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T h e F a t h e r s K n o w B e s t
CONFESSION
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Are all of our sins—past, present, and future—forgiven once and for all when we become Christians? Not according to the Bible or the Church Fathers. Scripture nowhere states that our future sins are forgiven.
The means by which God forgives them is confession: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained" (John 20:21–23).
Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were confessed publicly, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Whether public or private confession was made, it was not done alone and in silence to God, but has always been done "in church" (cf. Didache, below).
The basics of the sacrament always have been in existence, as the following quotations reveal. Of special significance is their recognition that confession and absolution must be received by a sinner before he can receive Holy Communion, for "[w]hoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).
THE DIDACHE
"Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure" (Didache 4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).
THE LETTER OF BARNABAS
"You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).
IGNATIUS
"For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ" (Letter to the Philadelphians 3 [A.D. 110]).
IGNATIUS
"To all them that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of God and to communion with the bishop" (ibid., 8)
IRENAEUS
"[The Gnostic disciples of Marcus] have deluded many women. . . . Their consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. Some of these women make a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence, as if withdrawing from themselves the hope of the life of God, they either apostatize entirely or hesitate between the two courses" (Against Heresies 1:22 [A.D. 189]).
TERTULLIAN
"[Regarding confession, some] flee from this work as being an exposure of themselves, or they put it off from day to day. I presume they are more mindful of modesty than of salvation, like those who contract a disease in the more shameful parts of the body and shun making themselves known to the physicians, and thus they perish along with their own bashfulness" (Repentance 10:1 [A.D. 203]).
TERTULLIAN
"[T]the Church has the power of forgiving sins. This I acknowledge and adjudge" (ibid., 21).
TERTULLIAN
"The Great Pontiff—that is, the bishop of bishops [i.e., the pope]—issues an edict: ‘I remit, to such as have discharged penance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication" (Modesty 1 [A.D. 220]).
HIPPOLYTUS
"[The bishop conducting the ordination of the new bishop shall pray:] God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . and grant this your servant, whom you have chosen for the episcopate, [the power] to feed your holy flock and to serve without blame as your high priest, ministering night and day to propitiate unceasingly before your face and to offer to you the gifts of your holy Church, and by the Spirit of the high-priesthood to have the authority to forgive sins, in accord with your command" (Apostolic Tradition 3 [A.D. 215])
ORIGEN
"[A final method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine" (Homilies on Leviticus 2:4 [A.D. 248]).
CYPRIAN
"Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who . . . confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience. . . . I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are still pleasing before the Lord" (The Lapsed 28 [A.D. 251]).
CYPRIAN
"[S]inners may do penance for a set time, and according to the rules of discipline come to public confession and by imposition of the hand of the bishop and clergy receive the right of communion. [But now some] with their time still unfulfilled . . . they are admitted to communion, and their name is presented; and while the penitence is not yet performed, confession is not yet made, the hands of the bishop and clergy are not yet laid upon them, the Eucharist is given to them; although it is written, ‘Whosoever shall eat the bread and drink the cup of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord’ [1 Cor. 11:27]" (Letters 9:2 [A.D. 253]).
CYPRIAN
"But I wonder that some are so obstinate as to think that repentance is not to be granted to the lapsed, or to suppose that pardon is to be denied to the penitent, when it is written, ‘Remember whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works’ [Rev. 2:5], which certainly is said to him who evidently has fallen, and whom the Lord exhorts to rise up again by his deeds [of penance], because it is written, ‘Alms deliver from death’ [Tob. 12:8]" (ibid., 51[55]:22).
APHRAAHAT
"You [priests], then, who are disciples of our illustrious Physician, you ought not deny a curative to those in need of healing. And if anyone uncovers his wound before you, give him the remedy of repentance. And he that is ashamed to make known his weakness, encourage him so that he will not hide it from you. And when he has revealed it to you, do not make it public, lest because of it the innocent might be reckoned as guilty by our enemies and by those who hate us" (Treatises 7:3 [A.D. 340]).
BASIL
"It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted." (Rules Briefly Treated 288 [A.D. 374]).
JOHN CHRYSOSTOM
"Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: ‘Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.’ Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding; but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven? ‘Whose sins you shall forgive,’ he says, ‘they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.’ What greater power is there than this? The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40, John 20:21]" (The Priesthood 3:5 [A.D. 387]).
AMBROSE
"For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only" (Penance 1:1 [A.D. 388]).
JEROME
"Just as in the Old Testament the priest makes the leper clean or unclean, so in the New Testament the bishop or presbyter binds or looses not those who are innocent or guilty, but by reason of their office, when they have heard various kinds of sins, they know who is to be bound and who is to be loosed" (Commentary on Matthew 3:16:19 [A.D. 398]).
AUGUSTINE
"I do not tell you that you will live here without sin, but they are venial sins which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins. For light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. . . . But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the body of Christ. Perish the thought! For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out. . . . In the Church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven: in baptisms, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance" (Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed 7:15, 8:16 [A.D. 395]).
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