Holy Confession

Holy Confession: The Soul’s Spiritual Medicine

During Jesus’ earthly ministry, the blind received their sight, the lame began to walk, and the dead came to life. Every life He transformed received healing of both body and soul. He could be heard saying to the crippled man who was healed by the pool at Bethesda “Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee.” (John 5:14) Being made whole means the whole person - body and soul - was restored. His warning against sinning more, lest a worse thing come, pointed to the destructive effect of sin on the whole person. To carry out His healing ministry Jesus broke Judaic social barriers by touching lepers and showing compassion on sinners. In Matthew 9, the Pharisees were scandalized to watch Jesus dining with publicans and sinners. Jesus, reading their hearts, told them: “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.” (verse 12) Jesus is the Physician of our souls and body, and He makes Himself accessible to those who need Him. In verse 13, Jesus emphasizes: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” The Apostle Peter assures us: “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Throughout Jesus’ ministry, He taught the importance of repentance and forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there can be no healing. And, in order to receive forgiveness, one must have faith that Christ, as the Son of God, can forgive, is willing to forgive, and can heal both body and soul. Even as He barely clung to human life, nailed to the cross, He gazed sorrowfully at His murderers and accusers who stood before Him mocking Him, and implored “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do” (Luke 23:34). And it was through His stripes that the faithful are healed from our sins (1 Peter 2:24).

After His glorious resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples, and breathed on them a sign of the future indwelling of the Holy Spirit they would later receive at Pentecost. He then bestowed on them the heavenly authority to assume His forgiveness and healing ministry. He tells them: “Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” (John 20:23) The Apostle Paul later writes to the Church at Corinth “To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:10). Paul here writes about the authority to forgive sins as Christ forgives. Today, two millenia later, the Holy Orthodox Church continues the apostolic sacrament of forgiveness, or absolution, through Holy Confession. It is still Christ who forgives and performs the miraculous healing of the soul, but through the Church (the spiritual hospital) in the person of Christ (The Physician). The Church’s doors are open to all those who are spiritually and physically ill.

During Holy Confession, the penitent Christian recounts his or her struggles, addictions, and transgressions to the priest before the icon of Christ, or the Gospel book and cross. The priest listens carefully and patiently, and then provides pastoral counseling. He then leans over the kneeling penitent, placing his priestly stole over the penitent’s head and recites the priestly prayer of absolution: “May God Who pardoned David through Nathan the Prophet when he confessed his sins, and Peter weeping bitterly for his denial, and the sinful woman weeping at His feet, and the publican and the prodigal son; May that same God forgive you all things, through me a sinner, both in this world and in the world to come, and set you uncondemned before His terrible Judgment Seat. (In the name + of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.) Have no further care for the sins which you have confessed, depart in peace.” The penitent then kisses the priestly stole in humble gratitude, and then privately and joyfully recites a prayer of gratitude to God for His forgiveness. The faithful can attest that following the sacrament of Holy Confession, they feel immediate relief and freedom from the heavy shackles and spiritual burdens they were carrying. The words of Jesus ring through: “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls” (Matthew 11:29). The peace experienced after the soul is spiritually cleansed through the sacrament generates a powerful, positive health effect on the body, gracing the penitent with peaceful evening sleep.