Father Mike Responds to "General Absolution"

when i asked some people like hey i want to talk about general absolution for one of these videos i talked to some youth pastors youth ministers i said what do you guys think about it and they said it's dumb i said well why tell me why it's dumb they said because it takes out the relationship [Music] hi my name is father mike schmitz and this is ascension presents so it is the season right now at the end of lent that's where i'm filming this at the end of lent for reconciliation right for confession for the opportunity to come before the lord and have our sins forgiven through the ministry of the priest um now we know that that's a real thing because we know that jesus after he had died and rose from the dead on that easter sunday he said to his apostles he said he breathed in them and said receive the holy spirit those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them those who sins you hold bound or held down later on james he writes in james chapter five and he says um if anyone's sick among you let them send for the priest of the church priests will pray over them essentially i'm paraphrasing a little bit if they've committed any sins those sins will be forgiven the next line is therefore confess your sins to one another we've already covered this i think in a different video but the reality of course is two things one is jesus has given his apostles and their successors the bishops and priests the ability to forgive sins in his name secondly james 5 connects the ability to give sins in his name with confess your sins now it could be you know james people could say well confess your sins to one another just means hey brothers and sisters in christ just confess your sins to each other could mean that but as we've already pointed out in other videos i think i think saint james writes call for the priest of the church the priests will pray over them they'll be forgiven their sins therefore confess your sins to one another that therefore you always have to ask the question what's it there for and so it connects it's a connecting word between forgiveness of sins and confession of sins and i think that that is a good case anyways all that being said there is something powerful and something necessary about being reconciled to the lord about coming before god and saying god i know you want me to be here because that's the truth of the matter is whenever we go to confession we've said this before as well but i'm going to say it again whenever we go to confession it's always a response it's always it's never us saying god please give me another chance and it's god's saying to us hey give me another chance give my mercy another chance let me make you new let me reconcile you to me and to the body of christ so so again when we go to confession yes we're guilty yes we've fallen yes we've sinned but it is always the lord himself who wants the sinner it's always the lord himself who wants us to have fallen he wants our broken hearts because he knows he can reconcile us he can heal us and he can make us new okay so all that being said this is also the season for what they call communal penance services now individual pending services that's like you know if your your parish has uh confession times before every mass or maybe they have it only on saturdays whatever that's like your individual pen and service right not even really a service you just go into confession but these communal pendant services where you gather a bunch of people you say hey this tuesday of you know holy week we're going to have a big pendant service and we have some prayer we have some music maybe we have an examination on conscience we have a bunch of priests here and then after that examination of conscience after that prayer you go to confession and receive absolution so good super good highly recommend 10 out of 10. the problem is there is creeped in there's kreptan there's sneakton there's snuck in all the words there has infiltrated in the church there has been this thing called general absolution journal absolution what is general absolution well general solution is actually a real thing but it's a real thing that's been given to us for because of god is merciful to be used in very very very limited capacity in fact it's only to be used in extreme cases what's general absolution general absolution is there's a bunch of people and they have no opportunity to go to confession but they desire god's mercy and so the priest can give what he called what they call general general absolution so i always think about i think about this every time i'm on a plane and we hit some turbulence i remember a priest way back when when i was even before seminary i think i listened to some of his tapes and saw some of his things and he had talked about how whenever he has when there was turbulence on planes when he here he is as a priest he would always say get ready he'd get ready to unbuckle and just like jump up and say i absolutely followed your sins and the father's holy spirit and so every time we hit surveillance i'm like okay here we go let's go let's be prepared i'm like maybe i should stay buckled then i'm not sure but i'm ready to do the general absolution thing if we're on a plane going down gonna hit the ground i want to forgive as many people on the way as we possibly can in the name of jesus um so general absolution is what they call an exception or it's an extraordinary way in which jesus christ can give his mercy to the people of god in extreme situations so a plane is about to crash there's no time for to your confessions general absolution there is uh one priest in front of you know a bunch of soldiers who are about to be sent off to d-day and there's no no chance for personal individual confession he can give general absolution any any kind of situation that it's extreme now it's not extreme to say that well we have you know we had a communal penance services service and we have 100 people here and only two priests that's not an extreme situation why because there's no immediate danger so you can't actually in those cases still give general absolution it removes the reality that what reconciliation is is what forgiveness is is it's not simply a matter of like oh i've been taken care of i've been scrub clean it's a matter of restoring relationship right it's a matter of like i acknowledge my own sin and i'm going to the lord through the ministry of the priest and the lord's coming to me through the ministry of the priest and i'm being reconciled and that relationship is being restored to the ministry of the priest so to that end what we need is we need what they call auricular confession meaning i'm saying my sins out loud they're heard by the priest and then i'm given absolution see these things are completely they're so necessary that in those even in those conditions those extreme conditions right where general absolution is is possible because it is possible and planes going down troops are being shipped out the condition is not only that there's repentance right and not only is there an intention to uh make reparation for one's sins but the condition is that at the first opportunity the penitent the person with the sins the person having their sins forgiven at the first opportunity they're going to confess whatever mortal sins they're aware of think about this how many parishes and this is one of the things i'm talking about one of the reasons i'm talking about this is because this is something that has you know as i said sneaked in snuck in infiltrated a lot of different parishes and people are convinced that oh this is fine this has got me covered it doesn't have you covered i'm telling you this right now why because if there are mortal sins yes okay they're forgiven in extreme cases but the condition is that at the first opportunity i'm going to bring those mortal sins to individual confession and i'm going to confess them out loud to the priest and he in the name of jesus the ministry of christ is going to give me absolution so here here's a person like you might even be one of those people who were like wait i went to these with this this general episode i received that years ago the condition has been that you would actually have brought those sins to individual confession so that this is the new this is news to you right now again don't be disheartened please don't be discouraged um you can be upset that's okay it's completely legitimate to be upset but the next step is okay i need to bring those sins i have not verbally confessed to confession and to do that as soon as possible that's my invitation uh because here's the thing that the priest should have known better your pastor should have known better if the bishop had given permission for this he should have known better he should have known it made it very very clear that even if this was if this was a case of extreme emergency that he should have made it clear to everyone involved that after the fact they were under the obligation to still go to confession and confess whatever mortal sins they're aware of again please this is not about checking off boxes it's not about jumping through hoops this is about restoring a relationship i think one of the gifts that jesus gave us when he gave us the gift of sacrament of reconciliation sacrament of confession is that there's something so personal about this where i have to with my own voice i have to take responsibility for my failings i have to take responsibility for my sins i have to take responsibility for my own life my own decisions and i'm saying that out loud to some someone who's standing in the person of christ and then that person standing the person of christ acting the person of christ i get to hear those words i absolve you of all of your sins there's something again it's about relationship it's not about just the rules it's not about just a commandment it's about a covenant and when we sin we're breaking that relationship so we confess we have to do it via relationship as well does that make sense when we sin we break the relationship we're saying to god i don't god i know what you want i don't care i want what i want therefore when we're restored again when we're reconciled again we have to do it in the context of relationship where it's god i know what you want you have called me to confess my sins to your presbyters right to your priests and you've called them and you ordained them to have the power in the ministry of the holy minister of jesus but the power of the holy spirit to mediate your forgiveness to me anyways so that's that's my invitation i know this could be a very challenging thing if you are someone who's like i've been to general absol i've gotten general absolution a bunch of times what do i do next don't panic just seek out your priest seek out your pastor and to be able to say okay father uh i need to make me maybe maybe i need to make a general confession maybe i need to go back and say here's the things that i i believe i was forgiven for um and so in good faith the lord meets you with his mercy but i know now that if i want to restore that relationship i need to confess them out loud individually one to one the penitent to the confessor from that that the the sinner the brokenhearted to the person the man the priest who stands in the person of christ i hope that makes sense um and if this is one of those things we were like wow that's a little factoid a little trivia i had no idea um now you know and if you were like father i totally knew this from way back when um or if it's maybe a a matter of again one of those it's intimidating and it's difficult to swallow uh it's okay don't worry the lord is with you he loves you remember the whole reason behind this the whole motivation behind this is god's love for you so do not be afraid but please make an examination of conscience and then seek out confession within the next couple days even because why not the the lord loves you so why wait from coming back to him confessing your sins and being restored to the fullness of that love i am praying for you uh please pay for me i guess chronological ascension presents my name's father mike god bless [Music] you

Channel: Ascension Presents

Views: 35,107

Keywords: ascension, ascension press, ascension presents, father mike, catholic advice, catholic inspiration, fr. mike schmitz, fr. Mike schmidt, father mike schmitz, fr. Mike advice, fr. Mike videos, fr mike schmitz, general absolution catholic, general absolution confession, general absolution canon law, general absolution prayer, confession catholic church, confession catholic, confession and absolution, sacrament of reconciliation, confession and absolution catholic

Id: fle9rmGTTrs

Length: 11min 12sec (672 seconds)

Published: Wed Apr 06 2022