Sermon Summary: Confession - The Forgotten Medicine by Fr. Mark Basily
The following is a written summary of a sermon initially delivered by Fr. Mark Basily.
The Parable of the Prodigal Son - “But when he came to himself, he said…I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer fit to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired servants.”
The Prodigal Son came to the realisation that he was in the midst of a great mess, he compared his current sordid life to the joyful life that he had in his father’s house.
However, his repentance is observed as he expresses “I will arise.”
Repentance means to make changes and so the son wilfully decided to change his ways.
“But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion.”
Confession: The second time the son exclaims, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight, and am no longer worthy to be called your son.”
Notice how the son did not repeat, “make me like one of your hired workers”. His father did not allow him to, the son was immediately restored to his original state.
Every time we turn away from God, God is waiting to restore us, restore His damaged icons.
St. Augustine describes a sacrament as “a visible sign of an invisible reality”.
The Orthodox church prefers the word “Mystery” - “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh.”
Traditionally, there were no set numbers of the sacraments, every encounter with the Lord was considered a mystery and therefore, sacrament.
The Greek word for Repentance is ‘Metanoia’, which means: “The journey of changing one’s mind, heart, self, or way of life.”
Sin = separation from God, missing the mark (hamartia).
Repentance = returning to God, ADMITTING and REALISING the need to change.
Confession = means of receiving absolution through a priest. MAKING THE CHANGE.
What is the role of the priest?
In confession, there are 2 sinners present…“the priest is simply a witness, not an investigator.”
The priest is not a judge…“the priest in confession is a fellow traveller not a tour guide.”
The priest’s role is to spiritually guide us from an external perspective, he does so with confidentiality.
We should consider that our actions impact the church, our actions do not occur in isolation and when one member is injured, the whole body is injured. (Confessions used to be public in the early Church for this reason).
Types of Confession:
Confession to one-self: Self-realisation that we have made a mistake. “He came to himself” (Lk 15:17).
Confession to God: Once a person has acknowledged their sin, they should line up their hearts - “Against You, You only have I sinned, and done this evil in your sight.”
Confession to the priest: Involves repentance and confession as a means of attaining spiritual guidance.
Confession to the person: Make amends with those whom the trespass was committed against.
How to go about Confession:
Be excited, not scared - be excited that you get to start fresh and enter new possibilities.
Say the positive. Focus on what you could have done.
Be honest and don’t sugar coat.
Give enough information, not too much and not too little.
Focus on yourself, do not confess on behalf of others – leave them to do that.
Confess with change, do not just report the same old. We confess in order to implement our repentance. We confess in order to implement that change we desire in our lives.
Confess the good that you could have done - “To him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is a sin.” (James) - reflect on all the times you could have done good and chose otherwise.
Obey and abide by the advice, it is not just a transaction - it is proactive.
Q. We always have that "one sin”, the one that we confess time and time again but never overcome it. What is the point of confessing the same sin?
We should still approach our confession with the intention that we will never repeat the same sin again. If you keep that in mind, you start a spiritual warfare.
When a soldier is shot during the war, they don’t just sit there. We too are in war, don’t just laze around until you die. Get back up and fight!
Q. Sometimes we confess sins that we don’t feel bad about. Are we doing something wrong?
Tell the priest that you don’t feel bad about it and he can assess the extent of the situation and provide you with advice accordingly.
The reason why we don’t feel guilty about our sins is because:
1. We have made it commonplace and a habit, we find it normal, it’s subconscious (this is very dangerous).
2. We don’t want to make ourselves guilty, we numb the feelings of guilt and downplay the issue – we don’t want it to stop us from continuing the sin.
Q. If Jesus in the Gospel says that even if He bears witness of Himself, His witness is true. Then why do we need the priest as a witness in confession?
We need a priest as a witness for our sake.
Jesus gave the authority to the Church so that we know that our sins are forgiven.
Having a priest is a visible and tangible sign. God appeals to our material understanding through the witness of a priest.
The priest does not judge you when you confess, rather, they highly regard you for your honesty.
Q. What if there is a sin we don’t want to give up?
The pleasure of a sin is not long-lasting, it’s very momentary.
Be like the prodigal son…he realised the life he was living did not compare to the joy he experienced in his father’s estate.
Q. How can we guarantee that the priest does not form opinions about us?
The job of a priest is to take people to heaven, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
The priest won’t form opinions, he will rejoice that you are seeking change.
