Through the centuries, the celebration of the Sacrament of Penance has developed in different forms, but it has always kept the same basic structure: it necessarily entails not only the action of the minister – only a Bishop or priest, who judges and absolves, tends and heals in the name of Christ – but also the actions of the penitent: contrition, confession and satisfaction. ( 3)ĭown through history in the constant practice of the Church, the “ministry of reconciliation” ( 2 Cor 5:18), conferred through the Sacraments of Baptism and Penance, has always been seen as an essential and highly esteemed pastoral duty of the priestly ministry, performed in obedience to the command of Jesus. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” ( Jn 20:22-23). On the evening of the day of his Resurrection, as the apostolic mission is about to begin, Jesus grants the Apostles, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the authority to reconcile repentant sinners with God and the Church: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Rom 8:21).Ĭhrist entrusts to the Apostles the mission of proclaiming the Kingdom of God and preaching the Gospel of conversion (cf. Salvation is therefore and above all redemption from sin, which hinders friendship with God, a liberation from the state of slavery in which man finds himself ever since he succumbed to the temptation of the Evil One and lost the freedom of the children of God (cf. Mt 3:13-17), not because he had sinned, but because “he allows himself to be numbered among sinners he is already `the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world' ( Jn 1:29) already he is anticipating the `baptism' of his bloody death”. Jesus himself underwent this penitential rite (cf.

In all his deeds and preaching, the Precursor issues a fervent and energetic summons to repentance and conversion, the sign of which is the baptism administered in the waters of the Jordan.

( 1) By identifying Jesus as “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” ( Jn 1:29), Saint John the Baptist confirms this mission. By the mercy of God, the Father who reconciles us to himself, the Word took flesh in the spotless womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary to save “his people from their sins” ( Mt 1:21) and to open for them “the way of eternal salvation”.

Misere recordia