Explaining the Faith - Confession: What You Don't Know (Part 1)

hi I'm father Chris LR of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception coming to you live today at 11 o'clock here on Saturday from the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy and it's awesome that you are with us and we're going to be continuing every Saturday at 11:00 a.m. to giving you talks about the faith about Divine Mercy now I can promise you for those of you who tuned in last week this talk is going to be a lot shorter last week I did a walkthrough of the mass and it was a mass talk that covered quite a bit so it did go longer today not as long so we're gonna talk about the need and God's mercy in confession and I promise you there will be some things that you've never heard that maybe you've never understood and we're gonna answer all those questions for you and to be able to tell you how to answer those other non Catholics who say you're nuts you just go right to God when you want to confess your sins in some sense that's true but it's only part of the story so let us begin in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit's amen our Lord we ask you to bring the Holy Spirit down upon us to open our minds and our hearts to be able to receive the grace you wish to bestow we ask that you give us the guidance through the hands of our Blessed Mother Mary Our Lady of fátima Our Lady of Perpetual Help Our Lady on dewer of knots Our Lady of Good success to be able to open this mind of ours to understand you and to therefore love you even more and we ask this through Christ our Lord amen in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen okay so stay with us today I think you're going to enjoy this talk this is a talk that brother Mark will show the slide at the end but it's a based on my DVD series called explaining the faith and brother mark at the end of my talk will show a slide if you can't right now you'll see the address of shop mercy dot org and these live Street excuse me the video on-demand stream website as well okay that's where these talks are going to be based on in the next series of Saturdays I'm not doing the full talks I'm giving you just a real abbreviated version here but I think you're gonna enjoy it so as I said stay with us all right what we have to understand is let's go we as being Marian fathers of the Immaculate Conception st. Faustina is a key for us and she should be for you as well and let's look at what she said Jesus she said that Jesus told her that God's mercy primarily flows to us in three ways now you think about this how much you hear all the time about the need of God's mercy the importance of God's mercy you needing God's mercy to get to heaven all this talk about divine mercy Divine Mercy Sunday the year of mercy but his mercy only comes to us in three ways it's important that we know what those three ways are first she said is Scripture and so if you were with us for the mass we read for Scripture if you have your Bibles at home this is the first way God's mercy flows to us the second way is reconciliation the sacrament of forgiveness and mercy which jesus said is love greater than sin all right now the third way we just celebrated it the mass from the Eucharist which Jesus says is love greater than death now notice the words love greater than sin and love greater than death so let's look at the image of divine mercy look at those rays coming from our Lord's heart the red the pale rays emanating from our Lord's heart this is key here because what the two ways of Mercy Communion and confession what they do and those rays are what we see the red ray is the Precious Blood the blood and precious blood of our lord body blood soul and divinity communion and in the pale ray we have the cleansing waters of confession now why does Jesus pick those two rays because Satan's only two tools are sin and what's the result of sin why did Jesus die on the cross Jesus died on the cross yes because He loves us yes to open the doors to heaven but people forget the main reason is the penalty for sin is death so Satan only has two tools sin and death and Jesus conquered them both he conquered death by dying and then rising so he defeated death and he conquered sin through confession delegating that to the priests and we're gonna talk about this so so Satan's only two tools are wiped out wiped away his tool is sin it's wiped out by the cleansing waters of Baptism and confession as you see on the first ray of divine mercy and Satan's other tool of death is wiped out because what is defeats death life and what is life to the Jews blood so blood wipes out because it represents life it wipes out death this is very important all right so confession is not a human invention people say it is it is not confession is not a human invention what it is is basically understanding that once we sin all right we must not seek pardon on our own terms but on God's terms and this is why he gave us confession now these are his terms all right now on the next slide what do we see there we see a priest hearing a confession now that might just looked at you it like nothing special at first as we see this priest sitting in confession but why why do we do this all right we take our bodily ailments to the doctor of the body we're doing it right now in this time of virus the corona virus is spreading around the world and we go to the doctor of the body nobody disputes that nobody questions that nobody argues against that why then if we go to the doctor of the body for our bodily ailments not why would we not take our ailing spirit to the doctor of the soul that's the priest the doctor of the soul you know my mom I want to use a quick example my mom when we were growing up in Michigan we had a young priest at our parish and I remember my mom and some of the neighbor ladies would talk about this priest and I remember one of the ladies in the neighborhoods like I'm not going to that priest and my mom was there and I think kind of they all agreed to it and and they said you know I'm not going to that priest that priest isn't holy and so therefore I'm not going to that priest I'm not going to him he's not holy enough and the thing was though that seemed those same ladies and my mom included would all go to the town doctor there was only one doctor in town and I remember as a little kid going to this doctor God rest his soul and I remember as a little kid in the 1970 sitting in the doctor's office and then they would put us into the room and I remember this doctor walking in every time reeking of alcohol 300 pounds overweight and dragging a cigarette my how times have changed huh and I remember this doctor was anything but healthy he was overweight he drank he smoked but yet my mom took him excuse me took me to him to get healthy oh wait a minute you're taking me to this guy to get healthy he's anything but healthy and I remember the ladies my mom included is just to say it's not about what the doctor how he is but what he can do for you he knows how to heal you even if yeah he's overweight or he drinks or he smokes he knows how to heal you oh okay mom well then the same could be said for the priest no matter how broken the priest is or no matter how much of a you know a unappealing guy you think he might be he can help you in that confessional because he was given that power of the priesthood and we're gonna talk about that in a minute it's the same with the priest now I remember my mom saying oh well that priest can't counsel me priests have never been married they've never had a family well okay hold on priest come from families all right I have a good friend who used to say about her family we put the fun in dysfunctional and we're all broken right and so we come from families we know about family life okay but but the priest never been married how is he gonna help me with marriage problems okay let's go back to the doctor you know I was just bringing up the doctor all right how many have you been cured by a doctor I bet there are some of you out there that have been cured of cancer by a doctor now I ask you this question did you ask that doctor you know doctor before I go to you I want to know if you have ever had cancer because if you haven't had cancer then I don't think you're gonna know how to treat me has anybody ever said that have you went to a doctor at the Mayo Clinic or the Cleveland Clinic and say you know what I only want the doctor to treat me for cancer that is actually had cancer they would look at you like you're crazy they would say sir or ma'am we have the best doctors in the world that have been trained and understand how to treat you for cancer this is the same with the priest regardless if he's been married or not and some priests have and prior lies maybe they've been an older widowed and they become priests but most priests obviously are not married but it doesn't mean they can't help you yes they can this is an understanding that the priest has about how to live your marriage within the beautiful guidelines of the church not rules but roadmaps to get you in your spouse to heaven you all remember the three objectives of marriage right yeah three okay I'm not married but I can tell you the three objectives of marriage the three objectives of marriage are to be open to life procreative unitive that you join with your spouse and the renewal of the Covenant covenant in the marital Act and to get your spouse to heaven and that's what a priest can help you do I don't have to have been married to be able to explain to you the three objectives of marriage under our Catholic faith so go to the Confessor well father the Confessor doesn't know me he doesn't understand me okay did you do what st. Faustina did st. Faustina in paragraph 647 of the diary of st. Faustina says you should pray that your confessor understand you now how many of you in line when I looked out when I'm hearing confessions and I see 4050 people in line sometimes at my parish missions I'm looking at the people now god bless of their there that's important but they're talking they're laughing they're joking sometimes they're quiet but how many are actually praying for their confessor Howard how are you in the confessional line are you actually praying that your confessor will better understand you are you gonna pray that God give him the Grace and wisdom to know how to guide you think about that that's important all right now many people don't go to confession because they think this oh he could never understand me or he's not holy enough or worse I don't need confession I don't have any sins you know I went to bless the house and God bless a lady and her 24 year old was there I guess I'm just guessing at the age he was in his 20s and he comes home and I'm there bussing the house and she says Oh welcome home I'll change his name here Johnny welcome home father Chris is here and you can you could go to confession I was kind of like well you know but hey great and she says you can go to confession and he had to be like I said in his mid to late 20s and she says yeah father creases here he can hear your confession he goes why would I go to confession and she said well because you haven't been since you were 9 and that was like almost 15 years ago or 20 years ago and he said I don't have any sins okay now I don't know but if I was a bettin man I would say that we could find some sins in anybody that hasn't been a confession in 20 years I'm sure we could find some so it is important that we go back to confession right now this is what a lot of people think I've had people come into the confession and they said father I've been I haven't been to confession in 25 years but I really don't have any sins well okay the first sin might be pride right because we are all sinners the Bible tells us if we say we are we have no sin we are liars we all have sin and so we need to go back but remember Pius the 12th in the 1950s said the greatest sin of the 20th century is the loss of the sense of sin this is very important all right we seem to have lost humility I'm not a sinner I'm fine God would never ever ever let me be lost we can't be presumptuous all right now why why do we think this we think that you know sin has just disappeared in our world today sin has lost all that seriousness politicians newspaper articles you know I read online articles now they have the most vulgar language they use the Ling you would never even dream of reading in a newspaper article years ago horrible horrible situations and nobody seems to think there's anything wrong with it anymore we've become desensitized we've become completely oblivious to the fact that sin exists why am I talking about confession because sin exists now what is sin let's go through this for a man sin is a disharmony to God's universe when we sin which is turning away from God and or turning to a creature instead when we take our focus off of God that's the first sin and then when we put it on to a creature that makes the sin worse because we're replacing God with a creature maybe it's somebody we idolize or somebody that we lost after whatever it might be now here's the thing when we go into this culture we seem to think there's nothing wrong as long as I'm not killing anybody you know one guy once called Mitch Pacwa on EWTN he says I don't have to worry I'm going to heaven I'm a good person I've never killed anybody and Mitch Pacwa said yeah you're a really good person if the only person you're comparing yourself to is Hitler you don't have to just not kill somebody to be able to realize we're in need of God's mercy we are really in need of God's mercy sin is a disharmony to God's universe and when we do that sin we put a poison into it it messes everything up people think all these earthquakes and hurricanes and and and even the virus are no no consequence that all of sin yes it is now I'm not saying God wants to punish you with the virus no and God's ordained will he doesn't want the virus or the death that comes from it but in his permissive will he allows it and he allows it that we see there's consequence to sin and when we sin it has consequences now let's look at this people don't even understand when I could do a confession and stay with me because at the end of my talk I'm gonna walk you through a confession and I'm gonna walk you through what you should do in a confession and I'm gonna give you how I spark in people their memories to come forward with some of the sins that may be hidden and eating you alive that you don't even know about you're carrying the burden on your shoulders and I'm gonna walk you through a confession of how you can remember those things recognize them and to get them out give them confessed and then they're wiped clean they don't weigh you down anymore once you're forgiven they are forgiven alright so let's talk about this what are some of the sins well people come to the confessional I very rarely hear some of the sins that are actually grave okay there are some sins that are grave and there are some that of venial in other words mortal sins and venial sins now let's talk about this some of the sins that people never even think of to confess but should be on a regular basis is missing mass without being sick or whatnot well father either the churches are closed of course if the church is not available or Mass is not offered and you're not having access to it and of course you're not under sin but when the church is open back up you got to come back to the sacraments okay all right now what about other sins people don't think of do you know masturbation is a sin people don't think that it's a grave sin what about gossip people don't realize that gossip just simply a laugh at the watercooler but gossip can be a very grave sin depending upon if we mean to hurt the person or not and so we have to recognize there's many types of sins and the biggest one the king sin is pride and so when we don't have humility we absolutely are in in in need of confession alright why is that because confession teaches humility we don't want to go who wants to spill their dirty laundry to a stranger or worse yet a priest you know first of all don't worry don't think about what the priest is thinking of you trust me I've only been a priest for six years but there's no sin I haven't heard or it's been confessed and trust me we priests forget confessions at my ordination I asked for the grace to completely forget confessions that I hear and let it go this is important all right all right but many times we don't have that humility so we don't go to the confessional now if you do go have humility don't go around you don't have to go to every different priest in the whole county just because you're wondering what they'll think of you so you you drive 30 miles one week and the 30 miles the next week just don't worry about that you don't have to go around as I said on my video changing your voice inside the confessional God knows who you are and so that's all that matters right and he's glad that you're there all right now I love this expression I think it came from st. Francis DeSales I can't remember but anyway he said there are many many people in hell with many many virtues he said there are people in hell who worked at the soup kitchen there are people in hell who donated to their church there are even people in hell who sat in that first pew but he said there's not one soul in hell with the virtue of humility likewise he said there are many souls in heaven with many many vices he said there of course they've been purified of them but there are souls in heaven who have looked at pornography there are souls in heaven that were hooked on alcohol there are souls in heaven that maybe didn't get a chance to be fully who or they were and then of course they've been purified but there's not one soul in heaven with the vice of pride so why do we need confession because it's shame or salvation take your pick I'll take salvation and so this is what I have Oh to avoid shame or take salvation take salvation you know Origen sorry to be graphic but one of the first few centuries of the church he said you know don't you feel much better after you vomit after you get all that junk out he says you feel better you get much better when you get this junk out of you and this is what confession does alright I want to tell a quick story there's a slide up there this is one of my favorite actors his name is Kevin James and Kevin James if you don't know as a good Catholic and he's an excellent actor used to play in King of Queens like one of the last shows I ever watched on television mall cop and others but anyway he's come back really strong to his Catholic faith and I want to tell you an example of a story he was actually driving to a I don't know some event like the Golden Globes or something with - I don't want to mention their names but world-famous comedians you would know exactly who they are when you know we're talking Saturday Night Live caliber type of comedians and he was in the car the limo with them and they were driving literally to this event on the Sunset Boulevard there in LA is the Sunset Strip and they're laughing and they're joking of the back of the confessional and all of a sudden Kevin James yells to the limo driver pull the car over pull the car over and the other two well-known worldwide known comedians that come there what are you talking about and he says pull the car over and they said why he does this let me let me let me explain so he they pulled over in front of a church Kevin James goes running into the church just blindly and comes out about ten minutes later and he was a little bit down I was told by a good friend who told me the story that knows Kevin James real well and said that he came back into the limousine and the two famous actors looked at him and said what the heck just happened to you they said you're glowing you're absolutely glowing before you were down and you were out and now you're all on a light and Kevin James looked at him and he says you would be too if Jesus just forgave all your sins and these two actors were enthralled they were absolutely mesmerized about what did you just do that made you be transformed confession transforms you it takes you from outside a state of grace where God can no longer dwell in your soul as he says to st. Faustina - now being in your soul again you don't think that's transformative that's why Kevin James came back to the limo agloe because now he's found Christ back in his so how beautiful is this this is a gorgeous story so you know when you go he wasn't in there that long now that brings up another point when you go to confession do you have to confess all the sins that you can remember in other words do you have to confess that you're sitting here on the livestream with me right now and groaning father Chris you're going too long I was gonna watch this show and I wanted to clean my house and I figured I'd give you a shot but you're really taking too long here do you got to confess that complaint yes no just kidding just kidding as I always say no we do not have to confess every venial sin is it a good idea or is it acceptable absolutely yes is it a good habit yes it is but is it required no because we're our venial sins forgiven they're forgiven in the mass in the penitential Rite of the mass when you come to Mass and you come and you say I confess to Almighty God and to you my brothers and sisters that I have greatly sinned in my thoughts and in my words and what I have done and what I have failed to do through my fault through my fault through my most grievous fault therefore I asked mustard Mary ever-virgin all the angels and saints and you my brothers and sisters to pray for me to the Lord our God what are you basically doing as you are asking for forgiveness and where's the price priests a male Muddy God have mercy on us forgive us our sins and bring us to everlasting life do you realize that you have just been forgiven of your venial sins so now if you've been to confession for your mortal sins you are spotless absolutely spotless when you come up this aisle to receive Christ in the Eucharist your bridegroom and you are the bride who comes up this aisle you are ready to receive him spotless now that's assuming that you don't sin in between the penitential Rite and Holy Communion now somebody might but just as God for that forgiveness right now if it's something serious you go back to confession now big grave sins must be confessed in the confessional all right this is important you cannot not go for to confession when you have large sins grave sins now those do have to go to the sacrament okay now let's let's let me give you a story here I just I've told the story before at my missions and and on my DVD but I'd like to repeat it here because I think it's important a while back I had a woman come to me for confession and she confessed sin that she committed 24 years ago and I was like beautiful thank you for coming to confession the Lord is so happy heaven is rejoicing that you are here God has given you very much a grace to be able to receive this holy communion excuse me this confession and and receive forgiveness and I said welcome back to confession after 24 years and she says no I come every every month father and I said oh ok well you do realize that you don't have to necessarily confess those same sins once you have committed it if you haven't committed again you don't have to Rican festival as long as you haven't committed she says no I haven't committed it again I said well god bless you ma'am you must have just remembered this in is that a good idea yes it is if you just remembered your sins it's a good idea to come back and confess them if it's a grave sin in confession she says no I've always known I had it so I started thinking and I said well ma'am excuse me but what then is the importance excuse me the reason that brought you back today and heaven is rejoicing thank you and she says well I was just always too embarrassed to confess my this sin and you look like a pretty easy priest and I said I don't know if that's a compliment or not but the bottom line is god bless you but do you know every one of her confessions for 24 years is invalid because she withheld a grave sin confession is not cafeteria Catholic Catholicism you can't just say well I want to confess these sins but I'm going to leave this biggie out no if you do that the confession is invalid we need to confess all grave sins we can remember now this is important because if not as I said the confession is invalid but now that she confessed it all the merits that were lost for her being out of a state of grace have come back so I tried to get her to remember any other grave sins that she hadn't confessed all right now the important thing to remember here is what makes a sin you don't remember the only way you're gonna be lost the only way a soul is lost to hell God doesn't send anybody to hell we choose it and the only way that we are lost is to die in an unrepentant state of mortal sin now do you know if I said earlier missing ass is a mortal sin I said it was earlier it's actually a grave sin there's a difference between grave sin and mortal sin any serious sin abortion major lying stealing as I said sexual sins missing mass without a reason on Sunday these are all serious sins but they may not be mortal why for a sin to be mortal three things must be present first the sin must be grave so missing Mass on Sunday is grave this is a grave sin but we don't know if it's mortal yet because two conditions also must be present one you must know it's a sin so congratulations everybody you now know that missing Mass on Sunday is a sin but I got to re-emphasize when the churches are closed and you don't have access to the church or to mass it's not a sin because it's not your fault you would go if you could but a sin to be mortal besides having grave nature you must have knowledge that it's a sin and you must have freewill to freely choose it so if I'm just laying on the couch saying I don't I feel good but you know I just don't want to be bothered with Church today that's freewill choice now verses if I'm ill deathly ill or I'm really contagious because I broke out you know I've only missed Mass one Sunday in the last 25 years and that's back when I was in North Carolina and I broke out head to toe in hives from a tetanus shot I look like The Elephant Man now if I would have walked into church people would have been very upset with me so I didn't make Mass that Sunday is that a is that a mortal sin no because I didn't have free will it was not something that I could choose freely oh I just don't want to go it was because I shouldn't have went that was very dangerous to other people because it's contagious all right so let's keep going here now what is a valid confession well when you have a valid confession and remember repeat confessions are okay do not get discouraged if you have a situation where gee father I sound like a broken record I I seem to be confessing the same sin over as long as you haven't recommitted it you don't need to confess it but if you are ki pre committing it keep going back because each time you do you get a little more grace that helps you to present yourself to God and resist that temptation a little bit more all right now what makes a valid confession look at this slide up on your screen right now what makes a valid confession in order to have a valid confession you must confess all grave sins you can remember all right this is very important now you must have some form of contrition Lord I'm sorry if you aren't wanting to be there you're you're being forced by your spouse to be in the confessional and you really don't have anything in your heart that says I'm sorry your confession is not valid so we have to make sure that we have some contrition in our heart and finally do your satisfaction do some form of penance maybe the penance that the priest gave you maybe skipping a favorite TV show or a dessert maybe once a week or something that does satisfaction to repair the damage that our sins have done right all right now the next slide shows a priest sitting in the confessional with the title there why should I confess to a priest right this is an age-old question all right why well okay we're gonna go through some biblical proof of this but before I do we need a spiritual guide to know that some things are even sins you may not even know certain things are sins we need a guide to guide us st. Faustina said that going to confession is more than just asking for and receiving forgiveness she said it's where we come to be healed and educated now we can't rely on ourselves like I said if you rely on yourselves you're like that guy who said after 25 years I don't have any sins well you know what if you sat down with a priest I mentioned 1/2 an hour we can find a boatload okay so if you're not going to talk to the priest you're not even gonna know you have these sins and so it's important you know st. Faustina she relied on her confessor to be able to educate her on what things were sins that she needed to confess all right let's go now to three straight slides that I want to show you of biblical evidence that shows the importance of confession now I'm going to put brother marks gonna put the first slide on there how do we know that the Bible calls out confession let's go to the first slide I can tell you right now that the Bible calls out confession you can see right there Matthew 18:18 Matthew 16:19 John 20:23 who sins you forgive are forgiven whose sins you retain are retained he's talking to the priest he gave the priest the authority we're gonna talk about this more in a minute next slide that mark brother marks gonna put up look what it says in the Bible about reconciliation just take a moment to read that slide it tells us about the importance of needing reconciliation this is Scripture what is reconciliation that's basically the sacrament the sacrament of confession which what we call reconciliation alright let's go to the final side this is a big one this is James chapter 5 now we're gonna put it up on the side as I briefly kind of add some points I want you to read James's words he says when we are sick go to the priests when you need healing and they will anoint you and with that is the forgiveness of sins this is the priest now here's the key line you're gonna leave that slide up on the screen right now here's the key word therefore after he tells you to go to the the elders depends on the translation it could be presbytery or elders depending on your translation but it basically means the priests it says therefore confess your sins to one another now wait a minute father that just means I could confess to my neighbor boy my paper boy when he comes over and I give him his tip no he was just talking about the priest prior and now he goes into therefore confess your sins to one another James tells us readers that they must go to the elders not just anyone in order to receive this anointing and the forgiveness of sins this is very important all right so now with the slides being pulled down let us continue with this thought here all right Jesus also made judges to sit in his place and whether we like it or not this is the way he did it all right just remember God's on our side though the greater the sinner the greater the right that we have to his mercy you know I come from a military family my dad was in Vietnam and who do you think has a greater right to the medic if you're a soldier the guy who pricked his finger on a shell casing or a guy who had his whole arm blown off by a shell mortar shell of course the one with the more danger of being of death has the bigger right to the medic when you're a sinner you're closer to death you have the greater right to God's mercy and this is what the thing is telling us in this passage that that we have in st. Faustina this message the greater the sinner the greater the right to God's mercy and that's in the Bible remember our sinfulness cannot keep us free from receiving God's mercy only our fear and refusal to trust him Pope Francis said God never tires a forgiving we just tire of asking for forgiveness all right the next slide shows a priest giving ABS Ellucian alright as you can see this priest giving absolution as any of you have been and seen in the confessional this is what's going on it's a miracle now some of you saw my video a couple days ago where you've heard my talks before and I've always got to point this out in the confessional is it the priest who forgives your sins and as I always say yes it is people say father how dare you say this well of course the grace doesn't come from the priest the grace comes from God but it goes through the priest Christ forgave sins on earth to show he had ultimate authority he had ultimate authority to forgive sins and when you have ultimate authority you have the power to delegate it you have the power to give that power if I have ultimate authority when I founded my business in North Carolina I started it I funded it I founded the business I had ultimate authority but when I would leave on a business trip I would say Brian or Karen while I'm gone you're in charge while I Chris ALR when I'm when I'm I'm the runner of this company I created it but when I'm gone you're in my name basically if there's a bill to pay you pay it if there's somebody to hire you hire if there's somebody to fire you fire basically while I'm gone you're in Persona Chris basically you're in my place the priest is in Persona Christi in the person of Christ and Jesus forgave sins and he gave that power he delegated it to the Apostles how do we know that you just read it Matthew 16:19 Matthew 18:18 John 20:23 whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retain this is phenomenal what Jesus is basically doing here is saying that the heaven has to follow the priest if the priest says you are forgiven whether heaven wants to or not have to forgive you heaven forgives you if the priest says you're forgiven and all the people who say well father I just go right to God okay that's a start you should do that but you don't have that guarantee you have no idea but if you go to the confessional and the priest raises his right hand and he says through the Ministry of the church may God give you pardon and peace and i absolve you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen there's no wondering am i forgiven there's no hope and maybe I'm forgiven there's no no hesitation that I don't think God has forgiven me yes he has you are guaranteed forgiveness or Jesus is a liar because he promised that in the passage we just read who sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained and nobody's gonna claim Jesus is a liar he had ultimate authority and he gave it to the Apostles oh well but father okay he gave it to just the apostles nobody else well wait a minute if you have ultimate authority which the Apostles gate got from Jesus they also have the ultimate authority to pass that power on to the next priest that's why Catholic priest lay on hands to ordain the next priests when those bishops who are priests lay their hands on the next priest ordained them that gift of the Holy Spirit and ultimate authority to forgive sins which doesn't come from them comes from God but goes through them is given to the priest and so this is why it's so important you know when I was ordained a priest Bishop Holley laid hands on me and when he was ordained a priest some bishop laid hands on him and when he was ordained a priest some bishop laid hands on him and when he was ordained a priest so on and so forth do you know only the Catholic faith you know the Orthodox claimed it but they're not under Rome every living priest in the world today despite how broken he is can be traced back to one of the Twelve Apostles physically and then to Jesus Christ so I have an unbroken physical touching laying on of hands that went to me from Bishop Holly to the bishop that ordained him to the bishop who ordained him from the bishop who ordained him from the bishop ordained him all the way to Jesus Christ nobody has that unbroken line called apostolic succession it's just another reason why the Catholic faith is the one true faith join me next Saturday at 11 o'clock because I'm gonna give a talk on why the Catholic faith is the one true faith I'm not here to degrade any other religions but next week I will tell you why your Catholic faith has the fullness of the truth all right let's finish up here we're getting close all right so what Jesus is basically doing by giving this power to the authority when you have ultimate authority of the power to delegate it and Jesus gave authority to forgive and not to forgive so the priest has to hear your confessions to determine if you are forgiven or not if you want to be forgiven Jesus said it's through the priests and if the priests have that power how can they say you're forgiven or not unless they hear your sins if you just go right to God that's beautiful it's a start but you're not doing what God commanded it's not what the Bible says the Bible says in John excuse me James 5:16 I just read it to go to the priests and then in Matthew and the other Gospel of John or the other passage of John it says that they have the power to forgive sins and they were passed on to the other priests if confession is not needed hear me now if the sacrament of confession is not needed Christ grant of power to forgive would be totally insignificant who here wants to say that Jesus who granted this power to his apostles who were the first priests and then had the authority to to ordain the next priests look at we just a couple days ago celebrated Matthias Jesus had already had already resurrected the Apostles what did they do to replace Judas they brought in the next priest Matthias and they laid hands on him and ordained him as the next priest they had the authority to ordain priests is anybody here wanna say Matthias didn't forgive sins well then you gotta argue against the Bible because it says he did and so this is powerful so in the confession if it's not needed Christ grant of this power is insignificant now as I said the power doesn't come from the Apostle it's through the Apostles and now the priests are the Apostles that have been handed down from the first twelve but jesus said the Apostles have the authority to forgive and that's the way he set it up but people say oh well father though the thing is you know it was only for them as I said it's not about us for today well do you really think Jesus would come to earth and say you know I only came to earth for the people who were alive when I was on this earth I don't think so Jesus came to earth and says I'm gonna be here for everybody who ever lived redeeming them and part of that is the forgiveness of sins in confessional now this is forgiveness when that priest says you are forgiven you are guaranteed forgiveness now is every sin forgivable hmm is every sin forgivable well father there's something in the Bible called the sin against the Holy Spirit so not every sin is forgivable okay what is the only unforgivable sin lying stealing cheating abortion adultery these are terrible but they are all forgivable in the confession if you confess it you have some sorrow for it you're contrite and you do some satisfaction remember the conditions to be a valid confession all right what though is unforgivable there's only one sin Jesus says is unforgivable the sin against the Holy Spirit and what is that it's called grieving the Holy Spirit and it basically means final impenitence not asking for God merci ohmygosh father how do I make sure that I am not guilty of that sin what is it again not asking for God's mercy okay how do I make sure I'm not guilty that go to confession by the very fact that you walked into that confessional you are asking for God's mercy so the very fact that you close that door and you kneel down in that confessional you cannot be guilty of the unforgivable sin because you wouldn't be there if you are guilty the unforgivable sin means I'm not asking for God's mercy I don't need God's mercy I'm fine don't fall into that trap come to confession right away you are not guilty of the only unforgivable sin because you're there asking for mercy then every other sin is forgivable Wow how much more could our Lord give to us all right is your sin too big for God father you know I don't go to confession you have no idea what I've done oh really you think your sins are bigger than God's mercy well you might want to read st. Faustina who said if you took all the sins ever committed in the history of the world and put them together they would be just a drop compared to the ocean that is God's mercy you ever seen a drop in the ocean that's what Jesus says he says all the sins ever committed are like a drop compared to the ocean that is my mercy but you think your sins are greater than God's mercy that's pride so don't fall into that trap well sin so father I don't go because God won't listen to me he hates me you have no idea what I've done God can't hate you were you wouldn't be in existence today the very fact that I can prove to you God loves you is the very fact that you are watching this video livestream because if God didn't love you you wouldn't exist the very fact that you exist mean God's love that God loves you all right now the only unforgivable sin is putting yourself outside of God's mercy I don't need God's mercy I don't want God's mercy God can't forgive me God won't forgive me the second you come back into conduct confessional you put yourself smack-dab right back into God's mercy even if the confession isn't perfect all right so let's finish up and we'll do an example confession all right the green member the greater the sinner the greater the right to God's mercy all right finally take a look at this slide this is a painting of Jesus in the confessional there's the penitent and in the confessional is Jesus and the priest this is important all right so brother mark we'll leave it up for a couple seconds the Catholics to us we confess our sins to God and God's Minister as directed you ever hear those medicine commercials use only as directed all right well when it comes to your sickness you want to talk about real sickness that you need medicine for your sins those are real that's real sickness well you want medicine use only as directed your medicine is the confessional use as directed go to the priest as you were directed and God is in that confessional as well Protestants deny that Christ gave the disciples the power to forgive sins but you have to read John 20:23 again who sins you forgive are forgiven in in that passage Jesus breathed on them the only other time that God breathed on man was at creation so in this after he resurrected and he goes to the Upper Room with the men he breathes on them this is life-giving power he's breathing new life just like at the time God breathed life into the to man at creation he's now breathing life into man again and a new creation Protestants they believe that they're pastors can wash away sins in baptism why not priests and confession if a Protestant believes that their pastors can wipe away sins and baptism why is it so crazy to believe that priests can't wipe away sins in confession again it comes from God through the priest Protestants believe that God uses their minutes to provide physical healing well wait a minute never see those guys on TV I say rise and walk get up and walk god bless him if Protestants of evangelicals believe that God can use their pastors to physically heal people why couldn't he use his pastors to spiritually heal people his priests yes he can again I go back to James the side brother mark saw it he does have to show it again but the sins of the sick are forgiven in anointing so call the priests he says it right there the sins of the sick are forgiven in anointing and anointing includes confession so call the priests remember what is here I'm wrapping up and we're do an example confession the confessional or the consent of confession is just that a sacrament what makes our Catholic face so different than any other faith the sacraments there are 40,000 other Christian denominations and next week I'm going to tell you all about it why should you be Catholic when there's 40,000 other choices join me next Saturday at 11 a.m. because we're gonna tell you why what makes the Catholic Church different we're gonna go through Scripture the papacy Mary the Saints all that good stuff but right now I just want to say this the sacraments the sacraments are not just symbols they do something sacraments are real grace they're not symbols Oh father you know we had communion at our the evangelical church sorry no you didn't because only the Catholic Church believes in transubstantiation the actual bread becomes the body and blood of Christ it's not a symbol of Christ it is Christ and we're gonna explain that next week remember what a sacrament is a sacrament is an efficacious sign efficacious meaning it does something an efficacious sign of God's grace instituted by Christ and entrusted to the church by which divine life is instilled in us holy mackerel this is amazing you know what is the worst kind of death it's not the body the worst kind of death is the soul so we must take care of our soul as much as we worried about the body and that's a good thing we must take care of our soul so when does God really rise us from this worst kind of death the death of the soul in the confession he rises us from spiritual spiritual death in every confession you know brother Mark teases me about this but I think it's a great analogy we have and I've heard the Church Fathers say something like this but this is kind of my own twist on it we have a many physical resurrection every morning when we wake up we basically die if we would do in one sense we go unconscious we go to sleep we actually are there in some form kind of like a lifeless sense not entirely you're still breathing but you're not moving you're not working you're kind of in a physical way out of it and then every morning you resurrect you have this mini resurrection every morning well every confession you have a mini spiritual resurrection you know what not even mini major you have a major spiritual resurrection at every confection your soul was dead if you were in mortal sin Christ can not dwell in your soul this is the teaching of the church and the Catechism and at the confessional God has allowed back into your soul and you have now been resurrected Christ has conquered death on the cross and now he gives you the chance to conquer the death of your soul in the confessional he gives us a way to do that all right finally last couple slides here is a side that is one of my favorites of a courtroom it's a scene of a man who is that man being accused that's us that you and me who's accused that man that's Satan right this is his judgment and this man is being accused by who none other than Satan this is what our faith teaches at our judgment the the prosecutor is Satan he's gonna try to attack and say he this soul belongs to me he's a sinner we're all sinners but we've been redeemed and he's gonna try to prove why he belongs the soul belongs to him and then Jesus is gonna come in like you see in the picture as the defense attorney and defend us but what is that Satan accusing that man of and everybody says sin father you're half right what is that Satan or what is Satan accusing that man of unconfessed sin done confessing the The Exorcist tell us that once sins are confess the demons can't bring them up Satan can't bring it up once your sin is confessed Jesus says in Scripture once your sin is is relieved I remember it as far as I forget it as far as the East is from the West so your sin is forgotten once it is confessed don't confess it it's free game Satan's gonna jump all over it you want to be that guy in that picture you want to be accused at the end of your life I don't confess your sins and then even Satan can't bring them up a person can't be effectively exorcised they tell us the exorcists tell us without having gone to confession and so at our judgment Satan can't accuse us of our confessed sins so make sure you do all right last couple slides the effects of confession I'm sorry I can't have time to explain this fully right now I'm running out of time I want to wrap this up but as brother mark leaves the slide up on the screen you can see how it reconciles us back to the church it reconciles us back to God it forgives our eternal punishment due to sin AKA hell it even removes our temporal punishment which our temporal punishment AKA purgatory i mean look at the beautiful gifts all right and then final those are the effects the final slide the examination of conscious why do I go here because we're gonna finish right here today with this slide you cannot get to confession right now and many diocese because the churches are closed father what do I do all right look at that screen first thing you do is pray look at that slide you pray to God and then you do an examination of conscience all right let's look at this second step on that on that slide basically use the Ten Commandments or the seven deadly sins and you walk through if you can't make it to confession you can do an act of contrition just telling God you're sorry in your heart well father that doesn't apply yes it does catechism 1452 says if you cannot get to confession and you recall your sins and you detest them and you have the intent to sin no more and the intention to go back to the sacrament of confession when that sacrament is available no matter when that might be even months you are forgiven of all sins even mortal don't believe me look up the Catechism father Chris how dare you say this catechism 1452 that is there so now let's walk through it alright I want to finish right now with and walkthrough of a good confession and I'm a little bit late I wanted to keep this in a now where we just hit our hour mark but I feel I can do this in about five minutes let us now not be fearful of what we got to do when we come to the confession now when you come into the confessional some of you aren't sure what to do that's okay the pre end of the Son and of the Holy Spirit amen and you simply begin bless me Father for I have sinned and it has been and you just give your best guess how long it is since your last confession don't be embarrassed it could be a week it could be a month a year I've had confessions my record my record confession was 60 years and somebody come to the confessional after 60 years god bless you now you say bless me Father for I have sinned it's been you know six months and my last confession now the one thing you got to do is remember the church does teach you got to go to confession at least once a year so if you haven't been to confession in over a year the first thing you want to confess is not having been to confession in over a year okay so you say father bless me for I have sinned it's been one year since my last confession and these are the sins to the best of my memory now again do you have to confess every single sin you can remember even the little tiny venial ones like eating the last piece of pizza well yeah if there was a starving person who was dying of hunger and you ate it then yes but if it's just because there was a whole bunch of pizza and other food and you happen to take the last piece and nobody wanted it you know come on it's not as serious all right so you recall your sins as best you can in number and in kind so if you've committed a sin that okay let's say swearing you try your best to remember how many times you've done it and what kind of swearing it was so the numbers like okay father I think I've done it about 10 times okay and the kind that's number then in kind means did you swear at someone did you condemn them did you say something really bad to them or were you just in kind of an passing out of a bad habit in a conversation not directed at anybody you see the difference there the kind is worse in one way than it is the other now let's suppose it's a sexual sin you do not need to go into detail now the priest may ask you when you say father I was impure okay this gets really hard for a priest because the priest isn't does not need details but you should add either with yourself or with another person okay and was it actual just thoughts or was it actually actions all right and so both sins same-sex homosexual or heterosexual our sins if you're not married even heterosexual at relations is a sin and and if it's it's same-sex that is as well we need to confess those now does that mean God hates you or that the Catholic Church eats you absolutely not what that means is that you're coming for forgiveness and God understands that he's merciful this is what we do is we bring into our confession our heart alright let's look at this at this point people might say to me well father I don't really remember any sense I'm gonna walk through with you right now and you can get on this pamphlet I'm gonna explain to you at the end here how you can get a free copy of this pamphlet called how to make a good confession I don't know if brother Mark and zoom in on me right now I forgot to give him a picture of this but you can go to shop mercy dot org slash Saturday again shop mercy dot org slash Saturday which I want to be doing these talks every Saturday I'm going to start putting products up there and you can see this pamphlet you just grab one put it in your cart and when you go to checkout enter the promo code confess conf ESS and we'll send it for free no postage no shipping just totally sent to you for free a free card free pamphlet and it'll walk you through how to do a good confession now I'm gonna borrow from this and finish today by just saying when people say to me father I have no sins I say well do you mind if I walk through a few things with you this is what a good priest should do alright I have very rarely ever had the first commandment confessed to me father I broke the first commandment but most all of us probably at one time or another have broken the first commandment well father I don't worship Buddha or Allah okay but do you put the television ahead of God do you put money ahead of God do you put your children ahead of God by not making them go to church I hate that term making them go but not having them go to church because they don't feel like it you're putting your children's feelings ahead of God that is breaking the first commandment are you putting sex ahead of God will you stop at nothing to find the next sexual high are you putting a power ahead of God I will cut anybody's throat to get to the top of my corporation I'll step on anybody and stab them in the back to get there maybe it's not that bad but are you gossiping about others or hurting others reputation so that you look good you know if money or sex or power is your goal I mean that's why we as religious take the three vows of poverty chastity and obedience we take the vows of poverty to overcome the god small G of the world of money we take the vow of chastity to overcome the small G God of the world of sex and we take the vow of obedience to overcome the God of the world of power so if you're guilty of any of those it's so it's a pay to come and confess them it's a beautiful release all right second commandment go through the Commandments in your mind and and this pamphlet offers up many good things besides the commandments as well but do you the Lord's name in vain unfortunate lot of people have the habit of doing this it's not because they intended it's just a habit please the Israelites didn't even say the name of God it was so reverent to them they wouldn't even say Yahweh let alone irreverently so we need to be very careful that even if it's just a habit what about keeping the Lord's Day Sunday are we enslaved to football or and that's part of the reason I think maybe God's allowing sports to be taken away I'm guilty of sports I love sports but he's God not these other things so are we putting God first on Sundays or are we putting our recreation people think just because I recreative what the commandment says no the commandment says you put God first not even your recreation not your work God that is the command of Khopoli the lord's day alright let's go on the fourth one honor your mother and your father well it's not just your mother your father your mother and your father represent all authority are you obeying civil laws one of the biggest problems I have is rolling stop signs I hope there's no police officers watching so because I just really have a bad habit of rolling stop signs and so I'm breaking civil authority and and and that it's not just out of our father mother it's honor our authority and so we must take care of them in their old age or or be their present for them to yes but also respect authority all right fifth murder okay probably men that many of you watching have actually killed somebody but if you murdered somebody's reputation through gossip or even detraction or calumny well father what is that detraction is when you talk about somebody and say something that's true but somebody doesn't have any business knowing now if they do have a business knowing like it's a co-worker and it affects your work or whatever yes you need to talk about it or you're a parent and it's about the neighbor who is a you know a registered felon you need to talk you need to be aware of that but detraction is saying something true about somebody that somebody else doesn't need to know you don't need to call your sister in Atlanta to tell her the sins of your neighbor down the street even though they're true calumny is more serious because they're you are saying something that's untrue about somebody false witness like sort of speak so don't do that alright so we can murder more than the body we can murder somebody's reputation all right six adultery it's not just meaning a married person has relations with another married person that that could mean is impure thoughts desiring somebody else videos online pornography internet stuff that movies reading literature that is improper these are all things our custody of our eyes and our minds are important for purity all right so that's a six command what about the seventh commandment you do not steal well father I've known steal okay do you ever take from your company and the hours worked well I mean I don't falsify my timecard well okay but did you really work 40 hours okay well you know I surfed on the internet for a couple hours on Monday during work time you know it's work at home and you know I'm on the clock but I was really reading the Internet you've actually stolen from your company now the company also can't steal from the employee and she used to pay em so we all want to be aware these are rules these are these are punishments these are guidelines to get us to heaven all right so that's the seventh commandment you know not steal okay what about the eighth commandment eighth ninth and tenth all right eighth is not bearing false witness I just said you know you don't lie about somebody ninth is not coveting our neighbors goods what God gave you he gave you be happy with what he gave you don't desire always what somebody else has and then then finally don't worry your wife I'm sorry that covered your neighbor's wife or then covet their goods so in other words be pleased with what God gave you this is what's important so go through these things have I done any of these things and then finally I always bring up at the confessional the seven deadly sins all right the seven deadly sins let's go through these because we've all really need to be aware of these the first is greed I personally believe that all the root of the world's problems is greed everything that really it boils down to be it a murder or an estranged relationship it's always seems to be about pride or greed and so greed is very serious so we must be pleased and happy and accept what God has given us the next is anger are we struggling with anger or even impatience you know sometimes that's my issue I'd get very impatient sometimes when I asked for something and it's not done I get I get sometimes impatient and then it gets to anger so we have to watch that it's even some places written as wrath we don't want that okay what about lust that's the next one lust is very serious we got to keep our minds pure in our bodies pure right we talked about that all right what about sloth very few people confess this in the confessional sloth is very important we're always out for comfort we're not doing our jobs where we're being lazy we should be out evangelizing we should be praying and we're not we're just laying on the couch let's not be slothful okay all right very important pride very powerful do know fall into the sin of pride because that's where Satan then starts to have control over you alright and then envy jealousy again envy and jealousy are two different things jealousy is bad because you have somebody has something that you want you desire it but it can be okay if it's something good like holiness but envy is more serious where you actually you want to hurt that person and take what they have that I want to kill my neighbor so I can have his wife what did what did David do in the Bible David sent Uriah out to be killed so he could have his wife Bathsheba and God said this is very serious that's envy all right so he was envy envious all right and then finally gluttony people think Oh father you know I do eat some too much but you know it's not a big deal no it is because we don't want to feed the flesh the spirit needs to rule over the flesh that's the importance of fasting to break the flesh is control over the spirit we need to break it so when we're gluttonous we're feeding this to flesh and it doesn't have to be just with food it can be television it can be laying around comfort lack of any physical activity let's not be gluttonous of of just comfort and and food and self-indulgence so I hope this all makes sense god bless you again I'm sorry I did go longer than I wanted to I thought was gonna be 15 minutes shorter than this but we'll work on that again next week so before we sign off and I give you a final blessing I just want to first of all say thank you for joining us please come to the sacrament of confession when the church is open up again now Father you've been talking about confession that I got is what a confession but I can't my church isn't closed or my church isn't open it's closed remember all of this is with the intent to return to the sacrament when the church is open up again until then make your act of contrition just telling God that you are sorry and he will forgive you of those sins have the intent to go back to the sacrament after the church is open so I'm thank you you're with us please join us next as we will talk about why the Catholic Church has the fullness of the truth why we are Catholic that is Saturday at 11:00 a.m. next week right here on Divine Mercy official or the Divine Mercy org if you would like this on DVD this is my brand-new DVD brother mark has a slide hopefully it gets on the screen it's called explaining the faith and I have 13 new talks what I just talked about confession is one of those talks please grab the DVD you can order this DVD to play in your DVD strip machine on shop Mercy Gorgas on the front you can get it right there or if you would like to stream it on your screen you will see vimeo.com slash on-demand slash explaining the faith and if you can't remember all that easier just go to shop mercy and when you click on the DVD it gives you the option to do it by livestream and so you can go there and you can get this it's cheaper to livestream it it's only 995 to livestream if you want the physical DVD because the packaging and the shipping and stuff it's 1495 ok so and if you can't afford it but you would like it please contact me at the Marion helper Center at Marion at Marion's at Marion org so again Marion's ma RI ans at Marion dot org and if you can't afford it just send me an e-mail now I'll send you one but you can also again get these pamphlets of how to make a good confession what I talked about today is in this pamphlet this is also at shop Mercy dot org slash Saturday and on that website you can get this put it into your your your your your beer box into your your what do you call it the mail box in your shopping cart I'm sorry put it into your shopping cart and when you checkout enter the promo code confess and is free all right and so again please join us next week at 11 a.m. and one final announcement we've been announcing to everyone that my new radio show on virgin most powerful radio will begin on the 21st which is next Thursday it's called understanding divine mercy please join us we're gonna have a lot of great guests I'm gonna be hosting that radio show every Thursday at 3 p.m. Eastern Time it's going to go all over the country please call in join but there's one little thing they said the first week may not be able to be live we may have to just show you we're recording so please when you tune in next Thursday if it's only a recording please hang with us it's not how the show is normally going to be run they're waiting on some equipment and that equipment when it comes will allow us to hopefully fully start the live shows on the 28th of May so with that thank you everyone for joining us on behalf of myself father Chris LR and all the Marian's of the Immaculate Conception here at the National Shrine of the Divine Mercy may Almighty God bless you and through the intercession of st. Faustina and Mary Our Lady of Fatima on all the saints may Almighty God bless you the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit amen god bless you

Channel: Divine Mercy

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Keywords: confession, sacrament, reconciliation, penance, explaining the faith, alar, chris alar, father alar, fr. alar, divine mercy, explaning the faith, image of divine mercy, shrine of divine mercy, chaplet of divine mercy, feast of divine mercy, divine mercy sunday, jesus christ, mary, catholic, catholic church, catechism, faustina, saints, marians, marian fathers, MIC, Marians of Immaculate Conception, calloway, gaitley, pray, prayer, religious, faith, God, christ, mercy, jesus, mass, liturgy, priest

Id: uXCAkHmu2OM

Length: 78min 50sec (4730 seconds)

Published: Sat May 16 2020