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Grace, Sacraments, Reconciliation

Grace

  • A freely given favor/gift, undeserved, from God that enables us to love him and become his children as adoptive sons and daughters of God, making us partakers of the divine life.
  • It is a participation in the life of God → links us to the Trinitarian life of God.
  • Effects: Heals and elevates us
    • Act according to the three theological virtues: faith, hope, love.
  • Types: Sanctifying/Habitual Grace (the stable habit or disposition of grace) and Actual Grace (individual moments of grace/God’s intervention).
  • God's free initiative demands man's free response, for God has created man in his image by conferring on him, along with freedom, the power to know him and love him.

Sacraments in General

  • CCC 1076 The Church was made manifest to the world on the day of Pentecost by the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit ushers in a new era in the "dispensation of the mystery" the age of the Church, during which Christ manifests, makes present, and communicates his work of salvation through the liturgy of his Church, "until he comes." In this age of the Church Christ now lives and acts in and with his Church, in a new way appropriate to this new age. He acts through the sacraments in what the common Tradition of the East and the West calls "the sacramental economy"; this is the communication (or "dispensation") of the fruits of Christ's Paschal mystery in the celebration of the Church's "sacramental" liturgy. 
  • Sacramentality- refers to any manifestation in a sign of the mystery of God’s life, the giving of it by God and the receiving of it by humans. The simultaneous manifestation and realization of the gift of God and the invitation to divine life that has already within it the response.
    • Union of heaven and earth, the offering of the divine life and the receiving of it by man.
    • It has both a visible and invisible dimension → Form and Matter.
    • Christ is the sacrament of God; the Church is the sacrament of Christ.

What is the definition of a sacrament?

  • Sacrament: an efficacious sign of grace, instituted by Christ, entrusted to the Church, by which divine life is dispensed to us. (CCC 1131)
    • Sacramentum/Musterion → oath soldiers took in serving a king/emperor, sometimes physically marked to show this commitment → applied to Christian rites, it is entering into service/communion with God. (indelible mark on the soul)
  • CCC 1084 "Seated at the right hand of the Father" and pouring out the Holy Spirit on his Body which is the Church, Christ now acts through the sacraments he instituted to communicate his grace. The sacraments are perceptible signs (words and actions) accessible to our human nature. By the action of Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit they make present efficaciously the grace that they signify.
    • Sacraments work ex opere operato: by the very fact of the action’s being performed → by virtue of the saving work of Christ, not the righteousness of the celebrant.
    • The action performed in accordance with the intention of the Church, the power of Christ and his Spirit acts through it.
  • CCC 1210 The seven sacraments touch all the stages and all the important moments of Christian life: they give birth and increase, healing and mission to the Christian's life of faith. There is thus a certain resemblance between the stages of natural life and the stages of the spiritual life.
    • Foundation of the Christian life: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist.
    • Healing: Reconciliation and Anointing of the Sick.
    • Mission and Service: Holy Orders and Matrimony.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession etc.

  • Conversion: makes sacramentally present Jesus’ call to conversion → return to the Father.
  • Penance: consecrates the Christian sinner’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion.
  • Confession: essential acknowledgement of sin, but praise of the holiness of God and his mercy.
  • Forgiveness: by the priest’s sacramental absolution, God grants pardon and peace.
  • Reconciliation: imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles.

Scriptural Basis

  • John 21-23: Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
  • Matthew 18:18 - Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
  • James 5:16 – Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Components of the Sacrament

  • Minister: Priest (has the authority to bind and loose), sacramental seal of confession: the priest is bound by secrecy regarding sins under severe penalty.
  • Form: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and the resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”
  • Matter: Contrition: sorrow of the soul and detestation for the sin committed, together with resolution to not sin again.” (imperfect vs. perfect contrition): and the confession of sins (all mortal sins specifically)
  • Penance/Satisfaction: absolution removes sin, but does not remedy all disorders sin has caused (purgatory) → must make amends for sin/expiate one’s sin. Typically corresponds to the gravity/type of sin committed.
  • Effects: Reconciliation with God, neighbor (the Church), self. Absolves sins but does not remove concupiscence (you are still fallen)
    • Peace and serenity of conscience, strong spiritual consolation, spiritual resurrection
    • Sanctifying grace restored, life of charity restored.

Practical Components

  • Undertake a careful examination of conscience (sermon on the mount, ten commandments, St. Paul’s letters, examination of conscience sheet)
  • Confess all mortal sins you are conscious of and the number of times committed. Also confess venial sins.
    • No need to add unnecessary details, just confess the specific sin (confess sins, not stories)
    • Be concise and honest, avoid adding details that try to justify your sin.
  • Say act of contrition – can have the prayer with you in the confessional (should eventually memorize)
  • Do your penance (quality over quantity, focus on sincerity)