First Sunday of Lent – Reconciliation I | St. Mary's Church

March 4, 2022

by Father Stephen

This weekend I am beginning a series on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).

The history of the development of this Sacrament is rooted in ministry of Christ himself. Often in the Gospels, Jesus forgives the sins of public sinners (e.g. the woman caught in adultery or the woman at the well in John’s gospel) or of those who were infirm in some way (as sin was widely believed at the time to cause illness.) The religious leaders of his time often questioned him on this point, claiming that Jesus was committing blasphemy, as God alone can forgive sins. (Little did they know that Jesus WAS God!) Jesus’ response was to prove he had such authority by effecting miraculous cures. When Jesus appears to his disciples in the upper room following the resurrection, he gives this same authority to the apostles, and by extension to the Church: “whose sins you forgive are forgiven, and whose sins you retain are retained” (Jn. 20:23).

In the earliest days of Christianity, following the death of those first apostles, individual confession had not yet developed. In Baptism, all of one’s sins both great and small were washed away. But what happened to the Christian who sinned after baptism? It was understood that less serious sins could be forgiven through prayer, fasting, works of mercy and participating in the Eucharist. But the emerging Church had to decide how to deal with Christians who committed more serious sins. At first such Christians were simply excommunicated, thrown out of the community. Sometimes however, these serious sinners would experience a conversion of heart and come back to the local bishop to seek a second chance. By the Third Century, the Church began to wrestle with the question of what could be done with such repentant Christians. Some suggested they should be rebaptized. But this was problematic theologically, since it was generally accepted that baptism could only be received once. So there developed the practice of the Order of Penitents. Those who had committed serious offenses such as murder, apostasy, adultery, sorcery, etc. came before the bishop and the community to publicly confess their sins. The bishop then imposed a penance, required the penitents to dress in sackcloth and ashes so that they would be visibly recognized, and expelled them from the community until their penance was completed. Some penances took years to complete depending upon the sin. Upon completion of their penance, the public penitents would return to the Church, generally on Holy Thursday, present themselves to the bishop, who would then forgive their sins and restore them to the community. This however could only be performed once in a lifetime. To avoid such severe penance many chose to remain Catechumens (those preparing for baptism) until relatively certain they would never commit such serious, punishable offenses, and only then be baptized. Many were baptized on their deathbeds. To learn how reconciliation moved from such a public, one-time ritual to a private repeatable sacrament, check back next week for my next installment in this series.