During this past week’s Ash Wednesday liturgy, I, as the Celebrant, invited the congregation to a holy Lent using a bidding found in the Book of Common Prayer. I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance; by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and meditating on God's holy Word (p. 265). The Church’s long tradition highlights five spiritual practices for a holy Lent. For the next five weeks, I will focus on each of these five spiritual practices. My hope is that these practices will help you in your own Lenten journey.
Self-examination and repentance coexist as a unified practice, and you may very well associate this practice most specifically with Lent, however appropriate it may be throughout the Church year. But in reflecting on self-examination and repentance, I want to home in on Christ’s great gift of reconciliation. In the bosom of the Church, we encounter this gift in sacramental form in the Reconciliation of a Penitent (BCP, p. 447). This sacrament is sometimes called auricular or private confession (although it’s really not private since it involves two people gathered in the Name of Christ). And while a hearty embrace of this sacrament has yet to grow among Episcopalians and Anglicans, it has always been a part of our tradition. The earliest Anglican prayer books enjoined those troubled in conscience to unburden themselves through confession to a “wise and discerning priest.” But we Episcopalians have a superb gift in our very catholic prayer book, which offers two forms for the Reconciliation of a Penitent. These forms appear for the first time in the history of American prayer books with the book of 1979.
For those of us who grew up in the Roman Catholic tradition, and who perhaps had difficult experiences with sacramental confession, I invite you to reconsider the sacrament through an Anglican lens. I have always found the Anglican emphasis in sacramental confession to be on thanksgiving for God’s gift of forgiveness. Rather than requiring an “act of contrition” after God’s absolution has been declared, Anglican confessors will usually offer a prayer or psalm to pray as an act of thanksgiving for the freedom of forgiveness. Once God has forgiven, there’s nothing more we need to do except give thanks! Remember, we can’t earn our forgiveness, so our job is, after repentance, to accept it!
This weekly message is far too short for me to explicate the detailed practice of sacramental confession, but I know of no better resource to aid you in understanding it than Martin Smith’s excellent book Reconciliation: Preparing for Confession in the Episcopal Church. Martin Smith is an Episcopal priest and former monk of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. I encourage you to read his short, but profound book, to learn more about confession in the Anglican tradition.
As you may know, confession is available at any time by appointment. Simply email me to set up a time that is convenient for you. You may, admittedly, have some reservations in confessing to your parish priest. Many do, but it’s a most common practice. And I must assure you that the seal of the confessional is morally absolutely. The confessional is perhaps the most vulnerable place on earth, and any responsible confessor will treat it as such, which means respecting the sincere faith required of anyone making a private confession. And any responsible confessor will also be making her or his own regular confession. Otherwise, she or he is in grave spiritual danger of succumbing to pride (wise advice learned from a former parish priest of mine).
Although the Anglican adage about confession has always been, “all may, some should, none must,” I think that the sacrament is a beautiful gift that would benefit all of us. The purpose of sacramental confession is not to fulfill an obligation or rule but to find God’s healing grace at work in our lives. For some who are easily troubled in conscience, the act of naming sins and hearing audible words of forgiveness is a tangible/visible sign of God’s grace of forgiveness. I can’t imagine that anyone wouldn’t benefit from this.
But perhaps most importantly, I know from my own personal experience that letting go is one of the most difficult things to do. It’s so easy to hang on to resentments, anger, jealousy. . you fill in the blank. . . because they give us the illusion of power and control. And although we endeavor to hold ourselves accountable for our sins, it’s usually best if someone else helps us. A thorough self-examination for sacramental confession is much more effective than anything we can do in the five seconds before a “general confession” during Mass. In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Church, represented by a priest (who is also a sinner), holds us accountable to our baptismal vows. The counsel of a wise priest is also important. Sometimes, we are confused about what is a sin and what is not. A confessor can be helpful here.
I’ve said before that I think most people are more than aware of their sins and shortcomings. And yet, awareness doesn’t always equate with full repentance. It certainly doesn’t equate with the freedom of healing found in experiencing God’s gift of forgiveness. If you are being held hostage to some spiritual darkness that won’t let you go, sacramental confession will help you.
The paschal mystery which underlies all our Lenten preparation for the mystery of Easter is about dying to old life and rising to a new one. This is at the heart of the resurrection. It’s at the heart of reconciliation. If you are burdened by something you’re holding on to, and if you need to experience the marvelous power of freedom from sin, sacramental confession is God’s gift to us in this life to enable it to happen. Avail yourself of it. May this Lent be for you a time of release, in which the risen Christ helps you move from Egypt into the Promised Land.
Yours in Christ,
Father Kyle