← The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)
Day 199: The Sacrament of Forgiveness (2025)
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Together, with Fr. Mike, we continue our examination of the sacrament of Reconciliation. Specifically, we explore the origins and structure of the sacrament that we use today. Fr. Mike emphasizes that although some of the ways we celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation have changed, the essential elements have always remained the same. He also explores the importance of understanding the differences between perfect and imperfect contrition. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 1446-1454.
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Fr. Mike Schmitz
Hi, my name is Fr. Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us revealed in Scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity in God's family as we journey together toward our heavenly home. This is day 199. We are reading paragraphs 1446 to 1454. As always, I'm using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes the Foundations of Faith approach. But you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a Year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com ciy and you can click follow or subscribe on your podcast app for daily updates and daily notifications. Today you guys, day 199. One day away from two bills. And what an incredible day it is. And what an incredible day it is. Oh my gosh, here we go. You know, today we're continuing to talk about the Sacrament of reconciliation. And so we said yesterday, noted how that sin, what sin is, it's above all offense against God and it's also rupture of communion with the Church. So only God can forgive sins, yet through his Church he offers us forgiveness. And so we're going to talk about today how this sacrament developed over time, a little bit of that, because how we have it now, how we experience the Sacrament of reconciliation at this point in time is not exactly the way that it was celebrated even for the first time number of centuries in Christianity. And so we're going to look at that. We're also going to look at what is it that the fundamental structure. So some things have changed, some, you might say cosmetic things have changed, or maybe some practical things have changed, but the fundamental structure of the Sacrament of reconciliation has remained the same. And that's what the penitent does, you know, the person who's going to confession and then what the Lord does through the Church, that's remained the same. We're also going to look at today the beginning of the acts of the penitent again. So the penitent is the person going to confession. It requires the penitent does a couple things or has a couple things, is moved by a couple things. One is contrition. We also have confession. We have satisfaction and we're Only going to look at the first one. Today we're looking at contrition. So what is it to have contrition, or what is it to be contrite when it comes to coming before the Lord and acknowledging our sins and turning back to him? Remember, we talked about this a couple days ago and yesterday as well, that interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart. And so because of that, we need to have this thing called contrition. We'll look at what that is today. So without any further ado, let us do a prayer that doesn't make sense. Without anything further. Let's just call upon our Heavenly Father. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God in heaven, you are good and you are love, and you call us back to yourself constantly. You continue to offer us and all peoples of the world reconciliation. You offer us your forgiveness. Because you are not only just, you are merciful. You not only are good and fair. You also extend your grace to us, a grace that we do not deserve, but a grace that we do need. You give us your mercy, Lord God. Help us to enter into your mercy. Help us to allow your mercy to enter into us. And give us the grace today. Do whatever it is that is our sin, whatever it is that's keeping us away from you. To say yes to your love, to say yes to your grace, and to say yes to mercy. Break our hearts. Break our hearts and make us contrite. Break our hearts and help us fall more and more in love with you. Let us help us to hate sin and to love you. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today is day 199. We're reading paragraphs 1446 to 1454. The sacrament of Forgiveness Christ instituted the sacrament of penance for all sinful members of His Church, above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin and have thus lost their baptismal grace and wounded ecclesial communion. It is to them that the sacrament of penance offers a new possibility to convert and to recover the grace of justification. The Fathers of the Church present this sacrament as the second plank of salvation after the shipwreck, which is the loss of grace. Over the centuries, the concrete form in which the Church has exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably. During the first centuries, the reconciliation of Christians who had committed particularly grave sins after their baptism, for example, Idolatry, murder, or adultery was tied to a very rigorous discipline, according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins, often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this order of penitence, which concerned only certain grave sins, one was only rarely admitted, and in certain regions, only once in a lifetime. During the seventh century, Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic tradition, took to continental Europe the private practice of penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one sacramental celebration. In its main lines, this is the form of penance that the Church has practiced down to our day. Beneath the changes in discipline and celebration that this sacrament has undergone over the centuries, the same fundamental structure is to be discerned. It comprises two equally essential elements. On the one hand, the acts of the man who undergoes conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit, namely, contrition, confession, and satisfaction. On the other, God's action through the intervention of the Church. The Church, who through the bishop and his priests, forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction, also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. Thus the sinner is healed and re established in ecclesial communion. The formula of absolution used in the Latin Church expresses the essential elements of this sacrament. The Father of mercies is the source of all forgiveness. He effects the reconciliation of sinners through the passover of His Son and the gift of His Spirit through the prayer and ministry of the Church. The prayer is God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. Through the ministry of the Church. May God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. The acts of the penitent Penance requires the sinner to endure all things willingly, be contrite of heart, confess with the lips, and practice complete humility and fruitful satisfaction. Contrition. Among the penitent's acts, contrition occupies first place. Contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again when it arises from a love by which God is loved above all else. Contrition is called perfect. Such contrition remits venial sins. It also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible. The contrition called imperfect or attrition, is also a gift of God, a prompting of the Holy Spirit. It is born of the consideration of sin's ugliness or the fear of eternal damnation and the other penalties threatening the sinner. Such a stirring of conscience can initiate an interior process which, under the prompting of grace, will be brought to completion by sacramental absolution. By itself, however, imperfect contrition cannot obtain the forgiveness of grave sins, but it disposes one to obtain forgiveness in the sacrament of penance. The reception of this sacrament ought to be prepared for by an examination of conscience made in the light of the Word of God. The passages best suited to this can be found in the Ten Commandments, the moral catechesis of the Gospels and the Apostolic Letters, such as the Sermon on the Mount and the Apostolic teachings. All right, there we are, paragraphs 1446 to 1454. A couple things we're going to highlight is what is sacrament? For who is sacrament of Mark? Reconciliation. For it's a sacrament of reconciliation for all of those who, after having been baptized, have fallen into grave sin. So that's. And gravely wounded. Not only they've lost their baptismal grace, but also gravely wounded ecclesial communion. And so I love that image that says the Fathers present the sacrament as the second plank of salvation after the shipwreck, which is the loss of grace. So the first plank of salvation, obviously, is baptism itself, that gift of salvation. But what happens when. What happens when we've made shipwreck again? Well, God is so good that he continues to pour out his mercy upon us. Now, I don't know if you noted this, probably did in paragraph 1447. It gives a little bit of a history. And the history is that the way you and I experience the sacrament of reconciliation now is not the way that it was practiced from the very beginning. Yes, there was a ministry of reconciliation. Yes, there was the offering of forgiveness of sins, because that goes all the way back to Jesus giving that gift to the apostles. And. But in the early Church, for the first couple centuries, in fact, in some regions, it even, even highlights that you might be able to go to confession once in a lifetime. And you usually they'll be reserved for a couple different, bigger deal sins, right? So the examples they give here are idolatry, murder, adultery. Another could. Another one could be apostasy. Right? Denying the faith, that kind of. That kind of situation. I guess idolatry might fall into that category as well. And there was a public and rigorous discipline. In fact, sometimes after you've confessed, you'd go to the front of the. I guess I've heard it be described like this. It would be a public confession that you would essentially walk to the front of the community, walk to the front of the church in a manner of speaking, or maybe even literally, and declare what you had done, whether that being again, idolatry, murder, adultery, apostasy, whatever that was. And then you might actually have to, for a long time, weeks, months, maybe even years, do some kind of public penance as a way of being re. Established back in fellowship with the community and re. Establish back in grace with the Lord in this particular way. Yeah, that's just how it was. Now, it was in the seventh century, as you noted this seventh century Irish missionaries, they brought to Europe this practice, the private practice of confession, right, where it would just between. It would be between the penitent and the priest. And that gave rise to this recognition that, you know, again, God's mercies are offered to us regularly. Now, it might be a little bit easy to harshly judge the early Christians, right? It might be easy to harshly judge them and say, wow, they were so rigorous. They were so. That was kind of intense. One time. You only get to go to confession one time in your lifetime. That seems to be, again, I guess I can't think of a word for it other than rigorous. And I would agree. At the same time, I can't judge them too harshly because you can imagine that they would be interested in preserving the high call of the disciple. They'd be interested in preserving that sense of no battle against sin. I mean, the letter to the Hebrews, what does he say? He says, in your battle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. That sense of, wow, okay, so if you want to retain a sense of God's holiness, you want to retain a sense of the ugliness and awful awfulness of sin, then, yeah, one time you get to go to confession. On the other hand, I'm so grateful for those Irish missionaries who brought to the rest of Europe and throughout the world, then the practice of frequent confession and private confession, because that highlights not. It doesn't dismiss the reality and the brutality and the ugliness of sin, but it does emphasize God's infinite mercy and its infinite grace. And I think that, you know, it seems like virtually every heresy or every disorder is a refusal to live in paradox, like a refusal to live in that place of tension between, you might say, two extremes or two things that seem opposed. You have God's justice and you have God's mercy. And so in the early Church, here is an emphasis on God's justice. Yes, you, as you're coming back to the Church, you get to go to confession one time, because sin is awful, sin is horrible, and God is good, and God is just. On the other hand, here is God's mercy, and God's mercy endures forever. God's mercy is new every day. And so that sense of, like, let's hold both of these in tension, and that is that we might call the Catholic paradox, the Catholic both. And where we hold on to God's justice and hold on to the ugliness of sin, and we hold on to God's mercy and the beauty of his grace. And so we have to do this. And so here we are, we get to Inherit, you know, 2,000 years later, we get to inherit the way in which confession has come to us. Now, at the Same time, paragraph 1448 highlights this truth and this reality that even though the change in discipline of how confession looks has changed over the centuries, the fundamental structure, those essential elements have remained the same. So on the one hand, what we do, right, so we undergo conversion through the action of the Holy Spirit. We have these three elements of contrition, confession, satisfaction. On the other hand, we have God's action through the intervention of the Church. And so that's through the bishops and the priests who are ministers of God's reconciliation, so important for us. And so that has remained the same. So even though some of the discipline and celebration of the sacrament has changed, the essential elements have always remained the same. And one thing I want to highlight this. We're going to talk about this again when we talk about the role of the priest in confession. But at the end of paragraph 1448, I just invite you to note this. It says this. It says the Church, who, through the bishop and his priests, forgives sins in the name of Jesus Christ and determines the manner of satisfaction goes. Here's the next line. Also prays for the sinner and does penance with him. I don't know if you've ever known that. So one of the things that the priest does when he hears your confession, yes, he grants he gives absolution in the name of Jesus in the name of the Church, yes, he gives you a penance to do, but one of the duties of the priest is also to pray for the sinner, to pray for you whenever you go to confession. And I don't know if you got this line. And does penance with him. I remember when I first heard this, I was. I was a missionary down in Central America as a college graduate before I went into seminary. And I'd gone to confess. You know, I. Maybe. I don't know if I've shared my. Did I share it recently? Shoot, I can't even remember if I've shared my experience of just. I encountered Jesus for the first time in an incredibly powerful way in the sacrament of reconciliation, and it has marked my life. So grateful for the way in which God's mercy has marked my life through confession. But there was a time, kind of toward the end of college and the beginning of being a missionary, where I kind of drifted away from. I had hardened my heart to the Lord, even though I was a missionary, even though I was going to Mass on a regular basis, I had hardened my heart to the Lord. And so after the Lord broke my heart again and brought me back to him, I went to confession for the first time in kind of a while. And it was, you know. You know, some kind of. Some. Some confessions are a little bit bigger than others, if you might say it like that. I went to confession. The priest gave me a very, very minor penance. And I was like, wow, Father, I. That's kind of. It's kind of. Kind of easy, you know, kind of a lightweight kind of a situation for me. And he said, oh, no. Oh, yeah, it is. But he said two things. He said, that's because, you know, God's grace is free. You know, you don't. You're not earning his grace. You're not earning his mercy. And he said, but I want you to know that I will be fasting for you for the next 30 days. And I was like, whoa, what? What? And, yeah, the priest, when you hear my confession, gave me a penance of, I don't know, 10 Hail Mary, something like that. Like something that would be over in a minute. But he said, I want you to know I'll be fasting for you for the next 30 days. This is part of the role of the priest in confession. He prays for the sinner and he does penance with him. Now, that might be an extreme case. And this was a very unique priest and a very just. Yeah, we had a little bit of history because when I was down in that mission, I was kind of a jerk. And so I think I probably was a jerk to him. And so maybe his doing penance for me was also a way of kind of like disciplining his interior life, not hating me. I'm not sure about that. But it's a gift. And in fact, it's a what every priest is called to. Now, not every priest can fast 30 days for every person who goes to confession, but he should do some kind of penance. And so my brothers who are listening to this, my brother priests who are listening to this, just as a reminder, that's what we're called. We're called to pray for the sinner and do penance with him. Now, the next section is the prayer of absolution. Just before the acts of the penitent, there's an example of the prayer of absolution. Now, this in your catechism is probably the old prayer of absolution. Because I believe just in 2023, the church updated a couple of words. And so where it says here in your catechism, if you're following along with your eyeballs, not just to the ears, it says that God has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us. Well, the new translation or the new wording is he has reconciled the world to himself and poured out the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins. So poured out versus sent. Okay, that's one word change. And the second to last line, may God give you pardon and peace. The new translation is, may God grant you pardon and peace. So there you go. That's just kind of an FYI, kind of a tidbit thing for you. Now, the last piece here is when it comes to the acts of the penitent, tomorrow we'll talk about the next acts of the penitent of confession of sins satisfaction. But today we're talking about contrition. So among what we have to do in confession is contrition. Contrition is what? Contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sins committed, together with the resolution not to sin again. And so very few of us have what they call perfect contrition. Now, what is contrition? It says here very clearly in 1451, contrition is sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with the resolution not to sin again. Okay, so there's this. That sense of, yeah, I. I am, I'm sad, the sorrow of the soul for. And I detest my sins we even say that in the act of contrition, I detest my sins, together with the resolution not to sin again. Now here's something to kind of pay attention to sometimes. We have. We have a couple extremes. Once again, we have extremes, justice and mercy. We have the extreme of contrition. For example, there are some people who will say, I don't know, I don't feel badly for what I've done, so can I go to confession? And I would ask them, because they say, maybe I'm not contrite, maybe if I don't feel badly. It says here that contrition is sorrow of the soul, detestation for the sins committed. I will ask every person who comes to confession or hesitates to go to confession, like, because they're maybe worried that, I don't know, am I sad? I don't feel sad. I'd ask this. Is there any part of you that wants to be free from this sin? Is there any part of you that wants to have this sin taken away from you and that you can just live at that freedom and that joy and the love of God? If there's any part of you that desires this freedom, then you have the beginnings of contrition. And I believe that our God is so humble, that he is so loving that he will take even the smallest glimmer of contrition that we can offer and he can do a miracle in our lives. So we know this. I believe that we know this, that it's not perfect, right? There's such a thing as perfect contrition. 1452 talks about perfect contrition, which is that arises from a love by which God is loved above all else. Easier for me to say the next paragraph, 14:53, says there's imperfect contrition as well. And imperfect contrition, that's a gift of the Holy Spirit. But a lot of times that is what I'm here. I'm going to confession because, yep, sin is ugly. And also I don't want to go to hell or I don't want to experience the other penalties threatening me in my sin. And so there is a stirring of conscience that's happening there. So it's imperfect because I'm looking out for my own neck, right? It's imperfect because my motivation is not so much a love of God as much as it is a love of self. At the same time, God receives that. He takes it. How crazy is this? How humble God is that he's willing to even take our imperfect, selfish contrition and give Us, his mercy, the mercy that he purchased for us by his own blood, by the shedding of his own blood, by the pouring out of his own life. It's incredible. But that's an act of grace, too. Even if I'm a mercenary, right? Even if I'm like, okay, Lord, I'm in it for me, but please give me your grace. Give me your forgiveness. Because at the very least, I don't know if I love heaven, but I don't want hell. God is so good that he will give us that grace. Now, the goal, of course, in all of our hearts, for all of our hearts, is that I don't want heaven for my sake. I want heaven for God's sake. I don't want God for my sake. I want God for his own sake. That I love God not for his gifts, but I love God for him. And that's the goal of all of our hearts, where that's perfect contrition. And so, you know, I don't know if you have seen this before, many acts of contrition, there is a sense in there. There's even a sentence in there where sometimes an act of perfect contrition will say, I confess my sins because I dread the loss of heaven and fear the pains of hell, but most of all because I've offended you, my God, who are all good and deserving of all my love. That is a way of expressing perfect contrition. And we can pray that prayer. You can pray that prayer, even if you realize that's aspirational, right? It's not actually how I feel right now. It is an aspiration. I would like to be able to be here because I say, most of all, because I love you above all things. But that might not be true. It's okay to pray that prayer because in that sense, at least, that part of the prayer is an aspirational part of that prayer. And it's worth expressing, it's worth aspiring to. Now, two quick things. You might have noticed this. In paragraph 1452, it said, Such contrition. What kind of contrition? Perfect contrition. Perfect contrition remits venial sins. Awesome. The next line, or part of that line, though, says it also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins if it includes the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible. So here is something that. It could be problematic or it could be confusing for some people. They'd say, oh, okay, so I can go receive Holy Communion because I made an act of contrition. I'll go to confession the next time I get a chance. That's not what this is saying. It's not saying you made an act of contrition. Now just go to receive communion and go to confession the next chance you have. That's not what that's saying. It's saying that if I have perfect contrition, it obtains forgiveness of mortal sins with the thought, the intention, resolution, that I'm going to go to confession as soon as I can. It doesn't say if I make an act of perfect contrition, but if I have perfect contrition. So the great question we get to ask ourselves is, okay, in this moment, do I love a God? Love God above all else. And that's my motivation for saying, I'm sorry. And that's the motivation for coming before the Lord and confessing my sins directly to the Lord. Because I fear that some people might hear this and say, oh my gosh, I can see this. I made an act of contrition. And so now I will receive communion and go to confession later. I do not believe that that's what the Church is teaching here. The church is expressing that you do not need to be afraid when you have. Well, never. We never have to be afraid because God is always on our side. God loves you so much. But to simply say that I made an act of contrition, I'll go to receive communion and later on go to sacramental confession. I do not believe that in most cases, that's where most of us are. It's saying here that if I have perfect contrition, I love God above all else, and I come before him in my perfect contrition with the resolution to go to confession later on, then the door is open to be able to receive holy Communion. In the meantime, I would just argue and submit in a pastoral way. And this is just. This is me, but this is how I read the text here. I don't think that's most of us. I don't think that's where most of us are. So to that end, here's what I would invite us all to do. Yes, make an act of contrition after your sins. You don't have to wait to go to confession to make an act of contrition, but turn back to the Lord so quickly. Turn back to the Lord as soon as you can. This is what I try to do. When I fall into sin, it's like just, okay, Lord, I am so sorry. Turn back to him as soon as I can. Continue to pray. As soon as you can, but also go to confession as soon as you can. And I would invite all of us to not presume that we have perfect contrition, to not presume that we have that, but instead to abstain from Holy Communion until we have the chance to go to sacramental confession. That's what I've got for you. That's just this piece that I just wanted to Clarify in paragraph 1452 before we launch into tomorrow where we do talk about confession and then later on satisfaction and the minister of the sacrament, we'll talk more about the priest and the bit, you know, the bishop, how Jesus actually is the one who forgives our sins. Incredible. But right now, that's the word today, you guys. Well, here we are. Longer day. I think it was a longer day. Apologize for that. But I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.