Q. Why must we go to confession if God's love is unconditional?

 

Q. Why must we go to confession if God's love is unconditional?

A. We go to confession not to resume God's love for us. His love is indeed unconditional, never-ending, even while we are sinning. Our sins interfere with our love for God -- sin is turning away from God by doing something unGodly, unloving -- but our sins cannot stop God from loving us. Nothing can stop God from loving us.

The reason we should go to confession is to restore our side of the relationship. We are the ones who need healing, and thus it is called a healing sacrament. Going to confession is an act of humility because we are sorry that we have been unloving. It's also a humble acknowledgement that we need God's help in becoming more able to avoid the same sins in the future, and thus the Sacrament of Confession gives us supernatural grace and power to grow in holiness -- because it is a Sacrament, it is more helpful than simply praying alone by ourselves for forgiveness.

This is true whether it's a mortal (soul-killing) sin or a venial (minor) sin. For mortal sins, however, the effect is much more healing, because more conversion is required from us in order to return to God.

You said, "...so that our sin can be forgiven by the priest." Rest assured that the priest is not the one who forgives our sins in the confessional. It is Jesus Himself working and speaking through the priest. The priest as a faulty human being, if he is a poor minister of the Gospel and sinfully chooses to hold our sins against us, no matter, we have been forgiven by God. The Sacrament of Confession was successful.

~ Terry Modica