"Confession is good for the soul," says a
Scottish proverb from the mid-1600s. Most religions would agree. Verses
from the Torah, the Bible and the Quran speak of the importance of
confessing our sins and receiving forgiveness from a God who is
merciful.
But there are many differences in the process. Some faiths
distinguish between major and minor sins. Some faiths say you should
confess to God through a priest, while others admonish the faithful to
take their confessions directly to God. And the definition of sin
varies across the board.
Here's a general look at how five faith traditions — Catholic, Greek
Orthodox, Protestant, Orthodox Judaism and Islam — live out their
beliefs on confession.
CATHOLIC
"We go to confession first of all because we are sinners," said the
Rev. Ramon Bejarano, pastor of St. Stanislaus Catholic Church in
Modesto, Cailf. "We recognize that God is merciful and holy, and he is
the only one who can forgive us for our sins."
Catholics go to a priest for confession and can either do it face to face, or with a screen between them.
"We have to do it before a priest because we believe Jesus left the
apostles the power to do that," the Rev. Bejarano said. "Not because
the priest forgives the sins, but because God, through the ministry he
has left to the priests, forgives our sin. When we come before the
priest, which, yes, is another human being, we are coming before Christ
and we are coming before the presence of God.
"In the first centuries, the confessions were actually in public
because when we sin, we not only lose our friendship with God, but we
lose our friendship in the community of faith. So they had to confess
in public and receive penance. That's why they were called penitents.
They couldn't receive Communion and they had to stand outside the
church or at the entrance. So while the rest of the community were
celebrating the Eucharist, the penitents had to be outside kneeling
down. It's like, 'I'm really sorry for my sins and I'm asking the whole
community to pray for me to lift me up.' Once he was lifted up, he was
welcomed back."
That changed, the Rev. Bejarano said, in about the sixth century
when Irish monks began hearing confessions one on one. That practice
spread, eliminating the shame of a public confession and instituting
the seal of the confessional, "so the priest could not reveal what was
confessed."
Confession, according to church commandments, must be done at least
once a year, the Rev. Bejarano said. But Pope John Paul II recommended
confession at least once a month.
"The catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that we have mortal
sins — sins that bring death to our soul. Then we have venial sins —
those are the ones that don't break our friendship to God. Most people
call those the little sins.
"All the sins that are against the Ten Commandments, we consider
those mortal sins. They take away the life of grace God has given to
our soul."
After confession, a priest will give a penance that fits the sin,
such as a prayer to say, or perhaps giving back something that has been
stolen or apologizing to a spouse or children for angry words.
GREEK ORTHODOX
As in the Catholic Church, confession is a sacrament heard by a
priest. But it is encouraged rather than mandatory, and it can be heard
by a priest from a different parish.
"From Scripture, the Greek word (for sin) is 'amartia,' which means
missing the mark, like an arrow that misses the target," said Father
Jon Magoulias of Modesto's Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation.
"For us, the mark is Christ. We set our lives to journey to Christ.
When we stray from that focus, we miss the mark; we sin. So confession,
in the Orthodox practice, is the ultimate expression of love. It's not
seen as a means to punish people, to demean or humiliate anyone. It's
recognizing that Christ entrusted this care to his apostles, and
through his apostles to his priests, and that forgiveness of sin is
important.
"Orthodox doesn't really give degrees of sin. Separation from God is
separation from God. There are two characteristics to confession. One
is private, which a person should make every day in his or her prayer
life. We all make mistakes every day, and obviously a priest can't hear
1,000 confessions a day."
Although confession "is an integral part of our church," the Rev.
Magoulias said, "I'm not going to say it's mandatory because one thing
we protect and support is free will. It's not confession if it's forced
on them. It's an act of humility for an individual who wants to be
reconciled with God."
And unlike the Catholic faith, "there are no last rites in the Orthodox Church," he said.
He believes the sacrament of confession is neglected "mostly because
people don't understand it. And they don't understand it because they
don't understand sin, especially in the American culture. We'd like to
take that word, 'sin,' out of the dictionary."
PROTESTANT
Unlike the Catholic and Orthodox faiths, confession in Protestant
denominations is done directly to God rather than through a priest.
"Certainly a person is free to discuss his struggles, weaknesses and
sins with his pastor, but it is not required to receive forgiveness
from God," said the Rev. Wade Estes, senior pastor at First Baptist
Church of Modesto, a nondenominational congregation. "In the Lord's
Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13), Jesus directs us to ask for forgiveness from
God the father: 'And forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven
those who have sinned against us.' "
The Rev. Estes said the biblical Greek word translated as confess
"means to say the same thing. So when we confess our sins to God, we
are saying the same thing about them that God says, that we have
violated his holy standard, that we have missed the bull's-eye of
loving God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength...
"God expects us to confess our sins in order to receive his forgiveness and live in a right relationship with him."
What happens if you die with unconfessed sin?
"My understanding is that if a person dies knowingly holding back
confession of sin to God, he dies as a disobedient child of God. He
will face God and deal with it after death. His salvation is not in
jeopardy."
What are the benefits of confession to Protestants?
"Confession brings forgiveness for our sins. God remembers them no
more!" the Rev. Estes said. "They are wiped away. This brings a
freshness of spirit, restores fellowship with God, fills our hearts
with gratitude. We don't have to flinch when we think of God or wonder
how he is feeling toward us. We are free!"
ORTHODOX JUDAISM
"There are two kinds of sin — one against your fellow man and one
against God," said Rabbi Avremel Brod of the Chabad of Stockton,
Calif., an Orthodox Jewish congregation. "If I hurt someone, I can't
just go ahead and say, 'I did it,' and then move on. We have to do
something to fix that problem. We have to go to them and say, 'I have
insulted you and hope we can make it up.'
"And then there are sins against God. God gave the Jewish people 613
commandments. Quite a few still apply today. When we make a mistake,
when we slip and don't follow one of the commandments, we have to fix
it. We say, 'I've done this and I don't want to do it again, so I'm
going to do something to prevent it,' such as give to charity or study
the Torah. Aside from asking for an apology, you take a gift to
someone; it builds up the relationship. The same thing with God — we're
going to do something extra. That doesn't just fix what we've done, but
it strengthens our relationship with God.
"The Jewish faith has an interesting perspective," Rabbi Brod said.
"We don't look at purgatory or hell as a punishment. It's a cleaning
process. If you have, for instance, a shirt that gets stained, there's
only one way to remove it — you have to put it in a washing machine or
take it to the cleaners. In Judaism, everyone has a place in heaven.
We're God's children; therefore, we all have a place in heaven."
There's no clear teaching on how that cleansing happens, however.
"There's a lot of talk and literature about it, but basically the
soul sometimes has to go through a process until it's ready to face the
Creator and spend time in paradise."
What about people who do great harm to others, such as Adolf Hitler? Will they also end up in heaven?
"There are some people who go so low that sometimes we can't even
call them human. They're inhuman, not part of the human race. I don't
know what happens, but they won't get to heaven. Such a sin, killing 6
million people, you can't really fix that. God is a true judge. He will
decide."
ISLAM
Unlike other religions, Islam does not believe man is born a sinner,
said Ahmad Kayello, imam of the Islamic Center of Modesto, Calif.
"We believe the great sinner was Satan, when God ordered him to
prostrate (himself) to Adam and he refused. That was the first sin
after God created creation. From Satan, he came to Eve and Adam in
paradise and whispered to them to eat from the tree, and they did. So
we believe sin was from Satan, and he carried it to Adam and Eve."
There are sins against God and sins against creation in Islam, Imam
Kayello said. Both need to be confessed to God with true repentance,
but there also needs to be reconciliation and/or restitution in the
second case, he said.
"If I steal a car, I must make a supplication to God that I won't do
it again," he said. "If you go to a person and say, 'I've taken your
car; please forgive me,' you can't keep the car. You must give it back."
There are three conditions for true repentance, he added:
Stop doing the wrong immediately.
Regret doing the sin.
Give God the confidence and promise that you're not going to do it again.
The fourth condition, if the sin is between a person and creation, like the stolen car example, is to make restitution.
"One of God's 99 names is 'Most Forgiving,' " Kayello said. "That
means that if anyone wants to repent, he should ask for repentance from
God only."