
experience of Individual Confession through
readings and a homily, together with a shared
examination of conscience.
•Rite 3 General Absolution
This rite may not be used indiscriminately.
Individual Confession remains the norm.
TEXT
“God, the Father of mercies, through the death and
Resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself
and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins;
through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon
and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
MINISTRIES
•In order to celebrate the Sacrament lawfully the confessor
must have ‘faculties’ from the bishop – emphasizing the role
of the bishop at the center of unity in his diocese.
•The revised rites require the confessor to act as judge,
physician and spiritual counsellor but above all as a
welcoming Father and Good Shepherd.
