Enfolded in Christ. John-Francis Friendship

Confession is not the same as therapy, there are similarities, not least in the matter of needing to admit what lies deepest in my heart to another who is bound by rules of confidentiality. Where it differs is that it’s not, primarily, about who the person is (that is the matter of spiritual direction); rather, it’s about the ability of the sacrament to release a person from the chains of sin. Sadly, that well-rehearsed Anglican dictum, ‘All may, none must, some should’, has diverted attention from the real means of personal conversion and grace offered by this sacrament, which has become yet another of the Church of England’s ‘best kept secrets’. Sometimes I want to say to the Church, ‘Wake up! You’ve a great gift to offer, something of practical value.’ But it needs her ministers to realize and teach the importance of this sacrament. Every priest is called to preach repentance, and I know some will say that people are invited to consider this at the beginning of each Eucharist, but is the General Confession and Absolution really an adequate response for those who need to repent?

Evangelicals and Confession

      In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about what he called ‘cheap grace’, which he described as preaching forgiveness without repentance and absolution without personal confession; grace without discipleship, the cross and Jesus Christ. Yet some Christians are concerned about the notion of confessing to a priest, maintaining that only Christ has the power to absolve. Which is correct, the priest only declares the reconciliation that Christ obtained for us and entrusted to his disciples; it’s not the priest’s absolution, nor does any power they might have secure forgiveness and reconciliation. While it’s true that the sacrament must be celebrated by a priest, they’re only ‘necessary’ as officiant, not as the person with the power in and of themselves to forgive or absolve. That power is Christ’s and Christ’s alone.

      In an article in the Daily Telegraph on 9 October 2013 Archbishop Welby wrote:

      It is enormously powerful and hideously painful when (confession) is done properly … it’s really horrible when you go to see your confessor – I doubt you wake up in the morning and think, this is going to be a bunch of laughs. It’s really uncomfortable. But through it God releases forgiveness and absolution and a sense of cleansing.

      And John Newton is reputed to have observed:

      We can easily manage if we will only take, each day, the burden appointed to it. But the load will be too heavy for us if we carry yesterday’s burden over again today, and then add the burden of the morrow before we are required to bear it.

      How true.

My chains fell off

      The juxtaposition of the Crucifix and Confessional in that church in the City was not accidental, for in realizing the love that Jesus has for me, a sinner, my response was to fall at his feet and seek forgiveness. And as I heard the words of Absolution, I experienced in my heart and in my body that sense of elation which burdened Christian experienced in John Bunyan’s book The Pilgrim’s Progress when he comes to the ‘place of deliverance’ (the Cross) and the straps which had tied his great load of sin were cut from his back. I, like Christian, left that Confessional with a tremendous sense of joy, feeling that my life had been restored. Since then, that same sense of my ‘chains falling off’ accompanies the Absolution I receive. I will, I know, need to turn and turn again; to live a life of repentance as I seek to be open to the truth of who I am before God.

The prodigal returns

      While there are many references in the Scriptures to the need for forgiveness and reconciliation, the most powerful image that has moved people to make their Confession is probably that of the return of the Prodigal, also called the Parable of the Loving Father. The one who ‘came to himself’, who decided to ‘rise’ from the filth of his life and return to his father, admit his mistakes and ask to be accepted home. The parable contains two telling phrases.