The Sacrament of Reconciliation (Penance)

Confession (also called the Sacrament of Reconciliation or the Sacrament of Penance) is an important weapon by which the Devil can be beaten.  For when we make a good Confession, we are brought back to God and are close to him again.  People who make their Confession to a priest are called penitents, just as those who make their Communion are called communicants.

We can see how important confession of sin and forgiveness are by the fact that the very first thing Jesus did, when he met his Apostles after his Resurrection, was to give them power to forgive sins, “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them…” (NRSV, John 20:23).

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation sins committed since one’s Baptism are forgiven.  Indeed, when you have made your Confession your soul is as spotless as it was on the day you were baptised at the font.  You have see how white the surplices of the choir are when they have just come back from the laundry.  Well, after a good Confession your soul is much whiter than that.  For then all your sins are completely washed away and there is nothing at all to come between your soul and God.

Of course, in order to receive God’s forgiveness in this Sacrament we have to confess all the sins that we can remember having committed since our last Confession, if it is a first Confession, since our Baptism.  As you know, priests never think any the worse of people who make their Confession, whatever sins they may have committed.  Priests just think how glad Jesus must be to see penitents kneeling there to receive the forgiveness which he died on the Cross to win for them.