Can you list the seven sacraments? Sometimes I have to sing a little song my mom taught me to remember them all: Baptism, Reconciliation, Communion, Confirmation, Marriage, Holy Orders, and the Anointing of the Sick. These sacraments are worth more than just memorizing or recalling the matter and form for each. The sacramental life of the Church is more than just a requirement for every Catholic; each sacrament is a living organ that sustains the Church as the glorified Mystical Body of Christ. To receive a sacrament is to receive the living Body of Christ and grow in closer union with Him. Before the specific sacrament of Penance will be examined, let us take a closer glimpse into the fullness of the Church and the sacraments.
Entrusted to the Apostles, the Church was instituted through the suffering side of Christ while He was suspended on the Cross for the sake of humanity. The Incarnation is a miracle not only in the sense of the primordial act of salvation in Christ’s sacrifice but also in the humanity of the Church. As Christ’s whole life is an efficacious sign to the union of the two loves, human and divine, Christ is the ultimate mediator between God and man. The possibility for divinization had been lost but Christ as the ultimate Priest is willing to sacrifice Himself on behalf of humanity. Colman O’Neill puts it well in that “united to Christ by the Spirit we have access to the Father. We participate in the heavenly liturgy conducted by Christ now that he has passed wholly beyond the veil, bearing his blood” (28). Christ’s offering does not just end with His suffering and death but with the glorification of His Body with the Father and the Holy Spirit in Heaven.
So, Christ’s glorified body is the Church? But, what does this have to do with the sacraments? Wouldn’t the idea that we are all Christ’s body lessen the need for the sacraments since we should just have grace in the faith that Christ gave Himself for us? Remember what is important is the Incarnation: Christ’s humanity allows for the contact for the Trintarian divinity. In the same way, the sacraments are essential points of contact with the Risen Lord to heal and restore our fallen nature. Christ’s ultimate sacrifice opens this up (justification), which we are called to believe, but the sacraments are the instruments throughout our lives in their materiality that gives us bodily contact with Him (sanctification). O’Neill resounds this thought: “this union in love could not remain interior, wholly spiritualized in Christ for he was truly man, come among men; and human action, human communication, must be in and through a body” (13). Each sacrament has a unique point of contact and sustenance to the life of the Christian. And being each an instrument of sanctifying grace in the mystery that the sacrament is, it is a moment where the human person is being transformed into an instrument while being moved by the Divine Mover. Let’s now examine, in a specific way, that we are united to Christ through the Sacrament of Penance.
The sheer idea of confession is often nerve-racking to any Christian – sitting in a small room with a priest that may or may not be known to you, revealing ugly, intimate secrets that you are ashamed to express out loud. But as fallen humans, even after the purifying grace of Baptism, sin continues to wound our identity as children of God and the necessity of Penance is an interior conversion back to the life of grace with the Risen Christ. But, as each sacrament is a visible and material encounter with the Risen Christ, Penance has a unique external participation in the Body of Christ. Unlike the other sacraments with clearly defined elevated symbols, the matter of Penance is a little more confusing. For the visible sacrament, “the external rite is composed of the penitent’s profession of sorrow for the sins confessed and the minister’s words of absolution” (260). These ‘words’ of the penitent are the matter because they reflect the internal reality of conversion that is occurring through the contrition of the penitent. Justification for the wound of sin is only accomplished through the saving act of Christ’s Paschal Mystery. But, through the cooperation of sanctification on the act of humanity, Penance invites the baptized person into the sorrow of Christ in His suffering for fallen humanity. It is the material saying of ‘I have sinned against You and my fellow man’ that leaves room for the sacramental grace to act. And while perfect contrition (sorrow for sin) through the pure love of God is what the penitent should strive for, only attrition (fear of Hell) is required for the sorrow of the sacrament.
Now, a genuine question resides in the possibility to achieve perfect contrition on this side of Heaven? If Christ, who is the Divine Mediator of man to God, bears true contrition through His human nature without sin, how are we, those baptized of the Church, capable of true contrition? This is where the beauty and mystery of the glorified Mystical Body of Christ merits sanctifying grace on behalf of the penitent who is open to receiving, simply having the intention of a turning back. Through the intermediate grace (res et sacramentum) of Penance, “it is God who, in His mercy, draws the sinner back to himself; but He does draw him, respecting the nature which He has given him” (260). The penitent is sorrowful for his actions, which in turn, brings man (not only the penitent) into physical contact with the merciful God. The wounds of sin can now become glorified through the unification of sorrow in Christ. The acceptance of sanctifying grace of the Giver can now be received to heal and restore relationship with the members of His Body. Through the paradoxical movement of true participation in sorrow, the penitent experiences glorified joy as an essential organ to reorder worship of the Trinity once again. The sacraments restore relationship through each material encounter, what a wondrous gift!
References from Colman E. O’Neill’s Meeting Christ in the Sacraments