239 A GOOD CONFESSION BRINGS PEACE WITH GOD

YOUCAT Lesson 239

YOUCAT the catechism for Catholic youth

239  What are the positive effects of confession?

Confession reconciles the sinner with God and the Church.  [1468-1470, 1496]

...….Photo above: The Milky Way rising above County Highway B between Boulder Junction and Land O’Lakes, WI. .…..Peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation flow from a good confession.  There are so many joys in life, not the least the joy of the soul at peace with God. …..43…239

The second after absolution is like a shower after playing sports, like the fresh air after a summer storm, like waking up on a sunlit summer morning, like the weightlessness of a diver…Everything is contained in the word “reconciliation” (from a Latin verb meaning “to bring back together, to restore”): we are at peace with God again.

  

“However awkward confession may be, it is the decisive place where one experiences anew the freshness of the Gospel, where one is reborn.  There we also learn to blow away our pangs of conscience, just as a child blows a falling autumn leaf.  There we find the happiness of God, the dawn of perfect  joy.”  Brother Roger Schutz  (1915-2005)

THE EFFECTS OF THIS SACRAMENT

…….1468   "The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in an intimate friendship."(Roman Catechism, II, V, 18.)⁷³    Reconciliation with God is thus the purpose and effect of this sacrament. For those who receive the sacrament of Penance with contrite heart and religious disposition, reconciliation "is usually followed by peace and serenity of conscience with strong spiritual consolation."( (Council of Trent (1551): Denzinger-Schönmetzer 1674.)⁷⁴    Indeed the sacrament of Reconciliation with God brings about a true "spiritual resurrection," restoration of the dignity and blessings of the life of the children of God, of which the most precious is friendship with God.(compare Luke 15:32.)⁷⁵ –Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

…….1469   This sacrament reconciles us with the Church. Sin damages or even breaks fraternal communion. The sacrament of Penance repairs or restores it. In this sense it does not simply heal the one restored to ecclesial communion, but has also a revitalizing effect on the life of the Church which suffered from the sin of one of her members.(compre 1 Corinthians 12:26.)⁷⁶    Re-established or strengthened in the communion of saints, the sinner is made stronger by the exchange of spiritual goods among all the living members of the Body of Christ, whether still on pilgrimage or already in the heavenly homeland(compare Lumen Gentium 48-50.)⁷⁷

It must be recalled that . . . this reconciliation with God leads, as it were, to other reconciliations, which repair the other breaches caused by sin. The forgiven penitent is reconciled with himself in his inmost being, where he regains his innermost truth. He is reconciled with his brethren whom he has in some way offended and wounded. He is reconciled with the Church. He is reconciled with all creation.(John Paul II, Reconciliatio et PaenitentiaP 31,5.)⁷⁸–CCC

…….1470   In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life, that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by grave sin.(compare 1 Corinthians 5:11; Galatians 5:19-21; Revelation 22:15.)⁷⁹    In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes from death to life and "does not come into judgment."(John 5:24.)⁸⁰ –CCC

IN BRIEF

…….1496   The spiritual effects of the sacrament of Penance are: 
- reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace; 
- reconciliation with the Church; 
- remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins; 
- remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin; 
- peace and serernity of conscience, and spiritual consolation; 
- an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.