Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and this is Ascension Presents So I often have people both Catholic and not Catholic friends and people I meet who become friends good That's how... whatever... people would ask me They say "why do you have to confess your sins to a priest, like you Catholics, Why do you have to confess your sins to a priest?" Someone's Catholic they say, "hey why do we Catholics have to confess our sins to a priest?" Why not go right to God? That's a fantastic question, and that's we're gonna talk about today. When someone says "Why confess your sins to a priest why not go right to God?" I Responded please no first thing go right to God. Please go right to God. You know that as we're baptized Christians the Lord Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit gives us like direct access to the Father even if you find yourself in serious sin yes, and go right to God and Apologize like repent of your sins confess your sins to God that is we do that, but we also recognize That were called to go to the priest why Because the role the priest the role of the priest even the Old Testament was a role of Intercessor and mediator now Jesus Christ is the one great Mediator between God and man, but that's a very very specific Title that st. Paul was using that said that he's the one who ultimately Makes it possible for us to have full access to the Father But we mediate on behalf of other each each other often for example I have a Bible in my hand I did not make this Bible up and God didn't give it to me directly it was communicated to me It was given to me by someone else so someone else was the mediator Right they gave me the scripture and someone else taught me the Word of God and so those people were mediators in a similar way Priests in the Old Testament were mediators between God and men and in the New Testament Priests serve a similar role, but with even more power. Why? Because in Old Testament Priests would act as a symbolic mediator between God and man, right. They would intercede on behalf of the people to God And they would offer up sacrifices for sins For the forgiveness of sins, but ultimately they could those things couldn't take away sins Jesus Christ Himself can take away sins even says Your sins are forgiven. You know, go in peace But its his sacrifice Jesus's sacrifice that makes it possible for us to have our sins forgiven But then something powerful happens in John chapter 20 Jesus has risen from the dead he appears to the Apostles in the upper room, and he breathes on them John chapter 20 And he says receive the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you forgive are forgiven them Those whose sins you hold bound are held bound he gives the Apostles the ability to forgive sins Now this is absolutely powerful. Why because not only demonstrate that Jesus is instituting a new priesthood But also reveals that Jesus desires that priesthood to extend his true and full forgiveness To all those who come in repentance because Jesus never gives a gift that he doesn't expect us to use, right? Here's the gift of forgiving sins go do that thing. Now, why do we have confession? Well, because from the beginnings of the church there began this this a tendency or a practice of Confessing your sins to the priest to the presbytery confessing her since the priests and Allowing the priest to have a prayer of forgiveness. In fact, James chapter 5 talks about this is is there anyone sick among you? Let Them send for the priests and let the priests pray over them anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord If the person's sick, they'll recover. If they have any sins, those sins will be forgiven them. Now the next line says, "Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another." And lot of times non-catholic Christians will say, "well yeah see it says confess your sins to each other Confess your sins to one another so that could be just Christian confessing to Christian." Yeah I'll give you that point it could mean that, definitely, but let's look at all the words What had, what was just described was just described was send for the elders in the presbytery the priests of the church Let the priests pray over them And if they have any sins those sins will be forgiven them. Who did Jesus give the ability to forgive sins to? To the Apostles. Okay, so we're talking about their descendants or their you know that people came after them them if they have any sins they'll be forgiven them then it says therefore and The big Bible joke is whenever the word 'therefore' is there you have to ask one question. What is it there for? It says therefore confess your sins to one another. That just gets done Talking about the priest forgiving sins and then it says therefore confess your sins. That's really important because it's actual biblical link between confession and forgiveness. Quick clarification, is, am I saying like, well, priests have the power to forgive sins? Well, yes They have the authority to forgive sins, but they don't themselves, and like, I don't as of myself, as like Mike, I don't have the ability to forgive sins. But Jesus has desired to forgive sins through me. I remember hearing a Conversation between a priest and a Baptist pastor and the Baptist pastor was challenging the priest on how can you claim to forgive sins? Only God can forgive sins and the priest said well of course God is the one who forgives sins But he asked the Baptist pastor He said, "but you know do you have any gifts of the Holy Spirit?" And the pastor said, "yeah, I have the gift of healing." "So the Lord has healed you... He said, "you have healed people?" And he said, "well, no, the Lord has used me To give his healing to people. Yeah, he's used me as his as his servant as his tool." And the priests said, "exactly, That's what confession is." And to his credit, the Baptist pastor said, "oh, that makes a lot of sense." Just like the Lord Does want to mediate his forgiveness or his, sorry, his healing or his miracles, his wonders, his preaching through the preaching of us Christians He also desires to mediate his forgiveness through the ministry of the priests. Let's come back to the original question Why can't I go right to God? Again, Of course you can but one of the things that Jesus gives is he gives us a gift The Apostles you have the ability to forgive sins "Those who sins you forgive are forgiven, those whose sins you hold bound are held bound." My guess is he does not want us To not use his gift, but he wants us to use the gift And he gives it to us for a reason Not only to reconcile us to God, but also to reconcile us to the community That's one of the things that sin does it divides us from God it also divides us from the community so we need to be Received back into the community just like when Jesus heals the leper And he says go show yourself to the priest and offer for your sacrifice your cleansing, what Moses prescribed that'll be enough for them. Why? Because the priest receives you back into the community after you've been outside the community. Here's what I found really interesting about confession. In no denomination Throughout the entire world not the history of the world was it ever claimed that you could baptize yourself Like no one and no one does that no one no one baptizes themself into Christ no one baptizes themself into the community You always are received into the community always someone else Baptizes you, but when it comes to confession everyone's like no no no no no no I go right to God I don't have to, I don't have to go through someone else. Yet when it came to baptism you went through someone else. Here's I think where we're gonna get really honest. I think here's where that where the rubber hits the road in In Baptism it doesn't I don't have to confess any sins. I don't have to say anything. So yeah, go ahead you give me baptism. But in confession, I have to Admit my fault I have to say things that maybe are embarrassing And say no no no no in that case I'd go right to God I think it's time to be a little really a little bit more honest with ourselves and realize that Jesus in the scripture gives the priests the ability to forgive sins. I just might not like that, cuz I don't want to have to confess my sins, right? And yet we know this we know we know That confession is not a place for embarrassment and confession is not a place for shame, confession is not a place to to get beaten up. Now we say this and I'll say it again, confession is not a place of defeat. Confession is where you have been I've been defeated by sin, but Jesus Christ gets to have victory in my life. Confession is a place of victory where you get to say, "Lord God, this is where I've been, this is what I've done please have mercy on me." And you get to hear those amazing, amazing words, "I Absolve you of all of your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Like how Powerful is that? You know the Lord God through that Ministry of the priesthood that he gave us as his gift Has forgiven your sins and made you new. So, if you need to go to confession, please I just invite you, um, don't hold back go ahead to God right now But then go to confession as soon as you can because it takes both For all of us here at Ascension Presents, my name's Fr. Mike. God bless. Also be sure to Like, Subscribe Comment, whatever, and go to confession. Because that's what we do around here. Okay, thanks.
