Day 202: How Confession Heals

In this sacrament, the sinner, placing himself before the merciful judgment of God, anticipates in a certain way the judgment to which he will be subjected at the end of his earthly life. For it is now, in this life, that we are offered the choice between life and death, and it is only by the road of conversion that we can enter the Kingdom, from which one is excluded by grave sin. In converting to Christ through penance and faith, the sinner passes from death to life and "does not come into judgment." CCC 1470

In today's reading, the Catechism discusses the effects of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, or, as the title suggests, how confession heals us. Our sins damage our relationship with God and are repugnant to His holy righteousness. Yet He still loves us and yearns for our return to Him, even when we are mired in the depths of sin. This sacrament is the ordinary means for reconciling ourselves to God through Christ when we have fallen into sin. 

The Catechism Compendium summarizes the effects of this sacrament:

The effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God and therefore the forgiveness of sins; reconciliation with the Church; recovery, if it has been lost, of the state of grace; remission of the eternal punishment merited by mortal sins, and remission, at least in part, of the temporal punishment which is the consequence of sin; peace, serenity of conscience and spiritual consolation; and an increase of spiritual strength for the struggle of Christian living. (#310)

The Catechism Companion, Vol II has some good commentary on this:

"The whole power of the sacrament of Penance consists in restoring us to God's grace and joining us with him in intimate friendship" (CCC 1468)... God's grace doesn't just bring us back to where we were. It elevates and perfects us even more. When we humbly come before the Lord in confession, we experience an abundance of mercy. Confession brings peace and interior comfort. The God we have offended, the Creator of everything, actually wants to be friends with us. He cares about us and what we do. This should be something we reflect on and pray about regularly. (p. 168)

Finally, the Catechism briefly discusses indulgences but I will forgo that until tomorrow when that reading goes into that more deeply. The only part I'd like to post today is this bit in response to some misunderstandings about indulgences. They are "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven" (CCC 1471).

The Return of the Prodigal Son (1773) by Pompeo Batoni

The return of the prodigal son is a fitting image for the soul reunited to God in Reconciliation, which brings us back to God and his Church (see CCC 1468-1469). (p. 169)