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Why should I go to confession?
Watch Get Clean, a one-minute video on why we need to go to confession. Or read about it here.
Here are seven reasons from the blog of Taylor Marshall who was a priest in the Episcopalian (Anglican) Church before becoming a Catholic.
1. Priestly absolution is an awesome gift that Jesus gave us.
Jesus gave us this Sacrament and wants us to enjoy His grace through it. He told His first priests, the Apostles: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins are forgiven (John 20:22). Christ gave us this rite of grace and forgiveness because He loves us. It is a divine gift of mercy and love.
2. You are a sinner.
You are a sinner and you need to examine the sinful patterns of your heart and have a priest give you absolution, counsel, and penance. We are often not honest with our hearts and it takes an objective ‘physician of souls’ to help diagnose you spiritually.
3. Confession is a means of grace.
It is not scary, it is peaceful. We get excited over baptisms, weddings, and ordinations. Why not the remedy for our greatest Christian struggle? Why not be excited about Christ's forgiveness being declared by His appointed deputies - the priests of His Church.
4. You may have committed mortal sin.
There is such a thing as mortal sin:
If any one sees his brother committing what is not a mortal sin, he will ask, and God will give him life for those whose sin is not mortal. There is sin which is mortal. (1 John 5:16)
Mortal sin is deadly and it separates our souls from the pure eternal life that exists within
the Blessed Trinity. Contrition and priestly absolution restores our hearts to a position of love toward God and our neighbors.
5. Guilt is unpleasant.
Often Satan weighs us down with guilt. Guilt can be a good thing if we transform it into repentance. Of course, Satan hates this and God and the angels love it. So free yourself from guilt and hear a tangible person with spiritual authority say, ‘I absolve thee in the name of the
Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit’.
6. Confession unites you more fully to the Church.
When you make your confession to a priest, you acknowledge that you have sinned not only against God, but against every single other Christian because by your sin you have lessened the universal witness of every single Christian. You have given the non-believer the excuse that ‘All
Christians are hypocrites’. When you go to Confession you acknowledge that you have caused every Christian to suffer by your sins.
If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. (1 Cor 12:26)
The priest, who represents both God and the Church by his ordination and office receives your repentance and you have the assurance of not only God's forgiveness, but the implicit forgiveness of the entire Church.
7. Receiving the Eucharist becomes even more powerful.
Holy Communion is also one of the Seven Sacraments. When you receive communion you receive the true Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ our Redeemer. When you confess your sins in a sacramental way, you also have a stronger sacramental union with Christ in the Eucharist. Also, if you are living in mortal sin, you should NEVER receive the Eucharist because you blaspheme Christ and set yourself up for greater judgment and eternal damnation!
Confession Before Communion; where does the Bible show the need for Confession?
‘According to our Church doctrine, if one has committed mortal sin, he needs to go to confession first before taking Holy Communion. In our Holy Mass, in the penitential rite, we already make an act of contrition. I would like to know why it is not enough. Can you please show me where in the Bible does it say that we need confession first before taking Communion’.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, No 1444, gives the essential biblical authority for the sacrament of Reconciliation/Penance/Confession: In imparting to his apostles his own power to forgive sins the Lord also gives them the authority to reconcile sinners with the Church. This ecclesial dimension of their task is expressed most notably in Christ's solemn words to Simon Peter: ‘I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.’ ‘The office of binding and loosing which was given to Peter was also assigned to the college of the apostles united to its head.’
You can find a fuller treatment of the question in the Catechism here.
St Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11;27, Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.
When we have committed a mortal sin, ie, involving grave matter, done with full knowledge and full consent, we have broken off our relationship with God. God has given us the sacrament of confession as the means of being reconciled with him and with the Church. We cannot receive the Body of Christ in Holy Communion without first having our grave sins forgiven. We would not dare attend a wedding, for example, if we were covered in mud and our clothes in tatters.
When we have committed venial sins we may go to Holy Communion without first having gone to confession, though we should confess our sins regularly. Otherwise we become, in terms of our spiritual life, like someone who doesn't take a shower for a long time, or maybe never!
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The question raises two other points. The penitential rite at the beginning of Mass is not a celebration of the sacrament of reconciliation/penance/confession but a preparation for listening to the word of God, taking part in the sacrifice of Jesus and receiving him in Holy Communion, if that is our intention.
The other point is the implication that the Bible comes chronologically before the Church. This is not so. The Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament, was accepted by the Church as the Bible along with the books of what we call the New Testament. There were other books that weren't accepted as part of the latter, eg, the Gospel of St Thomas. Here is an extract from The Catechism of the Catholic Church:
120 It was by the apostolic Tradition that the Church discerned which writings are to be included in the list of the sacred books. This complete list is called the canon of Scripture. It includes 46 books for the Old Testament (45 if we count Jeremiah and Lamentations as one) and 27 for the New.