Rahner and Vorgrimler define confession as "the declaration of personal decisions and circumstances within the confines of a community" (1980, 87). Many live day by day with great burdens weighing them down. It was what Christ did on the Cross of Calvary. It is what the Spirit of God is doing in our lives today. It is also what the Father is planning at the culmination of the ages when Satan will be bound and creation returned to a state of perfect harmony with His will.
This presentation is focused on the aspect of redemptive salvation, the process of becoming whole and holy, recovering the spiritual glow, the glory of God in one's life. An important discipline involved in this process - the spiritual discipline of confession- is incontrovertibly a neglected discipline among Christians today. It is unfortunate that we have so privatized our relationship with God that we neglect the real truth that our Christianity is fullest in community. A truth that Mulholland re-echoes is John Wesley's statement that "there can be no personal holiness without social holiness" (Mulholland 1993, 142).
Confession played an important role in the life of the early church. By the third century, the church practiced two informal confessional approaches. The Eastern Church practiced a "curative" confessional approach which involved a "guide" called "kybernetes" or "pneumatikos" who was not necessarily ordained. In hearing the confession of sin and then providing direction, the "guide" led the person in a "process of healing or purifying".
The western church followed a "corrective confessional approach which involved the clergy who heard confessions and then privately or publicly corrected the individuals but did not subject them to official penance. It was not until the end of the fourth century that the church sought to scale, catalogue and measure sins and then assign a particular penance for each sin. Yet confession continued to be a voluntary basis until the Lateran Council of 1215, when the church made annual confession of "all one's sins" a requirement of the church. The leaders of the Protestant Reformation (for example Luther and Calvin) reacted strongly to abuses of the spiritual discipline of confession.
In the years since the Reformation, confession of specific sins and/or the sinful state of believers in general has been encouraged in the preaching and teaching of the church but the ministry of oral confession as a means of reconciliation with self, God and others has generally been superseded by general confession as part of Protestant liturgies. Secret confession by the individual to God alone has become a norm.
A remarkable exception to the trend in devaluing confession was the Wesleyan Band and Class structure which flourished from 1746 into the late 1800s. These were accountability groups which met to obey God's command to "confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, so that you may be healed" (James 5:16).
The Discipline of Confession is a corporate rather than an inward discipline. One may argue that confession is between us and God alone. While this is true, there is also biblical evidence for corporate confession and there is room for both kinds in our devotional life. Foster reminds us "that both are found in Scripture and neither need exclude the other" (Foster 1998, 145). Some might wonder why confession is listed as a discipline, since it is possible only through the grace of God. Unless God gives the grace, no genuine confession can be made. But confession is also a discipline because there are things that we should do. The Bible teaches us how to confess. Some Scriptural bases include James 5:16, Matthew 10:32ff and Romans 10:9ff.
Scripture also tells us that Jesus gave all his disciplines the authority to forgive sins in his name in John 20:23. So any Christian has the authority to forgive sins in his name in John 20:23. So why don't we make use of this authority more often? Foster says that it is probably because "we often view the believing community as a fellowship of saints" rather than a fellowship of sinners (Foster 1998, 145). When we see the believing community as a fellowship of saints, it is difficult to confess our sins to another because we feel everyone is holy and we are the only sinners. We alone struggle with sin and its effects.
When we see the believing community as a fellowship of sinners, "we are freed to hear the unconditional call of God's love and to confess our needs openly before our brothers and sisters. We know we are alone in our sin. The fear and pride that cling to us like barnacles cling to others also. We are sinners together" (Foster 1998, 145-46).
Why do we need confession at all? It is through Jesus' willingness to take our sins upon himself through his great love for us that confession makes. "Jesus knew that by his vicarious suffering he could actually absorb all the evil of humanity and so heal it, forgive it, redeem it" (1998, 143). It is true that "without the cross of discipline of confession would be only psychologically therapeutic. But it is so much more. It involves an objective change in our relationship with God and a subjective change in us. It is a means of healing and transforming the inner spirit" (Foster 1998, 144).
Since the Disciplines are things we do, how does confession work? For a good confession three things are necessary: an examination of conscience, sorrow and a determination to avoid sin. When making an examination of conscience, it is good to remember several things. These avoid making too general and too close examination. Furthermore, one must desire to avoid sin.
There are several criteria for choosing someone to act as your confessor. All Christians are given the authority to hear confession and offer absolution, not just the ordained clergy. Some guidelines in selecting a confessor are spiritual maturity, wisdom, compassion, good common sense, the ability to keep a confidence, and a wholesome sense of humor. These qualities help a person to listen to someone's confession.
What do you do if someone asks you to hear his/her confession? What do you do to prepare yourself to hear your brother's and sister's confession? Anybody who has once been horrified by the dreadfulness of his own sin that nailed Jesus to the cross will no longer be horrified by even the rankest sins of a brother. We can prepare ourselves to receive a confession through prayer. After the confession, it is extremely important that one prays for the person rather than just counseling. Before or during the prayer, one should announce that the forgiveness that is in Jesus Christ is now real and effective.
Although St. Chrysostomos (347-394) and St. Augustine (354-430) are two examples of theologians who saw confession as private (between sinner and God), the above presentation has attempted to demonstrate that "confession may be both public and private" (Angeles 1985, 56). It must be noted that "the Discipline of confession brings an end to pretense. God is calling into being a Church that can openly confess its frail humanity and know the forgiving and empowering graces of Christ. Honesty leads to confession and confession leads to change. May God give grace to the Church once again to recover the Discipline of Confession" (Foster 1998, 157). Contemporary Christians are encouraged to disinter this useful discipline in the church.
LIST OF REFERENCES
Angeles, Peter A. 1985. Dictionary of Christian Theology. Cambridge: Harper and Row.
Foster, Richard J. 1998. Celebration of Discipline: the Path to Spiritual Growth. 20th Century ed. San
Francisco: Harper.
Mulholland, M. Robert Jr. 1993. Invitation to Journey. Downers Grove, Illinois: Inter Varsity Press.
Rahler, Karl and Herbert Vorgrimler. 1981. Dictionary of Theology. 2nd ed. New York: Crossroad.
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