„For God to give his Son; that man may not perish, but may have life everlasting”. The Biblical aspects of the sacrament of penance

Abstract

In the climate of postmodern revision of everything that is spiritual, reli-gious values and practices of the Catholic Church are wilting like plants without water. Thus also the crisis of sacraments and sacramentals. The first victim is the sacrament of penance. Amongst the reasons for such a state of affairs there are two issues that seem to be obvious: a subconscious fear of the truth about oneself and an ignorance of this sacrament’s nature and meaning. This article tries to show how one can help oneself with this serious believers’ problem. The remedy is to put the sacrament into a context of love which a newly baptised, as a follower of Jesus, the Son of God and the man’s Redeemer, is equipped with for the way of an earthly life along with other virtues and gifts. Receiving a white garment is considered as a call to a fidelity to privilege of being a God’s Child. Against the background of that symbol and imperative at the same time, the sin, infidelity to baptismal commitments should be considered not only as the white garment’s staining but mainly as hurting the love that God gave a man in the secret of creation and redemption. However, God did not leave a man alone, but He came to meet and forgive him. The accession to the sacrament of penance is a recognition of one’s sinfulness and return to friendship with God. In this view, the conversion appears as a heart’s recognition that it committed an injustice and believed some “love” different from the fatherly love of the Creator. On the one hand, relieving pain and sorrow and on the other hand, being full of gratitude for forgiveness, a recurrent sinner considers the reconciliation through sacramental confession as a mercy, touching a hand of the Divine Doctor who chose that form of sacrament, according to paenitentiales practices of the Old Testament as a way of revelation His merciful love. Because the grace of reconciliation’s Stewart is in the same state as a penitent, the sacrament of penance can be seen as the most ‘democratic’ sacrament. In the examination of conscience, the first one of the requirements of the sacrament of penance, there cannot be missed a recall and confession evidences and testimonies of God’s fatherly goodness (confessio laudis); the answer for that love is the penitent’s former life, so his sins in their wide range of expressions (confessio vitae) and finally, as a proof of conversion – taking up a life program according to the indications of God’s word and Church teachings (confessio fidei).