St. Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church
872 N. 29th St. Boise, ID
an American parish of the Russian Orthodox Church
Confession

 

Soon we will be coming upon Great Lent, our Orthodox season of repentance leading up to the great feast of our victory and deliverance from the captivity of sin, Holy Pascha. As we come into and go through Great Lent, our attention is drawn to the struggle against those sins which continue to plague us. One of the great weapons that we have in the struggle is the sacrament of confession. In order to understand confession more fully, let us look at the need for confession and how to use it most effectively to cut off the sins which plague us.

The need for confession:

Quotes otherwise unattributed in the text are from the writings of Bishop Alexander (Mileant):

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/penance.htm

“Sin is a spiritual sickness that grows and expands with time like cancerous cells. Left unchecked, sin gains in strength and enslaves its victim, and in doing so, it taints his mind, weakens his will towards good, permeates him with uneasiness and bitterness, arouses in him passionate feelings and evil thoughts and compels him to sin again and again.”

“We all are, to a greater or lesser degree, damaged by sin, although we often fail to recognize the full extent of our inner sickness. The main reason that the Lord Jesus Christ came to our world was to eradicate in us the roots of sin and return to us spiritual health and with it eternal bliss. However, because sin is so intimately interwoven with our mind and will, with our subconscious, it cannot be removed instantly or by external means. It is essential that we become actively involved with its extermination, but even our own efforts are not enough to accomplish total eradication of sin. Only the grace of Christ can give us complete spiritual recovery.”

Baptism is the first remedy for this recovery, however, even after Baptism “the predisposition towards sin, which is interwoven with (the) free will, is not completely eliminated. As time passes, an individual falls into sin due to carefree ways, inexperience, and different temptations. Supposedly eliminated, sin, similar to cancerous cells left after surgery, begins to propagate once again, gaining strength and striving to totally control the individual's will. …”

“In the Sacrament of Confession the penitent Christian, in the presence of the spiritual confessor, opens to God his darkened and sick heart and allows the heavenly light to enter, cleanse and heal it. In Confession, as in Baptism, the great rebirthing power of the crucified Son of God is concealed. This is the reason that after this Sacrament, the truly penitent person feels cleansed and renewed, as a newly baptized infant. He obtains new strength to battle the evil within himself and to restart a righteous life.”

How confession works in us:

“Real Christian life begins only after we consciously elect the good and reject the evil. When we disregard our spiritual growth, passively succumbing to our desires and tendencies, whatever they may be, not making any evaluation of them, we are not yet living a Christian life. Only when we become painfully aware of our shortcomings, when we judge ourselves in the light of the Gospel and decide to improve our moral condition, only then can we begin to ascend on the path to salvation.” We are introduced to some examples of confession in the Lenten cycle of services through the parables of the Publican and Pharisee, and the Prodigal Son. We also have the prayer of St. Ephrem and the life of St. Mary of Egypt set before us on a regular basis.

In order to see a picture of the work of confession in us, let us look to a parable related by St. Theophan the Recluse: “There was a youth who was greatly saddened because of his numerous sins. Once in grief he fell asleep. And there, in his dream, as if out of the sky, he saw coming down an Angel. The heavenly visitor slit open his chest with a knife, took out his heart, cut it into pieces, and removed from it all the spoiled and corrupt parts. Then he carefully replaced the heart in its original spot, and finally healed the wound as well. The youth awakened and felt cleansed of all his sins. He was so happy that God had accepted his repentance in such a sudden and unexpected way and relieved him from this unbearable burden. In truth, wouldn't it be good,” asks Bishop Theophan, “if we could experience a similar healing from a light-bearing Angel!” For us this light-bearing Angel is the sacrament of confession in which the sins that we confess and of which we repent are excised from us and we are freed of them. “Confession reinstates the living ties between the Christian and the Body of Christ, i.e. the Church. The power of this Sacrament comes from the blood of the Lamb of God, our Lord Jesus Christ.”

How to confess:

“To receive the most from the Sacrament of Repentance, a person must prepare for it with prayer, reading of Scripture and introspection. Fasting is an old and a helpful tool for repentance and spiritual renewal.” In order to make a good confession, first examine yourself. “Observe carefully your actions during the last several days, your feelings and intentions, words you said. Just yesterday, for example, you cruelly hurt someone with harsh words, or with an insulting suspicion, or by a caustic sneer. It has been three days now that you have been disturbed by some dirty, base desire, and you not only did not drive away this sinful desire, but even dwelt on and enjoyed it. Or you were given an opportunity to do something good for somebody, but you felt that this would disrupt your peace and comfort, so you failed to do it. If you were observant and conscientious, you would realize that passions comprise a great deal of your existence, that your whole life is like a large braid made of small and great sins: unkind thoughts, feelings, words and deeds.”

“The Sacrament of Repentance consists of two parts: a) the verbal confession of all sins done by the repentant, and b) the prayer of absolution administered by the pastor-confessor.” To confess your sins aloud attacks the very root of all sin – that is one’s own pride. Also when we name our sins aloud we symbolically cast them out from the hidden recesses of the heart and expose them to the light of Christ which destroys them. In naming a sin we also psychologically assert our power over that sin, therefore in confession the psychological and spiritual power of sin over us is broken and destroyed. “It is not enough however, just to name our sins, that is, confess them. We must also repent of our sins, that is turn away from them and resolve never again to repeat them.”

“Upon finishing his confession the penitent kneels (or bows) before the cross and the gospel, and the priest-confessor places the stole upon his head and prays for the absolution of sins. The priest requests the heavenly Father not to turn away from the repentant as He did not turn away from the prodigal son but to again make him a new creature and a worthy member of His Divine Kingdom. At this time the invisible Grace of God descends upon the Christian and renews within him the spirit of righteousness.”

“St. John Chrysostom, commenting on the authority given to the pastors of the Church ‘to bind and loose,’ wrote, ‘What the priests determine on earth, God affirms on high in Heaven. Here the Master conciliates with the opinion of His servants.’ However, the priest-confessor does not absolve sins by his own power, and there is nothing mechanical in the prayers of absolution. The priest-confessor is only a witness of one's repentance and a mediator of Divine Grace. God appointed him to be an instrument of His mercy. Ultimately it is up to the repentant to make his soul receptive to the healing Grace.”

Having seen how this great sacrament aids us in our struggle against sin and helps us to overcome the cancer of sin that rests within us by destroying the power of sin over us and freeing us from its tyranny, let us then resolve to make confessions not just once at the end of Great Lent, but to prepare and make confession as often as possible during the Fast season. In this way we will arrive at Holy Week and Pascha with a thoroughly examined soul which is as clean as we can make it with God’s help.

As an aid to making your confession, there is a pamphlet to help in self-examination and preparing your confession included in the newsletters of those who are local members of the parish. Others may wish to download a copy from the parish website.

Confession Pamphlet