The Council of Trent had enumerated the
main roles of the confessor as judge,
teacher, healer and father, in that order of importance. Master moral
theologian, St. Alphonsus Liguori, reversed that order. The role of judge is
the last: father, healer, teacher, and
judge. According to him it is up to the confessor to patiently interrogate
the penitent not for legal satisfaction as insisted on by the rigorists, but
solely “to know the origin and the gravity of the sickness...to apply remedies
that are capable of curing that sickness.”
“For the effective performance of this
ministry, the confessor must necessarily have human qualities of prudence, discretion, discernment and a firmness
tempered by gentleness and kindness. He must likewise have a serious and
careful preparation, not fragmentary but complete and harmonious, in the
different branches of theology, pedagogy and psychology, in the methodology of
dialogue, and above all in a living and communicable knowledge of the Word of
God. But it is even more necessary that he should live an intense and genuine
spiritual life. In order to lead others along the path of Christian perfection
the minister of penance himself must first
travel this path. More by action than by long speeches he must give proof
of real experience of lived prayer, the practice of the theological and moral
virtues of the Gospel, faithful obedience to the will of God, love of the
Church and docility to the Magisterium” (Reconciliatio
et Paenitentia, John Paul II, no. 29).
On page 211 of his book,
“Soul Friend” (1994), Kenneth Leech writes, “…it is difficult and spiritually
dangerous to hear a confession if one is not himself a regular penitent. The
priest who is continuously used by others needs to take exceptional care of his
own inner resources and inner nourishment.” The late Karl Rahner suggested that
monthly reception of the sacrament of penance could be a good norm for those
who are serious about the Christian life. Certainly for a priest to grow slack
about his own penitential practice can be disastrous.
In
similar vein, the late Lutheran pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (executed by the
Nazis) writes in his book, “Life Together” (1968), “It is not a good thing for
one person to be the confessor for all the others. All too easily this one
person will be overburdened; thus confession becomes for him an empty routine
and this will give rise to the disastrous misuse of the confessional for the
exercise of spiritual domination of souls. To forestall succumbing to this
sinister danger of the confessional, every person should refrain from listening
to confession who does not himself practise it. Only the person who has so
humbled himself can hear a brother’s confession without harm” (pg. 94). Without
such a discipline of continual repentance and healing no priest can hope to
survive in the spiritual conflict in an increasingly complicated world.
Confessors’
mentality and task:
Most confessions are not
complicated. Hearing confessions is not a matter of solving dilemmas but of
method, since we are dealing not with complicated people but people suffering
from moral weakness, bewildered and disappointed with themselves. Their
contrition for the most part is imperfect, being motivated by fear and
individualism. They look for peace of conscience primarily and not
reconcilement with God whom they have offended. The perfect motive of
contrition is the love of God as infinitely lovable in himself. This demands a
high degree of moral development. Happily, the absolution of the priest – which
is an action of Christ - elevates the imperfect contrition to perfect
contrition, like the embrace of the father in the parable elevated the Prodigal
son’s motive for return to “my father’s house”.
In dealing with his
penitents, the confessor gently brings out the malice of their sins, if their
perception is superficial. He points out that they have come to seek
reconcilement with God and not merely peace of soul, adding that forgiveness
and sanctification are not the fruit or reward of their efforts but a free gift
of God.
People do not become good by being told they
must be. If they could, they would. The problem for some is that they are
trapped in a tangled web of self delusion, warped vision, fear of death and
hell, and a host of other enslavements that make life-sustained goodness a near
impossibility. They need Christ’s death and resurrection to avoid having the
illusion that they can become better by themselves.
The confessor cuts through
the “complications” by making them aware of God as the centre and principle of
their spiritual life. Trust him and cooperate with him in their lives. Apart
from fidelity to prayer, they can cooperate with God on the practical level by avoiding mortal sin
by all means, and by doing some positive things like acts of charity and
justice, being effectively concerned about the social and political situation
of the nation and the environment.
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