I am starting off this new series with a sacrament that is very important, but also controversial among low church Protestant types. If you couldn't guess from the title of this post the sacrament of which I speak is confession.
So what exactly is confession? Confession, also known as penance, is where you go to your priest or spiritual father (if they are different) and confess your sins before him and God. Let me clarify right here that we Orthodox believe that it is God indeed who is forgiving the sins, not the priest himself.
If it is God who is doing the forgiving then why not confess directly to Him and cut out the middle man? Because we are actually told to confess our sins to each other in the New Testament (James 5:16).
We also see in the Gospels that Jesus tells His disciples that whoever sins they remit are remitted and whoever sins they retain are retained (John 20:21-23). And also, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."(Matthew 18:18) Obviously, a precedent has been set here.
From the earliest times of the Church, we have seen confession being done both privately and publicly. By privately I mean confessing our sins to one another, one on one. By publicly I mean to the Church as a whole.
Eventually, the public part went away as the Church grew to include more people and the fear of reprisals grew with them (ibid). Imagine standing before the whole congregation and confessing that you stole money from Jim Bob; you are confessing and will definitely be paying Jim Bob back, but Jim Bob might not be so forgiving, or other parishioners might not feel comfortable around you anymore if money might be involved. Or, perhaps the thought of standing before all of those people makes you anxious and scared so you decide not to confess all of your sins.
So public confession as such went away and was replaced by confessing to the priest. The First Ecumenical Council even enforces this (ibid). So the Church went from having outright public confessions to private confessions to a priest in 300 years. In a perfect world, this would not have been necessary, but we do not live in a perfect world, and because of this the Church practices "economy" for our benefit.
There is a benefit to confessing our sins to a priest, as well. Depending on the jurisdiction, it is not every priest that can hear a confession - you can spot a priest able to hear confession because he will be wearing an epigonation which is a diamond-shaped liturgical thing. But again, there is a benefit to confessing our sins to a priest - he can help us.
I'm not saying that God cannot help us if we confess to Him - in our daily cycle of prayers we do confess our sins. What I am saying is that much like going to a psychologist a priest can offer us words of wisdom or advice to help us avoid certain sins. They can be there for us to see if there may be sins that we are having repeated problems with and offer us advice on how to avoid those. This may seem a bit odd if you are only familiar with the Catholic version of confession as commonly seen on TV and in movies.
Confession is done a bit differently in the Orthodox Church than in the Catholic Church; instead of sitting in a confessional booth with a little slider thing between you and the priest you are kneeling (or standing) with the priest - his stole covering your head - and typically before an icon of Christ. Here the priest hears your confession. After hearing your confession and giving you absolution (and emphasizing that absolution and forgiveness comes from God) the priest may offer some advice to help you.
And get this, the priest is also human. He knows (as well as God does) what it is like to struggle. He knows what it is like to be tempted. He is there not to condemn us, but to help us. The Church is a hospital for sinners - where you go to a hospital when you are ill to get better, you go to the Church to get better as well - and this sacrament is one of the medicines that the Church offers.
Also, there is this thing called the Seal of Confession. Think of the Seal of Confession as Doctor-Patient Confidentiality, or Lawyer-Client Privilege. What is said between you, the priest, and God stays there - it isn't repeated around. The priest doesn't go around and tell his other priest friends what horrible despicable things you did over coffee. There are penalties for breaking the Seal of Confession,
In looking up Accountability Partners I even came across the same verses that I quoted above to show that the idea is biblical. The idea of a confessor should not be so foreign to those who have heard of and have used Accountability Partners before.
To get back on topic... Confession is also the sacrament that is a gateway into the Church for converts. Where if you are a cradle Orthodox, your entry into the Church is through Baptism and Chrismation, for converts before you can get to Baptism and Chrismation you have to have your first confession.
My first confession was a few days before I was chrismated, and it basically included all of my sins up to that point in my life. Now, this was not a list of every single sin that I had committed, nor how many times I had committed each sin. Rather this was a way for me to say that I had sinned growing up, and if there were any particular sins that I wanted to confess to that was the time to do it.
Regular confession is also required for regular communion. Depending on the sin, you may be excommunicated for a while and be required to do a penance of some sort before you can commune again. This would be something like murder, adultery, rape, or apostasy. Also, depending on the sin you may be required to turn yourself in to the police as a part of your penance (murder, rape). This isn't breaking the Seal of Confession because the priest isn't going to tell the police that you killed someone - it is just a part of the penance.
As an Oblate, I am supposed to partake of the sacraments as often as possible - the ones that I can partake of multiple times, it's not like I can be ordained as a priest over and over again... Marriage, however... just kidding - and I have to say that as of late I've not been doing that good of a job of it. Confession is the one sacrament that I and a lot of others just do not like to do. For obvious reasons; not very many people like to come face to face with their own shortcomings - it is actually quite healing and helpful for spiritual and personal growth to do so.
There has been a time or two when I've gone up for communion and the priest told me as I was walking away to come to confession. He knew it had been a while. He knew that I needed to go to confession, not because I'm a huge sinner (I am, the chief in fact) but because as I stated before, the Church is a hospital for sinners and the sacraments are the medicine.
Confession is good for the soul. It heals us. The priest is there as a witness and to offer us advice and encourage us. God forgives us, but we have to confess.
So what exactly is confession? Confession, also known as penance, is where you go to your priest or spiritual father (if they are different) and confess your sins before him and God. Let me clarify right here that we Orthodox believe that it is God indeed who is forgiving the sins, not the priest himself.
If it is God who is doing the forgiving then why not confess directly to Him and cut out the middle man? Because we are actually told to confess our sins to each other in the New Testament (James 5:16).
We also see in the Gospels that Jesus tells His disciples that whoever sins they remit are remitted and whoever sins they retain are retained (John 20:21-23). And also, "Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."(Matthew 18:18) Obviously, a precedent has been set here.
From the earliest times of the Church, we have seen confession being done both privately and publicly. By privately I mean confessing our sins to one another, one on one. By publicly I mean to the Church as a whole.
This idea of a public confession was definitely a foreign concept to me as I was coming into the Orthodox faith. Granted, we do not practice such confession these days, but still reading the history behind modern confession it boggled my mind to think that one would be standing before the whole congregation and confessing all of their sins. I know that I would be embarrassed to do so."The early Christian practice of ecclesial confession is biblical, as Jesus encouraged his followers to confront the problems, corporately and walk in light together. Jesus envisaged three steps to correct a sinning brother, namely:
- Confront the sinner face to face (directly).
- If it fails, confront him with two witnesses,
- If both steps fail, then convey it to the Church. (Mt 18:15-17)
Thus, the Church, (which is a group of believers), is the right forum to hear the confession and enforce discipline. The apostles vigorously instructed to pursue such practice." (Fr. B.M. Thomas)
Eventually, the public part went away as the Church grew to include more people and the fear of reprisals grew with them (ibid). Imagine standing before the whole congregation and confessing that you stole money from Jim Bob; you are confessing and will definitely be paying Jim Bob back, but Jim Bob might not be so forgiving, or other parishioners might not feel comfortable around you anymore if money might be involved. Or, perhaps the thought of standing before all of those people makes you anxious and scared so you decide not to confess all of your sins.
So public confession as such went away and was replaced by confessing to the priest. The First Ecumenical Council even enforces this (ibid). So the Church went from having outright public confessions to private confessions to a priest in 300 years. In a perfect world, this would not have been necessary, but we do not live in a perfect world, and because of this the Church practices "economy" for our benefit.
There is a benefit to confessing our sins to a priest, as well. Depending on the jurisdiction, it is not every priest that can hear a confession - you can spot a priest able to hear confession because he will be wearing an epigonation which is a diamond-shaped liturgical thing. But again, there is a benefit to confessing our sins to a priest - he can help us.
I'm not saying that God cannot help us if we confess to Him - in our daily cycle of prayers we do confess our sins. What I am saying is that much like going to a psychologist a priest can offer us words of wisdom or advice to help us avoid certain sins. They can be there for us to see if there may be sins that we are having repeated problems with and offer us advice on how to avoid those. This may seem a bit odd if you are only familiar with the Catholic version of confession as commonly seen on TV and in movies.
Confession is done a bit differently in the Orthodox Church than in the Catholic Church; instead of sitting in a confessional booth with a little slider thing between you and the priest you are kneeling (or standing) with the priest - his stole covering your head - and typically before an icon of Christ. Here the priest hears your confession. After hearing your confession and giving you absolution (and emphasizing that absolution and forgiveness comes from God) the priest may offer some advice to help you.
And get this, the priest is also human. He knows (as well as God does) what it is like to struggle. He knows what it is like to be tempted. He is there not to condemn us, but to help us. The Church is a hospital for sinners - where you go to a hospital when you are ill to get better, you go to the Church to get better as well - and this sacrament is one of the medicines that the Church offers.
Also, there is this thing called the Seal of Confession. Think of the Seal of Confession as Doctor-Patient Confidentiality, or Lawyer-Client Privilege. What is said between you, the priest, and God stays there - it isn't repeated around. The priest doesn't go around and tell his other priest friends what horrible despicable things you did over coffee. There are penalties for breaking the Seal of Confession,
"The Seal of Confession is a hard and fast rule throughout the history of the Orthodox Church. Since the priest, in Orthodox theology, is but a witness to the confession, since the confession is given to Christ Himself, confidentiality is an absolute must. The secrecy of this Mystery of Penance is vital, for one could not expect a sincere and open confession if the penitent was doubtful of the confidentiality of his confession. Breaking the Seal of Confession is so serious, in fact, that betrayal of this secrecy can lead to canonical punishment of the priest, including the possibility of being deposed from the holy priesthood, as suggested in The Rudder." (Abbot Tryphon)Again, this was all very foreign and confusing to me as a Protestant when I first started to research the Orthodox Church. But then I realized it wasn't that foreign at all. When I was still a Baptist there was this thing going around about Accountability Partners. These were basically people to help you avoid certain sins that you kept falling victim to time and time again. They even have software for your computer and smart devices to help you quit looking at porn and sends reports to your accountability partner so they can talk to you and try to help you out (Covenant Eyes, watch the video, it's kinda funny). And, I've even seen on internet forums (the keepers of the True Faith) where the very idea of an Accountability Partner is derided for being too much like a priest.
In looking up Accountability Partners I even came across the same verses that I quoted above to show that the idea is biblical. The idea of a confessor should not be so foreign to those who have heard of and have used Accountability Partners before.
To get back on topic... Confession is also the sacrament that is a gateway into the Church for converts. Where if you are a cradle Orthodox, your entry into the Church is through Baptism and Chrismation, for converts before you can get to Baptism and Chrismation you have to have your first confession.
My first confession was a few days before I was chrismated, and it basically included all of my sins up to that point in my life. Now, this was not a list of every single sin that I had committed, nor how many times I had committed each sin. Rather this was a way for me to say that I had sinned growing up, and if there were any particular sins that I wanted to confess to that was the time to do it.
Regular confession is also required for regular communion. Depending on the sin, you may be excommunicated for a while and be required to do a penance of some sort before you can commune again. This would be something like murder, adultery, rape, or apostasy. Also, depending on the sin you may be required to turn yourself in to the police as a part of your penance (murder, rape). This isn't breaking the Seal of Confession because the priest isn't going to tell the police that you killed someone - it is just a part of the penance.
As an Oblate, I am supposed to partake of the sacraments as often as possible - the ones that I can partake of multiple times, it's not like I can be ordained as a priest over and over again... Marriage, however... just kidding - and I have to say that as of late I've not been doing that good of a job of it. Confession is the one sacrament that I and a lot of others just do not like to do. For obvious reasons; not very many people like to come face to face with their own shortcomings - it is actually quite healing and helpful for spiritual and personal growth to do so.
There has been a time or two when I've gone up for communion and the priest told me as I was walking away to come to confession. He knew it had been a while. He knew that I needed to go to confession, not because I'm a huge sinner (I am, the chief in fact) but because as I stated before, the Church is a hospital for sinners and the sacraments are the medicine.
Confession is good for the soul. It heals us. The priest is there as a witness and to offer us advice and encourage us. God forgives us, but we have to confess.
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