In yesterday’s gospel, Jesus entrusts to St. Peter and the Apostles the ministry of forgiveness and mercy. He said, “I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” In this world, keys are either used to lock or unlock something. In this moment, Jesus entrusts to his disciples the ministry of forgiveness and mercy by means of the Sacrament of Penance, the ministry of reconciliation. What is “loosed” on earth is that which is forgiven. What is “bound” on earth is that which is not forgiven.
Therefore, whatever we ask the Lord to render “loosed” on earth is that which we confess in the sacrament of reconciliation. Whatever is “bound” on earth is that which we do not expose to the Lord’s forgiveness and mercy in the sacrament of reconciliation. The Lord gave the Church the power to bind and loose, but that depends on what we are willing to reveal about ourselves before God and what we remain “tight lipped” about before His Majesty. The most beautiful words we will ever hear on earth, besides the words of another person who says to us, “I love you,” are the words, “I absolve you from your sins.”
There are many who contend that going to confession is unnecessary. They say that all we need to do is tell the Lord that we are sorry for our sins. Indeed, we ought to make a daily examination of our lives and offer a sincere Act of Contrition for our sins. But that still doesn’t explain why Jesus commanded the apostles to hold sins bound or to loose them. Rather, Jesus knew that each of us needs a human experience in which we encounter God’s mercy. He knew that asking another person for their forgiveness, as awkward and difficult as that may be, is the doorway to a profound experience of forgiveness that brings a certitude that we are forgiven.
Imagine trying to believe and trust that we are forgiven by people whom we have deeply offended without ever apologizing to them. Sure, we can “move on” with extreme kindness and thoughtfulness, careful to avoid committing the same offense we committed in their regard. But how can we ignore the haunting reality that makes us question whether we have been forgiven. In fact, this is how we are held bound by our sins. If we refuse to apologize to someone in the hope that they forgive us, this is unfinished business. Something has not yet been put right in our relationship because we do not ask for their forgiveness.
Likewise, in the sacrament of reconciliation, whatever we withhold from confession is withheld from God’s forgiveness and mercy. Just as a friend can only know me to the extent that I share my life with them, so too, the Lord can only forgive what I ask him to forgive. And until I “come clean” with all the sins of my life, our sins are held bound on earth because we have held them back from being loosed here on earth in the Sacrament of Penance. Pride, shame, wishful thinking, etc., may keep us from confessing our sins. But faith, trust, hope and humility allow us to expose everything to God’s mercy. The weight of sins lifted off our minds and hearts is a freedom like no other!
And while our sins are “loosed,” forgiven when they are sincerely confessed, too many times we try to “bind” ourselves with them over and over again. If you have confessed something honestly and have not repeated that offense against the Lord, don’t bring it up again. Why do so many of us remember the sin without remembering that it has already been forgiven? In this way the enemy of human nature beats us up with renewed shame when our Lord has already forgiven us and wants us to live in the freedom of his forgiveness and mercy. I’m sure the adulterous woman before Jesus in the Gospel, about to be stoned, lived in the joy of the Lord’s coming to her rescue and the tangible experience of being forgiven. Let us do the same.
Like so many things in life about which we procrastinate, people carry with them the sense that they really need to make a good confession but put off the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to do so. If we put off acting on what is good for us physically, like a check-up with our physician, how much more easily do we put off the healing of our souls through a good confession. If Jesus gave Peter, the apostles and their successors the power to forgive sins, then let us not delay in confessing our sins to receive the sacramental grace of his forgiveness and the sanctifying grace that allows us to grow in the Christian life.
It is my hope that we will all become ambassadors of this sacrament to one another. Upon receiving the forgiveness and mercy of God through the sacrament of reconciliation, one of the best things we can do is simply share in conversation our experience with a phrase or a sentence about it now and then. Suppose someone asks you, “How are you doing?” Imagine if you replied by saying, “I’m doing great. I went to Confession the other day and I have not felt this good in a long time.” This isn’t preachy, but it is a simple testimony of your experience, and it won’t be lost on those who hear you say it. Furthermore, our regular habit of going to confession will do more for our relationship with the Lord, our self-esteem and our confidence than talk shows, podcasts and perhaps some therapists because our new life in Christ will flow from our friendship with Jesus and the sacramental grace of his forgiveness and mercy.
