The Act of Contrition I was taught as a child concludes with, “. . . I firmly resolve with the help of Thy grace to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.”
Further, the Sisters told me that, if I couldn’t recall any sins when I went to confession, I should tell the priest I was sorry for my past sins and ask his blessing. (It was unthinkable to receive communion without going to confession first.)
I did what they said in my second confession, a week after the first. “Get out,” the priest brusquely said, “kneel down, examine your conscience, and come back!”
Now, people tend to go to confession rarely and communion often, much to the dismay of many taught as I was.
In the early Christian centuries frequent communion was usual, but it gradually declined. In the Middle Ages it got to be so infrequent that the Fourth Lateran Council decreed that everyone had to receive communion at least once a year.
That’s the root of the custom of “making one’s Easter Duty,” preparing during Lent for an annual confession and reception of communion at Easter.
The Council of Trent encouraged more frequent communion than once annually, and St. Pius X (1903-1914) not only strongly encouraged the practice but also lowered the age for First Communion.
However, the association of confession and communion still continued—even now Latin Canon Law requires annual confession.
The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council (par. 62) stated, “With the passage of time, however, certain features have crept into the rites of the sacraments and sacramentals which have made their nature and purpose less clear to the people of today. Hence some changes are necessary to adapt them to present-day needs…”
The Council mandated (par. 72), “The rite and formulas of Penance are to be revised so that they more clearly express both the nature and the effect of the sacrament.”
A new Rite of Penance was published in 1973. Although the document had a traditional title, the key concept pervading it was reconciliation, reconciliation with God and with the Church.
Actually this harked back to a troubling issue in the early era of Christian persecution, what to do with a Christian who apostatized—who formally disavowed his baptismal commitment to live by the teachings of Jesus and to belong to the Christian community, the Church.
It was finally decided that if the apostate truly repented and begged forgiveness and reinstatement in the community, after a period of public penance he or she could be reconciled and readmitted into the Church.
However, since the initiation rite of Baptism could not be repeated, a new penitential rite was needed to celebrate and affirm this readmission.
Later, the rite began to be used to celebrate the sinner’s repentance and readmission into the Church in the case of other grave and public sins, not only apostasy.
Gradually it became more private, evolving into the familiar “going to confession.” This included celebrating the repentance of less serious offenses against God and the Church and strengthening one’s repentance and resolve to live a holier life.
To be grateful for the loving mercy and grace of God should be a constant of our lives—and reconciliation as often as may be needed.
18 August 2019