Pints With Aquinas - 117: What's the deal with confession?

Episode Date: July 31, 2018

Show notes (as always) at PintsWithAquinas.com SPONSORS EL Investments: https://www.elinvestments.net/pints Exodus 90: https://exodus90.com/mattfradd/  Hallow: http://hallow.app/mattfradd  STRIVE: https://www.strive21.com/  GIVING Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/mattfradd This show (and all the plans we have in store) wouldn't be possible without you. I can't thank those of you who support me enough. Seriously! Thanks for essentially being a co-producer coproducer of the show. LINKS Website: https://pintswithaquinas.com/ Merch: https://teespring.com/stores/matt-fradd FREE 21 Day Detox From Porn Course: https://www.strive21.com/ SOCIAL Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattfradd Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattfradd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mattfradd MY BOOKS  Does God Exist: https://www.amazon.com/Does-God-Exist-Socratic-Dialogue-ebook/dp/B081ZGYJW3/ref=sr_1_9?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586377974&sr=8-9 Marian Consecration With Aquinas: https://www.amazon.com/Marian-Consecration-Aquinas-Growing-Closer-ebook/dp/B083XRQMTF/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=fradd&qid=1586379026&sr=8-4 The Porn Myth: https://www.ignatius.com/The-Porn-Myth-P1985.aspx CONTACT Book me to speak: https://www.mattfradd.com/speakerrequestform

G'day, g'day. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas. My name's Matt Fradd, and today we're going to sit down with Thomas Aquinas, have a couple of brewskis, and talk about the sacrament of confession. And I'm going to help you answer the questions you have on confession. And we've received many questions having to do with the seal of the confessional, what happens if you forget mortal sins, are those mortal sins forgiven, what do the early church have to say about confession? We have several Protestant listeners write into us, ask us questions about confession, and we're going to look at the text of Thomas Aquinas in the supplemental section of the Summa Theologiae, and it's going to be a fantastic episode. So, are you ready? Here we go.

G'day again. Welcome to Pints with Aquinas. This is the show where you and I pull up a barstool next to the angelic doctor to discuss theology and philosophy. And today we're going to be talking about that wonderful sacrament of confession. We're going to be looking a bit at what Aquinas has to say in the supplementary section of the Summa Theologiae, as well as taking questions from our patrons who support Pints with Aquinas on Patreon. If you don't yet support Pints with Aquinas on Patreon, please consider doing so. You get a bunch of free stuff in return, including an ever-growing audio library of interviews that I do, in-depth interviews with apologists, converts. They're really quite terrific. I just interviewed my sister, Emma Fradd, so that should be coming up very soon,

just for you patrons. It's like an hour and a half or thereabouts conversation that we had having to do with being single and accepting God's will and that awful app, generally speaking, Tinder. And yeah, it was just a real fun discussion. Emma's the one who does the music for this podcast that you hear week in and week out. Anyway, there's a ton of stuff and I'd really love you to perhaps consider supporting Pints with Aquinas because, yeah, I got some big plans coming up, actually, that I've mentioned to my patrons, but no one else. But you can learn more about that at pintswithaquinas.com. If you go there right now, that would be awesome. I'm just going to make sure I get this right. Yeah, pintswithaquinas.com and then click donate and then you can give 10 bucks a month if you want and I'll give you a

bunch of free stuff in return and you'll feel really good about being a good human being for supporting the show. See, see how it goes both ways. So, um, it's Sunday right now. I'm recording this and I took my two kids to confession. I have four kids, but two of them wanted to go, even though three probably needed to. Um, and it was amazing. I go to an Eastern Catholic church, as I've said a million times over on this podcast and in the Eastern churches, uh, the kids receive Eucharist, chrismation, and baptism all at once, you know. So people often ask me, well, when do they receive confession? You know, because in the Roman church, it's a particular age, you know,

you receive your first confession or whatever. Well, that's not how it works in the Eastern church. In the Eastern church, it's just whenever you're ready. So, you know, you're receiving Eucharist as a baby, you've already been confirmed, and it's basically like, all right, whenever you're ready, just come to confession. And so my five-year-old confessed a couple of years ago. That was kind of cool. And then today I was able to bring my 10-year-old and my nine-year-old to confession. And it's just such a joy. I just have to say that it's such a joy being Catholic. Confession is one of those

beautiful sacraments that maybe when you think about it, you know, I don't know what you think about, maybe you think of some scene from Daredevil, you know, some Northeastern Catholic church where you slink into a confessional and there behind the screen, confess your sins, you know, especially if you're not Catholic. I had a good friend, still have a good friend, good mate of mine. He converted to Catholicism when he was in college. And he said he would watch these Hollywood movies where people go on a confession and think, man, that looks so cool. And it really is cool. I think it's a beautiful thing to go to confession. I mean, just think about it. You know, like, you get to go before somebody and accuse yourself. That's a beautiful thing. I mean,

it feels like a lot of the time we're either accusing ourself sort of in a roundabout way, that is to say, we see all of our failures and maybe we become really anxious about how poorly we're doing. We feel like a failure in many respects. Or on the opposite end, we like to point out the failures of others, you know. But the confession is a beautiful thing because you get to accuse yourself and then be forgiven. So, you rightly accuse yourself for those things that you have done or not done. And then you get to receive the absolution of, you know, through the priests, but the absolution, of course, is that from Jesus Christ. I had an evangelical friend, it was actually Jimmy Akin, worked with him at Catholic Answers for a while. And I remember him and I were sitting down having

a chat about what it was like being an evangelical, what it was like becoming Catholic, what did he have to think about confession? And he said, as an evangelical, now look, this isn't everyone's experience. I'm not trying to paint with a broad brush here. So, you might be an evangelical listener and disagree with this, but I'm just saying this is his experience. He said, he would always feel like he would have to work himself up into some sort of emotional state, you know what I mean? And then kind of confess to God in his room or wherever. But he kind of felt like he had to feel a lot of sort of sorrow and whatever, you know, once he had reached that bar, okay, I've been forgiven, you know. But he said one of the nice things about being Catholic is emotion really doesn't have to enter

into it. Like you don't have to work yourself up emotionally at all. Because just like to love our spouse or to love our children doesn't always involve emotion, even to love God. So, to be sorry about things we've done don't always have to involve emotion. I mean, even in my marriage, you know, there's times I've done something wrong to my wife and I just think, gosh, that was a stupid thing to do and I'm really sorry. But by really sorry, I don't mean I feel super bad. I just mean I can see just intellectually that that was an unloving thing to do, so please forgive me. And so, just like love, you know, we often say love isn't a feeling. Of course, love is a feeling, but it's also a choice. That's what we mean when we say love is not a feeling.

But same thing with repentance. Repentance isn't just a feeling. So, you can repent, go to the sacrament of confession and not necessarily feel anything, but just know that what you've done is wrong and choose not ever to do that again. So, it's a beautiful thing, I think. To our evangelical friends out there, I mean, try to hear with, you know, some, what do you say, sympathy that the church's case for the sacrament of confession. I mean, a lot of it, you can, gosh, there's so many scripture passages we could look to, but John 20 is usually what is pointed to, you know, after the resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers. And what he says to them is pretty fascinating,

you know, he says, as the father has sent me, even so I send you. That's a really powerful line. As the father has sent me, so I'm sending you. Think about that. Why did the father send the son? Was it not to reconcile the world to himself? Yeah, yeah, it was. Okay, so now he's sending the ministers to do that very same thing? Yeah. Well, how will he do that? Well, he does this weird thing. Jesus breathes on the apostles. Now, as far as I'm aware, I might be wrong about this, but I think I'm right. This is the second time in all of sacred scripture that God has ever breathed upon somebody, you know, in an intentional sense, at least in the sense that's

being recorded. No doubt Jesus is a boy and as a man breathed on other people, you know what I mean? But it's being documented here, you know. The first time was when he breathed life into Adam, and here he seems to be breathing, we might say, at least from the Catholic perspective, supernatural life, you know, in the sense, giving them this authority. And he says, receive the Holy Spirit. He says, if you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven. And if you retain the sins of any, they're retained. Now, I don't know how that could be any clearer in the English or in the Greek, nor do I know why you would want it to say something other than it seems to say. I think it's a beautiful thing. So, you might look at that and quibble with it if you're evangelical and say, well, that's not what he meant. You know, he didn't have in mind that

these apostles would forgive sins, but basically what Christ meant was go out and proclaim the gospel. It's the gospel that judges, don't you know? And it's by the gospel that we are forgiven or that we become aware of the Christ has died for our sins and that we can be forgiven. If we accept that message and we're forgiven, if we don't, then we won't. But he doesn't say that. And that just seems a little more complicated. And this idea that he gives them the authority to retain sins, what a strange thing to do. Now, if I say to you, look, there's a group of people out there and all of them owe me some money. And I'm going to give you the authority to either, you know, forgive their debt or not to. Okay. But you have to, you know, you make the decision. Well, you know, if you're not going to forgive someone's debt and it's not

going to be completely arbitrary, then you're going to need to know a bit about it. And so, the fact that Christ gives his apostles the ability, the power to retain sins, to not forgive them, seems to indicate pretty strongly, if not just say outright, that the apostles would need to hear these sins so that they can decide whether to forgive or to retain. And so that is true today, isn't it, in the church, that if one is not contrite and says to the priest, yeah, I kind of feel a little bad about it, I guess. And the priest says, well, you're going to make a firm amendment not to do it again. Oh, no, no, I'll definitely do it again. There's no way I could stop this particular sin. Well, definitely do it again. There's no way I could stop this particular sin. Well, the priest won't forgive the sin. So anyway, that's a bit of background to the sacrament of confession.

And you can see this all throughout the church. Look, there's a lot to get to. And I have a lot of people who have written me questions over Patreon. So rather than me just beginning to rant here, why don't I look at all your questions in case you ask me something that I was about to say. Let's have a look here. Megan, forgive me, Megan. I'm going to butcher your name. Is it Snodel? You rock, by the way, Megan. Thank you for supporting Points of the Coin. She said, if venial sins are forgiven when we receive the Eucharist, why do we still need to confess them? Also, if you go to confession and forget to confess a mortal sin, are you forgiven from it? That's right. We're forgiven venial sins when we receive the Eucharist, when we pray the Our Father, when we take holy water, if we just ask God to

forgive us, we don't need to go to confession for that. You say, why do we still need to confess? Well, you don't. You don't have to confess venial sin. You have to commit, you have to, sorry, confess mortal sin. You say, also, if you go to confession and forget to confess venial sin. You have to commit, you have to, sorry, confess mortal sin. You say, also, if you go to confession and forget to confess a mortal sin, are you forgiven from it? Really good news here. Yes, you are forgiven it. In fact, don't take my word for it. Let's see. I'm reading the Summa here. Let's read directly from Aquinas. This is really powerful. Yeah. So, if you go to confession and, you know, obviously to the best of your memory, without holding anything back, you confess all of your sins, number and kind, you know, then let's say you walk out and you realize, ah, gosh, I forgot to confess this other mortal sin. Well, it's forgiven.

Listen to Aquinas here. This is in the fifth article in the supplementary section, question 10, article 5, fifth article. Yeah, sorry, question 10. Sorry, yeah, article 5. Okay. Yeah, so in the main response, he says, he who confesses all the sins of which he is conscious approaches to God as much as he can, nor can more be required for him. Therefore, he will not be confounded by being repelled, but be forgiven. Further, he that confesses is pardoned unless he be insincere. But he who confesses all the sins that he calls to mind is not insincere through forgetting some, because he suffers from ignorance of fact,

which excuses from sin. Therefore, he receives forgiveness, and then the sin which he has forgotten are loosened, since it is wicked to hope for half a pardon. Isn't that good news? So, you know, do a examination of conscience, Megan, go to the sacrament of confession, confess to the best of your memory and ability without holding anything back at all, and you've been completely forgiven. That's really good news. Anthony Bedoy says, what are some of the historical ways confessions developed as a sacrament in practice? Had different churches throughout the world developed the practice differently? What was the impetus for normalizing it under

the Roman rite? That's a great question. And I would need to do a bit of research, I suppose, to get you a good, complete answer on this. But certainly there've been developments in how the sacrament has been performed. For example, in the early church, confession was sometimes heard publicly, especially if one apostatized from the faith. They would have to confess publicly before the congregation and be forgiven in that way. But a more pastoral approach took shape because, you know, it's kind of embarrassing and maybe even scandalous for people to commit certain sins publicly, especially if it doesn't concern everybody. Like if I commit adultery with this woman in my congregation and nobody else knows about that, then it's not really that helpful if I was to get up and confess that. And therefore, the sacrament took on this

one-on-one dimension. So, in that sense, it's developed like that. And my understanding is it's that way throughout all the world. Now, so there are differences in East and West. So there's not really an act of contrition that settle out in the East, but you express sorrow for your sin and confessing it. And this is really beautiful practice in the East where you kneel down and the priest takes his stole and lays it over your head, you know, and offers you absolution. Christopher Beckett says, is a confession valid if the priest doesn't do the full absolution prayer nor give a penance? Also, why do these same priests not counsel us or talk about the sins? Just go straight to absolve. Let me answer that last part first.

Because it's, I mean, different priests have different takes on the sacrament of confession. Some priests view it as a form of spiritual direction. Other priests, especially at a busy parish, are understandably trying simply to absolve one's sins. And so, I imagine some priests would say, if it's spiritual direction you want, we can set up an appointment for that, but that's not what this is. Like right now, we're just doing confession. So, I'm going to hear your sins, offer you an appropriate penance, hopefully, and absolve you. But I know priests who think that it should be more of a spiritual, you know, direction type of deal. So, I guess it depends on the priest. Is it still valid if the priest doesn't say the full absolution prayer? Yes, it is. Here's a response that I looked up here, and this seems very legit.

It's on EWTN. This is from a Legionary of Christ priest, Father Edward McNamara, who is the professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum. I actually went and studied there last summer. He says, basically, he has to say the words, I absolve you from your sin, and that's it. So, not even in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit is necessary. Just I absolve you. Just that expression is enough. So, it's nice to realize that the sacraments are sturdy things. They can't be knocked over by the priest omitting one word here or there, you see? So, the intention has to be expressed, I absolve you. Now, in the East, I don't think that's the same, but at least in the Roman church. And he actually refers to Aquinas here.

St. Thomas Aquinas and the majority of classical theology manuals held that the nucleus of the formula was the expression, quote, I absolve you, end quote. A few also sustained that the words, quote, from your sins, end quote, were also necessary. All agreed that the Trinitarian invocation and the other players were not required for validity, but were necessary for the sacrament's licit celebration in non-emergency situations. So, we have to distinguish between what's valid and what's licit. Something can be valid but illicit. It can't be right. So, that would be a situation here, right? So, if a priest were to celebrate, you know, sacrament of penance, confession, and not actually say the words of absolution, that would be an illicit, and that just means unlawful, like it would be like a liturgical abuse to shorten the absolution formula. But it wouldn't make the confession invalid. So, I hope that answers

your question. Jonathan Willie says, if Jesus already died for my sins, why do I still have to seek forgiveness? Also, if I commit a mortal sin, why is it that I have to seek forgiveness through a priest rather than just going straight to God. I'm a Protestant and my understanding has always been that God will just forgive my sins when I ask him to. I want to become a Catholic, but this is one of the few roadblocks for me. God bless. Gosh, thank you so much, Jonathan. And thank you for being a patron of Pints of the Quietness, for believing enough in what I'm doing, even though you're not fully on board with the whole Catholic things. Thank you very much. Look, some evangelicals have this idea that once we come to Christ, our sins, past, present, and future have been forgiven. But

the church doesn't think and never has thought that that's a biblical or accurate idea. You know, if it was, then it would make no sense for you to pray the Our Father, at least that bit that says, forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. I mean, this is a prayer that we pray regularly as Christians, Catholic and evangelical. And it wouldn't make sense to pray that line if the idea was that our sins in the future have also been forgiven. So, I think we're called to continual repentance. You say, if I commit mortal sin, why is it I have to seek forgiveness through a priest rather than just going straight to God? Well, the idea is you've got these minor sins and major sins, right? And minor sins hinder our relationship with God, but they don't crush the life of God from our soul.

So, mortal sin does that. Mortal sin separates our relationship with God. And it's not easy to do, you understand, right? To commit a mortal sin, it has to be grave matter, something serious. It has to be something that we will, not something we accidentally do or do out of perhaps habit. And it has to be something, you know, that we know is wrong. So that's why we go to a priest. And of course, I've given some biblical evidence there from the Gospel of John. Now, you say, why not just go straight to God? Well, of course, we can go straight to God and we should go straight to God. The question isn't, can God forgive me apart from a priest? The question is, how has God ordained that I should have my mortal sins forgiven? How does he want me to go about

that? Like, that's the question that should interest us. It'd be like saying, okay, my mom might have cancer. Can't I just pray to God? Can't God perform miracles? You might say, well, yeah, but she could also go to a doctor and God could heal her through the doctor. And so, when we go to a priest and are forgiven of our sins, it's God who forgives through the person of a priest. But I understand that this is a bit of a roadblock for you. And I think that's great in the sense that you're intellectually wrestling with this. And so I would recommend, Jonathan, that you go to Catholic Answers. Their website is catholic.com.

In the search bar, just type confession and you'll get a whole bunch of stuff to kind of help you. But it's good to see that you're thinking about these things and thanks for being a patron. Let's see. What's the best way to encourage someone to come back to confession after not going for years? This question comes from Paige Arangio. Thank you, Paige. Yeah, look, it's a good question. It really depends on your relationship with the person. You might find a priest and say, hey, my friend needs to go back to confession. My dad needs to go back to confession. My aunt needs to go back to confession, but they're a little nervous about it. Would you be open to hearing their confession? And that way you can vouch for the kindness, the gentleness of this

priest to your friend who wants to come back to confession. Another alternative is usually around the Easter season, there are big penance services. Sometimes people are worried they don't want to have to see the priest that they know. Well, just come to Mass. There'll be several priests there, and you can go behind the screen if you want. If that's a stumbling block for the person, that they don't want the priest to know who they are. It's very difficult with an Australian accent living in America, by the way. You could always set that up for them. Thanks, Paige. Okay, let's see. Adam

says, Adam Bussell, could you ever possibly be accused of overusing the sacrament? I've heard priests recommend monthly or weekly sometimes. I've heard people say daily. Also, I've always struggled with the teaching that if you are in a state of mortal sin, if you were unfortunate enough to die at that moment, you would be condemned. This can cause real anxiety, especially if you are struggling and falling into particular vices on a daily basis. Or am I supposed to trust that God won't allow me just to die in that state and allow me to get the opportunity to get to confession? Right. Okay. That's some good questions. This is something I think you would have to work out case by case based on what you're dealing with, with a good spiritual director. So, I think monthly is a good

habit to get into, maybe every other week. I think one can become too scrupulous and be approaching the sacrament of confession, almost like a car wash so that they can feel worthy again, rather than realizing that they're loved by God, even in their sin. But that might be something to kind of bring up with a, yeah, with a spiritual director. As far as what is necessary, you know, if you die in a state of mortal sin, will you be condemned? Well, here we have to distinguish between like contrition and attrition. So, Aquinas and the church teaches that contrition is born of filial fear of God, and it comes from like charity, love of God. So, sorrow for sin, which arises from just the fear of punishment is a less perfect sorrow. So, if the only reason you're sorry for your sins is

because of the punishment that you deserve, that wouldn't be sufficient for the remission of your sins. But contrition based on love for God, an act of perfect contrition, we call it, to make an act of perfect contrition is to have one's sins forgiven, but then one must decide to go to confession at their next available opportunity. Does that make sense? And again, realizing that this contrition doesn't mean how emotional I get. It just means I know that was wrong. I love God. I don't want to offend God. And so, I'm going to choose not to do that anymore. And I'm sorry for my sins, you know. So, that's the difference. So, if you tell God you're sorry and you mean it, you know, then, you know, and you do it out of love, you know, you might be able to trust that your sins have been forgiven. And so, if you were to die in that state, that you would be saved, okay? But what the church teaches is,

suppose you survive that near-death moment, and then you have to then go to confession and confess what you confessed when you were saying it between you and God, as it were. I hope that is clear. Paul Binner says, I had an experience where a priest revealed to me my son's confession. I was shocked. I reported it to the diocese. Is it true that a priest automatically excommunicates himself when this happens? If so, should they not receive the Eucharist when saying mass until the excommunication has been lifted? This was a terrible thing. I understand you don't want to cover it. I understand if you don't want to cover on your podcast. No, this is an absolutely bloody terrible thing. And I don't really understand how excommunication works in that particular

situation. My understanding is that the priest would be excommunication works in that particular situation. My understanding is that the priest would be excommunicated. So this is something that you should bring to the bishop and have as much information as you possibly can. Like it was on this day, here we were, this is when we discussed it, here's what he said, all of those things, all the details you want to give to the bishop. And if you don't hear from him right away, write to him again and keep doing so. Let me read a little bit here from Thomas Aquinas on the seal of the confession, because yeah, it's a real tragedy that a priest would commit a sin in that way. This, I think it's fair to say from my experience, is absolutely by no means the norm.

This is very unusual that a priest would do this. In the supplemental section of the Summa Theologiae, question 11, article 1, this is having to do with whether the priest is bound to hide the sins which he knows under the seal of the confessional. And Aquinas gives a, you know, unequivocal yes, right? He is bound to keep these secret. He said, you know, the priest should conform himself to God, whose minister he is, but God does not reveal the sins which are made known to him in confession, but hides them. Neither, therefore, should the priest reveal them. Aquinas says, I answer that those things which are done outwardly in the sacraments are the signs of what takes place inwardly. Wherefore, confession, whereby

a man subjects himself to a priest, is a sign of the inward submission whereby one submits to God. Now, God hides the sins of those who submit to him by penance. Wherefore, this also should be signed, signified in the sacrament of penance. And consequently, the sacrament demands that the confession should remain hidden. And he who divulges a confession, sorry, and he who divulges a confession sins by violating the sacrament. Besides this, there are other advantages in this secrecy because thereby men are more attracted to confession, right? And confess their sins with greater simplicity. So, yeah, that's at least,

yeah. So, okay. I think I said enough there. I'm really sorry for your experience there, Paul. Joseph Wiener says, I've been told by a priest that if I feel as though I am not in a state to receive communion, that I can say an act of contrition and receive the Eucharist validly, as long as I'm convicted to go to confession as soon as possible. Is this true? Yeah, I think you were misled there, Joseph. No, you may not. If you're in a state of mortal sin, you got to get to the sacrament of confession first before receiving the Eucharist. Now, if this is like a life and death situation, then maybe you would risk it, you know, but my understanding is that outside of some extraordinary situation like that, you're going to want to go to

confession first. You should definitely like make the act of contrition and you might be forgiven, but still you need to seek out the sacrament of confession and do that before receiving the Eucharist. Brian Damerick says, my Lutheran fiance has been asking a lot of questions about if she can participate in confession with a priest, or if not, if she can just sit with him and discuss what's been troubling her in the confession. What exactly is the practice with Protestants? Can they participate at all? Or is there a watered down version? That's awesome, Brian. Yeah, absolutely. I know many priests who'd be very open to that, you know, that they would be like, yeah, I can't absolve them, but I can certainly chat with them in this kind of one-on-one setting and they might be very happy to do that.

So I would just approach your priest and ask him that. Chris Castle asked for Bible references. I gave one above. John chapter 20. That's pretty strong, I think. James Canning says, how specific do we have to be? Whether things such as naming, number, and circumstances affect the validity? Number in kind. So, if you've like stolen, then you say, you know, I stole four different times, you know, or I looked at pornography three different times and masturbated four times. That's as specific as you need to get. If the priest wants more information for some reason, he'll ask you. Lilia Rosales says, do you have to do

your penance at church? No, you don't. You can do your penance wherever. Sometimes the priest will say, you know, go home and practice patience with your son or with your wife or something like that. So you don't have to do it in the church. Luke Irvin says, could you comment on scrupulosity in terms of feeling something is sinful versus it actually being sinful? As I grow closer to God, I feel like I'm also being called to be more aware of the ways I sin, but I also feel like I'm prone to seeing sin and everything to the effect of being afraid to do anything and bringing even the fear of sin to confession. Yeah, this is a great point. This is why a spiritual director is a good idea because he'll be able to tell you whether

you're being scrupulous or not. I struggled with scrupulosity a great deal a couple of years into my marriage. This is the best image I had for it. I felt like I was walking through God's pristine palace and that I was leaving my footprints, however lightly I tread or trod. And I felt like at any moment, God was going to grab me by the scruff of the neck and throw me out. And I remember a few times wishing I could believe like some of my evangelical friends in the doctrine of once saved, always saved, because I was so tired of feeling scrupulous. But of course, once saved, always saved isn't a biblical idea. So it was kind of, I couldn't embrace that. But through spiritual direction, I was led to Ludwig Ott's Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma. He talks about the sixth

session at the Council of Trent on justification. I believe it's the sixth session. And that really helped me, you know, because the Council of Trent never said that you cannot have certainty of your salvation. Okay. What they said was you can't have an infallible certainty of your salvation. And then I read Therese of Lisieux, especially that book, which I would recommend to everyone out there who's listening to this, who might struggle with scrupulosity, the book's called I Believe in Love. I Believe in Love. It's published by Sophia Press. If you struggle with scrupulosity, stop the podcast, go to Amazon, get it immediately because it really helped me a great deal. And yeah, that'll help because scrupulosity is not a cross the Lord is calling you to carry. It is a scourge of the devil that you are being called to renounce in the name of Jesus Christ. There's nothing holy about scrupulosity. You know, it's,

yeah, you have been saved by Jesus Christ. He is your righteousness. You have been placed on a mountain. Unless you jump off that mountain willingly, you know, you're in the grace of God. So, just trust in our Lord's love for you, I suppose I would say. All right, let me just address one final question. This comes from Hunter, who asks about what the church fathers had to say on the sacrament of confession. Now, I've already said that the sacrament took different forms, though it's always existed. So, let me just read a couple, okay? Here is St. Augustine in his sermon to catechumens on the creed. He says, quote, when you shall have been baptized, keep to a good life in the commandments

of God so that you may preserve your baptism to the very end. I do not tell you that you will not live here without sin, but they are venial sins, which this life is never without. Baptism was instituted for all sins, for light sins, without which we cannot live, prayer was instituted. But do not commit those sins on account of which you would have to be separated from the body of Christ. Perish the thought. For those whom you see doing penance have committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. committed crimes, either adultery or some other enormities. That is why they are doing penance. If their sins were light, daily prayer would suffice to blot them out.

In the church, therefore, there are three ways in which sins are forgiven. In baptism, in prayer, and in the greater humility of penance. So you see right there, and this is coming from the 4th century, from St. Augustine, this idea of venial and mortal sin was present in the church. Like this isn't some medieval invention. And of course, in order to receive a penance, you have to first tell your sins. Okay. So confession was alive and well in the early church.

Here's another quote from St. Jerome, a church father. This is his commentary on Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes. He says, quote, if the serpent, the devil, bites someone secretly, he infects that person with the venom of sin. And if the one who has been bitten keeps silence and does not do penance and does not want to confess his wound, then his brother and his master who have the word of absolution that will cure him cannot very well assist him. Very good. Ambrose of Milan in his work Penance says, for those to whom the right of binding and loosing has been given, which is the priests, it is plain that either both are allowed or it is clear that

neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the church. Neither is allowed to heresy for this right has been granted to priests only. Let's do maybe one more. This comes from St. John Chrysostom or Chrysostom, depending on how you pronounce it in the fourth century in his work, The Priesthood. Now, again, we have these wonderful evangelical listeners. And I just want to express again, my affection and my love for you. If you're a Lutheran or a evangelical or a Calvinist, whatever, I want you to know that I love you and that I look up to you. And I have several close evangelical friends. several close evangelical friends. And just by their witness, I'm inspired to love Christ all the more. So, I really pray that I never speak in a way that makes you feel inferior.

Obviously, as a Catholic, I believe that the fullness of the truth resides in the Catholic Church, and I want you to join us. I want you to join us. But that doesn't mean I don't think I can learn from you. That doesn't mean that I don't consider you a brother, even if we are separated, unfortunately. Okay. So with that, but the point is, I mean, when you read these early church fathers, you see, and I think if I was an evangelical, you know, I would think to myself, you know, the Catholic church, okay, maybe Christ established it, but after a while, you know, throughout history, it just gathered together all these medieval pagan beliefs. That's usually the claim of some

evangelicals, you know? And that sounds legitimate, doesn't it? I mean, it makes sense. You're over time, an institution gathers to itself all this unnecessary baggage. And the Protestant Reformation came along to throw off the baggage, right? To restore it to biblical simplicity. But it doesn't fit, doesn't work, because when you go back and read the earliest Christians, bugger it, they sound Catholic, don't they? Here's John Chrysostom, quote, priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them, whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. Whatsoever you shall loose shall be loosed. Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding, but they can only bind the body.

Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did God not give them all the powers of heaven? Whose sins you shall forgive, he says. They are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained. What greater power is there than this? Father has given all judgment to the Son, and now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men. And he's referring it to Matthew 10, 40. And then he says, they are raised to the dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven. So here you go. I mean, I gave a little bit of an apologetic at the beginning of this podcast and you might think to yourself, okay, well, I guess that sounds kind of

believable, but it should sound all the more believable when you realize that people like Ambrose of Milan, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. John Chrysostom, Basil the Great, all these others are talking about, you know, the very thing that the Catholic Church continues to talk about today. So, if you're a Catholic, I want to recommend that you become serious about confessing your sins and that you decide to go every other week, maybe. Maybe every week, but again, let's not become scrupulous, but maybe once a month, okay? If you're a parent, if you're the father, you are the head of your household. You bring your kids to the sacrament of confession. That's on you. It's up to you to lead the family in prayer. It's up to you to make sure you and your children are getting to confession. So make sure

you do that. Look, I'm saying, I'm speaking to me too. Do you understand? I'm not talking down to you. I'm talking to you as a fellow father. And take advantage of it yourself. And when you go there, accuse yourself manfully so that you can be forgiven. Beautiful thing, the sacrament of confession. Thank you so much for listening. Look, we had a lot of other questions that came over Patreon. Didn't get to get to all of them. Didn't get to all of them. Sorry about that. But many of them were kind of repeat questions. I want to say a big thanks to all of you who tune in week after week. Do you know that we're getting around 14,000 to 15,000 downloads a day now on Pines with Aquinas? It is such a joy.

And I want to ask you something, and I really mean it, all right? Would you please pray for the listeners of Pines with Aquinas? Because, look, we've got evangelicals, we have atheists, we have Catholics who are, you know, different levels of following Christ and adhering to the church. Please pray for me. Please pray for Pines of the Aquinas. I'd appreciate it. If you haven't yet left us a review on iTunes, be sure to go do that. And if you want to become a patron, a patron of Pines of the Aquinas and get a bunch of cool stuff in return and, you know,

hear from me, you get exclusive weekly videos. You get audio libraries. You get a free book, a free Pints of Aquinas beer stein, which you can now, you can't buy it anymore, by the way. It's just for our patrons. And it's the greatest beer stein in the world. The greatest drinking vessel in the world, let's be honest. Again, go to pintsofaquinas.com, click donate, and gee, we'd really appreciate it. Thanks so much for listening. Chat with you next week. God bless. Thank you.