Homily for Divine Mercy Sunday: The Point of the Power

Divine Mercy Sunday                                                                                                 April 24, 2022
Fr. Alexander Albert                                                               St. John the Evangelist, Jeanerette

What’s the point? Of this passage I mean. If, as so many people say, that we can just confess our sins directly to God, why would Jesus bother to give his Apostles the authority to forgive sins? “Whoever’s sins you forgive are forgiven them, but don’t worry about it because they can just confess directly to me and so you’ll never use this power.” Is that what people think Jesus is doing here?

Of course not! There is really only one logical conclusion to draw from this scene: that Jesus intends for people to ask the Apostles to be forgiven and that the Apostles would then decide whether or not that person is forgiven. Otherwise, why give them the power in the first place? Why give them the option to forgive or to retain if they would always only forgive? Do we believe that Jesus does pointless things?

Still, someone might accept that the Apostles can forgive sins and then argue that when they died, that power was lost. Again, I’d ask “what’s the point of doing that?” Why would Jesus give such a power to a single generation of Christians? To taunt the billions of Christians who would come later? To make us feel even more like we were just so unlucky to be born after Jesus rather than during his lifetime?

Of course not. That contradicts half the point of this passage. “Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Jesus is going out of his way to make sure that every believer after the Apostles knows they are blessed despite not being there when He was on earth. So it makes no sense that he would limit this special power of forgiveness to only those people who saw him on earth. And if forgiving other people was something only the Apostles could do, why tell us about it?

History backs this up. Confessing sins to one another is commanded in the letter of St. James and recorded in early Church history. The format has changed over the years – it used to be done publicly, done less frequently, and involve a lot more penance – but there has always been the practice of confessing your sins to someone in authority in order to be forgiven. The belief that we can just skip the Church and confess directly to God is a direct contradiction of Scripture. There is no good argument for it scripturally or historically.

If it is so obvious that confessing sins to a man is what God expects, why do so many people – including a massive percentage of Catholics – think that confession is not required? Two reasons: pride and rebellion. The practice of confession was basically unquestioned for 1500 years. Do you know when people started rejecting it? The protestant reformation or, as I like to call it, the protestant rebellion.

It’s even in the name: protest-ant. Sadly, some of their beliefs and practices are motivated not by following scripture but by the desire to rebel against what Catholics believe and do. Of course there were many corrupt leaders in the Church. Of course there were great sinners. Of course there were Catholic leaders who taught the wrong things. But in their zeal to correct this, they rebelled against the Church herself, not just the sinful and erroneous members of the Church.

And, well, the Catholic Church says “you have to confess your sins to a priest,” so out of a spirit of rebellion and protest, protestants said “no, you don’t have to confess your sins. Catholics made that up.” But we didn’t. It’s right here – John 20 – and it’s all throughout Christian practice from the very beginning.

What about Catholics who reject this idea? In part, there is the desire to be accepted by protestants. Most people don’t like being divisive and our culture has for a long time pushed the message of acceptance and cooperation. So, consciously or not, a lot of Catholics adjust their beliefs to be more palatable to protestant friends and family.

The other part is pride. It’s been said by many a wise person that if you do not live what you believe, you will begin to believe whatever you live. If you do not regularly go to confession, you naturally start to look for reasons and excuses to justify that. Even when an argument or reason isn’t very good, we are biased to believe whatever matches what makes us more comfortable. This is a form of pride. Another form of pride is more direct. Some people simply refuse to admit they need another person. They refuse to humble themselves to admit sin in front of another person. They like to think of themselves as being important enough to have a direct link to God.

Now, that last point should have stood out a little because it’s partly true. We do have a direct link to God. Everyone who has the supernatural gift of faith does. But having a direct link does not mean you don’t need anything else. I have a direct link to my siblings, to my parents, to brother priests, and to the bishop. Yet, in every single case there are also intermediaries, people who know both them and me and can speak on my behalf. There are go-betweens. Parents hire babysitters and bishops appoint vicars. Siblings team up to convince parents of something. Priests team up to convince the bishop of something.

The truth is you should confess your sins directly to God. Every night… every time you sin, you should go into your heart in prayer and ask for God’s forgiveness. But if you really want God’s forgiveness, then you should also trust him and obey him. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. And what did he do on the very first day he rose? He went to the Apostles and gave them authority to forgive sins – or to withhold forgiveness if someone is not truly repentant. Confession is not some add-on or after thought. It is part of the very reason Jesus even came to earth… at the heart of why he rose from the dead in the first place… to prove that we can conquer death and to make the conquest real by the forgiveness of sins. To give human beings that power. The mistake Thomas makes here is not just that he doubts Jesus, but that he doubts the authority and testimony of the Church… of the other Apostles.

Finally, there are many who perhaps know the truth about confession, but are afraid of it because of bad experiences. To these, I can only say I’m sorry. Priests need to be forgiven and given another chance just like everyone else. The point is not priests are better than the laity. It is simply that part of the reason we exist is to forgive your sins. Please, give us that chance.