Lent

Confession has long and varied history in church

By Fr. Dave Beaudry

	A Lenten series on Reconciliation

There is much talk these days among people of all walks of life, regarding what we fondly call "confession." The word itself evokes great memories and experiences across generational lines, from fruitful to downright scary.

The sacrament itself has a varied history and has gone through various evolutions, beginning as Mediterranean or public penance, which was received before the bishop (given only once) for the sins of adultery, murder and apostasy.

Then, came the Celtic/Irish monks (not ordained) acting as Soul Friend and praying for forgiveness with the penitent.

	L e n t
	• Other Everyday People, Everyday Faith articles
	• Other Lent articles

Finally, the sacrament evolved to include the Irish priests (ordained) and their penitential books, which contained various "tariffs" or "taxes" (the penances) that a penitent needed to accomplish before returning to the priest for absolution.

What made tariff penance so appealing is that it was repeatable, private and, eventually, anonymous: not at all like the once-and-for-all public penance ritual held before the bishop and the community.

Herein lies the beginnings of what we know as "auricular confession." The word auricular derives its meaning from the Latin word auricular or ear. Hence, priests would "hear" confessions.

The reaction of local church leaders was swift: Various church councils initially condemned the practice of individual penance and burned the penitential books of the priests.

An amazing journey indeed. Church leadership once condemned what we have come to know as our current practice.

Christians simply preferred the private, individual rite, and not the public rite. In other words, people kept going to the monasteries and finally to the "diocesan" priests to share reconciliation.

By the 13th century and even before, church councils mandated that Christians everywhere needed to make a private confession and receive Holy Communion at least once a year. That eventually came to be known as part of our Easter Duty, an understanding that we have grown up with in the 20th century.

What does this brief historical journey tell us? Even though there have been many forms of the sacrament throughout history, the heart and purpose of the sacrament remains the same: That God's children may encounter the lavish forgiveness of God already woven into our lives by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

This encounter with God's forgiveness is clearly manifest Sunday after Sunday in the Mass, "the sacrament of our forgiveness."

The sacrament of Reconciliation is one way that God keeps the lavish forgiveness of Jesus alive in our hearts, through the heart and hands of a Soul Friend, or priest-confessor.

I speak from the experience of a human man. When one seeks out a Soul Friend, much is already happening. An examination of our life has begun in earnest: the seeds of conversion or heart-felt change already being watered by God's victorious grace. In the face of such goodness, we ask "What have I/we done? What is the sin, the evil, the false self that must be let go?"

When we are asked "what brings us here, what is in our heart," we confess, spill our guts, if you will, with great sorrow. We desire heart-felt change, to atone. What is the penance that will light our path, cleanse the way in our relationships with each other and with God? At last, a prayer of reconciliation prayed eye-to-eye, heart-to-heart, so often like a wave washing over us, healing us, renewing us.

To put this experience in more contemporary terms, we experience CPR: a sacrament of a new heart. May we continue to seek out a Soul Friend who mirrors that God is deeply in love with us.

(Fr. Beaudry is the pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Newton. He is an assistant adjunct professor of religious studies and philosophy at Silver Lake College, Manitowoc, specializing in sacramental theology, moral theology, and medical ethics.)