Saying Sorry the Christian Way

The Mass Rite of the Book of Common Prayer, strongly influenced by the Mediaeval fashions amidst which it was composed, was very heavy on our unworthiness before God (the remembrance of our sins is grievous unto us, the burden of them intolerable &c).  When the liturgical revisions began to appear, this aspect of the text was toned down considerably and the latest of our rites, follows the modern Roman Catholic practice of placing a brief penitential rite at the beginning of the Mass with precious little further reference to the subject.

For the Roman liturgists, this was quite a logical step, since it merely extended the boundary of the Mass, as it were, to encompass the preparatory prayers that used to be said before the rite began; and they were just prayers.  There was no notion that this was a confession in the sacramental sense of the word – just a short reminder as they approached the Great Mystery of the Eucharist of the sacramental confession that they had made to the priest at some point earlier: and thus, in theory, is it still understood.

Anglicans, on the other hand, invest these few short moments with the entire penitential aspect of former rites, seeing it as the opportunity to reflect on their sins and shortcomings; all this is achieved usually in something under a minute, which means either that Anglicans can think very quickly or that quite a lot is lost; the latter is more likely.

Whilst the revisers were quite correct to restore to the Mass Rite a much more upbeat and celebratory character, one of the, perhaps unintended, consequences was and is large-scale neglect of the penitential aspect of the Christian life.

The first references to Jesus’ preaching ministry in the Gospels, records Him calling His audience to repentance.  In this, He stood absolutely in line with the string of prophets who preceded Him.  The notion of repentance, turning away from our sins, is a fundamental element in Godly discipleship, which Jesus inherited and perpetuated in His teaching.

It is not possible for us to turn away from sin in the abstract; the implications for every person will be different and before we can declare our intention to turn away from our sins, we have to discern what they are.  In Christian theology, we understand that God finishes or absolves us of the burden of our sins when we recognize them for what they are and move on from them.  As it were, He draws a line under all that is past so that we can start afresh.  Primarily, this is done when we come or are brought for Baptism, but as the early Christians discovered a few more sins creep into peoples’ lives after that; so the Church developed a framework to address this reality of life.

To understand the rationale of the framework, we need to appreciate that sin is not ultimately a private matter.  In sinning, we do not just offend against God, but against the whole Church as well; our sins contribute the pollution of her perfection.  Our “sorry”, therefore, is owed not just to God, but to the Christian community as a whole: we need to be reconciled not only with our Maker, but also with our fellow disciples.

With this in mind, the Church developed a system by which Christians could make amends for their sins and achieve that dual reconciliation.  Ideally, when Christians sinned, they would own up; but if they were found out, the process was much the same.

Once the Christian concerned acknowledged the sin and expressed remorse for it, a period of reflexion would be instituted for the sinner, usually combined with some discipline or other to help with the process of moving on.  Often, during this time, she or he would be excluded from receiving Holy Communion.  At some point, often just before Easter, there would be a rite of reconciliation and the person would resume their full place in the Eucharistic assembly.

This was a public process in that the membership of the Christian community, certainly the elders, would administer it together.  Over the years as the Church grew and became the official religion of the Empire, the practice became rather unwieldy, not least because the public nature of it rather discouraged people from joining in with any enthusiasm!

And so, the practice of private penance (“going to confession”) emerged.  The priest alone heard the confession, chose the discipline and imparted the absolution, when appropriate.  Although he acted for the whole Church as well as God, he was not permitted to reveal what he knew, nor act on it in any way (the seal of the confessional).

Through the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the character of the Sacrament rather changed, the emphasis on reconciliation and was replaced by one on restitution.  The confessional became the court at which the Church tried you for your sins with the priest sitting as judge and counsel for the prosecution.  A number of other abuses also crept into the process. 

It was these abuses that primarily riled the movers and shakers of the protestant reformation, together with the theology underpinning the role of the priest and the practice was discontinued in many places.  Bishop Cranmer, however, whilst relegating the Sacrament to a considerable extent, retained its place within the Anglican usage for those who would find it a useful means of making their peace with God.  This remains the mind of the Church of England to this day.

The reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s recovered for Roman Catholics a greater emphasis on reconciliation with regard to the Sacrament of Penance and there is increasingly in the practice of Roman Catholics a de facto recognition of the Anglican approach to the use of the Sacrament.

Of course, we do not need recourse to a priest to make our peace with God, but we do need a rigorous approach to the understanding of the implications of our sins and the determination to repent.  Without this, the distinction in our minds between our character and that of God together with the relationship that binds us can begin to get a bit blurred.  More interesting, in some ways, is how we might make our peace with the Church, also offended by our sins.  Various liturgies have been devised that make some attempt at this, but they never seem to capture the enthusiasm.

We would not wish to return to the overbearing concentration on our unworthiness before God of our forebears; nor is the current neurotic obsession with sinfulness in some Christian circles (usually other peoples’) particularly appealing or helpful.  None-the-less, we should not forget that the first call of Christ was “Repent and believe”.  Repentance is an essential aspect of Faith and one which we should take seriously.

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