It is often said by the unbeliever or the lapsed Christian, that it is unjust for God to separate himself from the sinner. This conclusion however, is based on a false premise that would lead one to believe that God separates anyone from himself. On the contrary, the sinner has chosen willfully, to separate himself from God. This is a hard truth to hear, even harder to speak, and yet it is the truth. C. S. Lewis famously wrote, “I willingly believe that the damned are, in one sense, successful, rebels to the end; that the doors of hell are locked on the inside.”1
What this does not mean, is that God has set in place for us a sort of legalistic principle wherein the sinner once separated, is stuck in his sin. Rather God in his infinity mercy, has given us a way to reunite with him and his Church. This is the Sacrament of Penance. “The sacrament of Penance is a whole consisting in three actions of the penitent and the priest’s absolution. The penitent’s acts are repentance, confession or disclosure of sins to the priest, and the intention to make reparation and do works of reparation.”2 One might then ask, “why must I seek forgiveness from a priest, when God could forgive my sins directly?” I answer that in two ways: God is not bound by his sacraments, and may bestow judgment or forgiveness in anyway he sees fit and yet, it is in fact God who acts through the priest to grant absolution. The Catechism states, “Only God forgives sins. Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, ‘The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins’ and exercises this divine power: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’ Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.”3
“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”4 These words from Jesus to the Apostles initiate this sacrament, and we should receive them in humility. For just as God gave us Baptism and his own body and blood in The Eucharist, he gave us Reconciliation. Like all things Christ does for us, it is not without reason, but is done with our nature in mind “since all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”5
1 C.S Lewis, The Problem of Pain (Canada: Samizdat, 2016) 81.
2The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1491.
3The Catechism of the Catholic Church (New York: Double Day, 2003), 1441.
4 John 20:23 RSVCE
5 Romans 3:23 RSVCE