The Gospel for this Sunday is from John 20:19ff clearly shows him bestowing the authority to forgive sins to his first priests, the Apostles. He breathed on them and said, ‘Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them. Whose sins you retain, they are retained.’ This passage should not be lightly set aside. According to John it is the among the very first things that Jesus did after He rose from the dead. First he says, Peace be with you. Then he commisions them: As the Father has sent me so I send you. Well the Father sent Jesus to reconcile sinners with the Father. So these sent one (Apostles) would have the same power, to reconcile sinners. It is an essential hallmark of the Church that she be able to reconcile sinners through the ministry of priests. If you’re a good Bible believeing Catholic you ought to get to confession frequently. Afterall Jesus set it up this way himself. Now don’t go an reinvent religion. Just practice what Jesus set forth. Central to the practice of the true and Biblical faith is confession.
So here are some other resources to study moreon this:
- I have put together a PDF flyer on the Biblical roots of Confession and you can read it here: Confession in Biblical
- I preached a sermon on today’s Gospel which covers among other things the Authority to forgive sins you can listen or right click to download here: Sermon on Divine Mercy Sunday
- Here is a two minute Video Apologetical primer on Confession:
The authority which Jesus Christ vested on his followers to forgive sins in His name is authoritative, effective and without doubt how Jesus wants our sins to be forgiven. See John 20: 19-22. Anything against this is purely hypocritical, deceitful and completely contrary to Jesus’ injunction. Anybody who claims to be a follower of Christ, yet hates this injunction or refuses to practice it lacks the basic humility to be a Christian in the first place. I do not mean any insult to anybody. May God give us the humility and grace to accept Jesus’ teaching and grace. Amen.
I find that many times articles written this way do not keep the attention of the reader, this was not the case in this article. Excellent read, thanks for the post and looking forward to more!