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Penance or Absolution is commonly regarded as one of the sacraments.
Even Luther reckoned it with Baptism and the Eucharist.
Our Lord gave to His Apostles the power to forgive sins in the words,
Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted;
whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
(John 20.23).
They were to do this, not in their own name, but in His.
They were to be His ambassadors.
What He gave to them was not merely the power to say to any sinner, "If
you repent, God will forgive you", for any Christian might do that.
It was the POWER to bestow forgiveness in the name
of God
and the RIGHT to decide whether it was to be given
or refused.
This power belongs only to the apostolic ministry
and is bestowed on every priest at his ordination.
It does not, however, mean that God will sanction the misuse of such a power;
or that if a priest,
who is necessarily liable to make mistakes,
forgives someone who ought not to be forgiven
or refuses forgiveness to someone who ought to have it,
God will not revise his decision.
The power of an ambassador is limited by the approval of his Sovereign,
and the power of the priest by the love and justice of God.
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The SUBJECT of this sacrament is any baptized person.
The sins of the unbaptized are forgiven when they are baptized.
It is not necessary to have been confirmed in order to receive absolution.
The OUTWARD SIGN consists of the confession of
sins,
the absolution given by the priest,
and the penance that the sinner must perform as a condition of his forgiveness.
Strictly speaking there is no MATTER,
nothing corresponding to the water in baptism.
The repentance of the sinner is commonly spoken of as the matter;
and this consists of contrition (sorrow for sin), confession, and amendment.
The form in use in the Church of England is to be found in the Office for
the Visitation of the Sick.
Until about the twelfth century it was in the form of a prayer,
not a declaration, as it still is in the Eastern churches.
The MINISTER of absolution must be a bishop or priest.
In the Roman Communion absolution given by a priest who has not been licensed
to give it, or in a place where he has no jurisdiction (except to someone
in danger of death), is held to be invalid.
The Anglican Communion has no such rule.
A priest ought not to give absolution or perform any other ministerial act
outside his jurisdiction without leave.
Absolution so given is irregular but not invalid.
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The INWARD GRACE of absolution
is the application of the infinite merits of Christ to sin committed after
baptism.
It is true that God will always forgive those who truly repent,
and therefore sacramental absolution is not necessary for forgiveness.
But though not necessary, it is of great value.
The sinner is thereby assured,
as he could be assured in no other way,
that God has really forgiven him.
Our Lord would not have given this power to His apostles
unless He had meant it to be used,
and the experience of multitudes of those who have used it
has confirmed its value to those who use it with real repentance and faith.
Besides this, the act of confession to a fellow man deepens sorrow and shame
for the sins committed, and the absolution gives special power to overcome
them in the future.
It also helps the sinner to understand that all
sin of whatever kind committed by a member of the Church is a sin against
the whole Christian community, so that every grave sin ought to be forgiven
by the Church through her official representative, the priest.
If the
priest is an expert spiritual adviser, the penitent has the opportunity of
receiving counsel that will enable him to treat his moral failings with the
proper remedies.
Moral sickness requires to be cured,
and the remedy, which will cure one kind of person,
will do great harm to another.
It is the business of the priest to discover the cause of evil habits
and to suggest the best way of curing them.
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In the early Church grave sin was followed by confession in public
and a long period of exclusion from the sacraments.
This method is still used in some parts of the mission field.
But in the fourth century it ceased to be universally practiced.
The present practice of private confession to a priest began with the SOUL
FRIEND or private spiritual director in the Irish Church.
It
spread all over Christendom and was made universally compulsory in the Latin
churches in the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215.
It is also in theory, though in some countries not in practice, compulsory
in the Orthodox Eastern Communion.
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In the Anglican churches private confession and absolution are recommended
in the Long Exhortation in the Communion Service and in the Visitation of
the Sick.
They have been continuously in use and were very common in the seventeenth
century, but nearly died out in the eighteenth.
They were revived, against strong opposition, by the leaders of the Oxford
Movement, and are now very widely used.
The words in the Exhortation,
let him come to me,
or some other discreet and learned minister,
permit the penitent to choose his own confessor.
Private confession in the Anglican Communion is voluntary;
that is, no priest has the right to refuse communion to any one
or to refuse to present him for confirmation
solely on the ground that he will not make his confession to a priest.
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The penitent is bound as a condition of absolution
to undo as far as is possible the wrong he has done to anyone.
If, for instance, he has stolen anything or cheated anyone,
he must make restoration.
Apart from this the penance is intended to help him to deepen his sorrow
and to amend his life in future.
It is not a satisfaction for sin because nothing that we can do can be set
against our sins as an equivalent.
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No priest should hear the confessions of others
unless he has made his own confession;
but every priest with cure of souls may at any time be called upon to hear
a confession and therefore ought to prepare himself to exercise that part
of his ministry.
He must be "discreet and learned" -
that is, he should be well trained in moral and ascetic theology.
Otherwise he should not attempt to give counsel for it may do more harm than
good.
He is bound to absolute secrecy by the seal of confession,
which covers the name of the penitent,
everything that he has said,
and everything that may possibly lead to the discovery of anything that has
been told in confession.
The priest is not to attempt to take control of the penitent's life.
Like a medical doctor, he can only give advice, not commands;
but the penitent is responsible if he disobeys that advice.
The confessor has just so much power over the penitent as the penitent chooses
to give him, and he should train the penitent to depend not on his or her
confessor but on God.
He will be wise always to hear confessions in the open church,
especially those of women (except, of course, in the case of sick persons),
and always to have some trustworthy person present in the church,
but out of earshot, in case the penitent becomes hysterical or tries to blackmail
him.
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