The Pope’s 5 advices to confessors

Mireia Bonilla – Vatican City

The Holy Father addressed a speech to the participants in the 31st edition of the Course on the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary in which 870 clergymen participated online. His reflection revolved around the meaning of the sacrament of reconciliation and the 3 expressions that best explain it. The first: “to give up to love”; the second: “let yourself be transformed by Love”; and the third: “corresponds to Love”. “I would like to stop with you in three expressions, which clearly explain the meaning of the sacrament of reconciliation, because to confess is not to go to the dry cleaners to remove a stain. No, it’s something else. Let’s think carefully about what it is, ”said the Pope.

First tip: be amazed at the brothers who ask for God’s forgiveness

For Francis, abandoning oneself to Love means “to make a real act of faith”, but faith – warns the Pope – “can never be reduced to a list of concepts or to a series of statements in which one must believe. . Faith is expressed and understood in a relationship: the relationship between God and man and between man and God ”, since faith“ is the encounter with God himself who is Mercy and is abandonment in the arms of this mysterious and generous Love, which we need so much, but which, sometimes, we are afraid to abandon ourselves ”.

The Pontiff later recalls that “whoever does not abandon himself to the love of God ends up, sooner or later, abandoning himself to something else, finding himself” in the arms “of the worldly mentality, which in the end brings ‘bitterness, sadness and loneliness and is not cured “. Therefore, the first step that Francis considers for a good confession is “the act of faith, of surrender, with which the penitent approaches Mercy”.

His advice to confessors is that “they should always be able to be astonished at brothers who, by faith, ask God’s forgiveness and, always only by faith, abandon themselves to him, abandoning themselves in confession”.

Second tip: perceive the miracle of change

Let yourself be transformed by Love: this is the second expression on which Francisco has reflected. We know very well that it is not the laws that save: “the individual does not change by an arid series of precepts, but by the fascination of Love perceived and offered freely” says Francisco. Consequently, when the penitent who finds in the sacramental conversation a ray of this welcoming Love, “allows himself to be transformed by Love, by Grace, beginning to experience this transformation from a heart of stone into a heart of flesh” .

Faced with this situation, the good confessor – says Francis – “is always called to perceive the miracle of change, to notice the work of Grace in the hearts of penitents, favoring transformative action as much as possible”.

Third tip: always indicate your love for your neighbor

Later, the Pope explains that abandonment and allowing oneself to be transformed by Love have as a necessary consequence a correspondence with the love received. Francis declares that it is a correspondence “which manifests itself in the change of life and in the works of mercy which follow it”, because, who has been welcomed by The Love “cannot cease welcoming his brother”, who surrendered to Love, “can only console the afflicted” and to whom God has forgiven, “cannot fail to forgive his brothers from the bottom of his heart”.

In this sense, the Holy Father assures us that “God shows us a possible love, in which to live this impossible correspondence” and that he is none other than “love for our brother”: “By loving our brothers we let us show, by the world and God we really love him. ”His third advice to confessors is that the good confessor“ always emphasizes the essential love of neighbor as a daily gymnasium in which to form the love of God ”.

Fourth advice to confessors: don’t ask sassy questions

Al final de su discurso, les ha pedido que recuerden siempre “que cada uno de nosotros es un pecador perdonado, puesto al servicio de los demás, para que también ellos, a través del encuentro sacramental, puedan encontrar ese Amor que ha fascinado y cambiado our lives. ”Bearing this in mind, the Pope wanted to underline something he considers fundamental: what should be the religious attitude that the confessor should have in front of the forgiven sinner. Francisco invited a los confesores a“ acoger en paz, acoger con paternidad ”,“ todo el mundo sabrá cómo es la expression de la paternidad – dice el Papa – una sonrisa, los ojos en paz … acoger ofreciendo tranquilidad, y luego dejar to speak ”.

He also asks to be vigilant when the penitent has difficulty moving forward with a [determinado] peach. “If he understands it, he doesn’t ask indiscreet questions,” Francisco says and insists: “Don’t hurt them any more, don’t torture them anymore. Please don’t ask questions. Sometimes I wonder: those confessors who start: “So, so, then [dice: tai, tai, tai]… “, but tell me, what are you doing? Are you doing the movie in your head? Please eh?”

Fifth tip: be parents and not a member of the jury

Finally, the Pope explains to the confessors that being “merciful” does not mean having a long hand: “It is being a brother, a father, a comforter”. “Hey, father, I can’t do it, I don’t know how I’m going to do it …” – “Pray, and come back when you need it, because here you will find a father, a brother: you will find this “: This is the attitude, said Francisco. And please – he concludes -” do not take the academic exam. Do not enter the souls of others. “