Homily 3—On the Five Conditions for a Fruitful Confession

The words of Jesus Christ Himself.

Jesus Christ calls all and each to repentance; He is ready to receive and forgive all and each penitent; He says that for one sinner who repents there is more joy in heaven than over ninety-nine righteous persons. Do you hear, brethren, how dear the repentance of even one sinner is to God?

In our last conversation I said that we sinners can receive the Holy Spirit through repentance and Holy Communion; and then I said that repentance is one thing, and confession another—and that repentance without confession can be beneficial, but confession without repentance never benefits. Today I intend to speak of confession—what it is, and what must be done at confession.

What is confession? Confession is the consequence and continuation of repentance. The man who feels in his soul sorrow for sins, who grieves and repents in his heart that he has angered God, his merciful Father—this means that this man is making repentance. And when this repentant man goes to the priest and tells him all his sins aloud—that is called confession.

Here we shall offer the simplest analogy and comparison for confession. For example: if you had but one vessel—let us say simply, if you had but one piece of crockery—received as an inheritance from your ancestors, which you, through negligence or carelessness, had defiled and made foul: what would you do? Surely you would think it a pity to break it, and would immediately set about cleaning it—you would pour out the filth, wash it with water, and scour it with fire—that it might become clean again.

To pour out the filth from the vessel means to confess one’s sins before the confessor; and to wash with water and scour with fire means: heartfelt and even tearful contrition, and voluntary taking up of the cross of Jesus Christ—or voluntary resolution to endure all the burdens and sorrows of this life patiently, and to refrain from sins.

1) One must have firm faith and hope in Jesus Christ.

2) One must have contrition and compassion for the fact that we have angered God.

3) One must forgive all one’s enemies and those who have offended us all the wrongs they have done us.

4) Without any concealment, cleanly and openly to declare one’s sins before the confessor.

5) To lay a firm intention to live more carefully in the future.

These are the things that must be done by one who wishes God to forgive his sins.

Let us now examine these obligations in order.

1) First of all, one must know and believe that God is one, in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; that the second Person of the Holy Trinity, the Son of God, in His mercy was on earth, was born of the Virgin Mary, revealed the truth to us, and by His own will suffered and died on the cross for our salvation; that on the third day He rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father, and again shall come to judge the living and the dead. This is what faith in Jesus Christ means—and without this faith confession is impossible.

2) One must have a contrite heart.

Who is God? And who are we? God is the almighty Creator of heaven and earth; He is the awesome and just Judge—while we? We are weak and worthless mortals. All people—even the greatest—before God are less than dust; and we can never conceive how great and majestic God is. And yet, knowing all this, we dare to sin before Him, to transgress His law, to forget Him—and thereby to grieve His fatherly heart. This is why we ought to grieve and weep.

3) One must forgive all one’s enemies and those who have offended and wronged us in any harmful or insulting way.

At first glance it seems very hard to forgive offenses to one’s enemies; but he who has experience, who has a worldly sense of his own honor and of himself, knows how difficult it is—knows how hard it is to forgive one who has insulted our innocent honor, who shamelessly and basely lied about us, who ruined our reputation, who offended our dearest loved ones. These are the bitterest offenses—and yet we must forgive even these.

To forgive: what does it mean? To forgive means never to avenge, either secretly or openly; never to recall; to leave off entirely; to forget completely—and beyond that to love one’s enemy as a friend, as a brother, as a dear one; to defend his honor and render him his due. To forgive thus completely is very, very difficult for us human beings. But we must forgive thus—no other way.

Truly, he who knows how to conquer himself and suppress his ambition, pride, and self-love, and who has the strength to compel himself to show love and render justice to his enemy—such a man is an extraordinary man even in the estimation of the world—and this is truly a heroic feat, greater and more glorious in the eyes of God than any other heroic feat.

But if one must forgive one’s enemies, then it is equally necessary to ask forgiveness of those whom we have offended. If you have personally offended someone, personally ask forgiveness—come and bow at their feet, and say: forgive me; if you offended someone secretly, seek forgiveness secretly; if you offended someone in public, seek forgiveness publicly.

Is asking forgiveness easy? It is both easy and difficult: it is easy to ask forgiveness of one’s superiors and authorities, as many do even without any need. It is also not very hard to ask forgiveness of equals. But to ask forgiveness of those lower than oneself—well, this is very hard. Yet we must do this too.

Here it is fitting to mention one opinion. Many think and say that it is not always or to everyone that one can forgive or ask forgiveness—for in some cases this may weaken the force of civic order and discipline. To this one can reply that no confession or church commandment tells you to forgive the external offense against your honor before civil authorities; confession only requires you to forgive inwardly—in your heart.

4) One must openly and without concealment declare one’s sins. Why declare our sins to One who knows all our secrets, say some? Certainly not in order that God might not know of them—but we must declare them so as thereby to render a guilty plea and accept the judgment of the Church, and that the priest, as the physician of souls, may prescribe the necessary remedy.

5) Finally, one must lay a firm intention to live more carefully in the future. — This is the most difficult obligation! All the other obligations—to believe and hope in Jesus Christ, to have a contrite heart, to conceal nothing at confession—are relatively easy, and even very easy. But a firm intention to reform one’s life and to strive not to sin—this is the most difficult.

But he who has no intention at all of changing his life; he who does not wish to abandon a single sin—let him not approach confession. I say this here before the face of God: he who thinks not at all of reforming himself confesses in vain and receives Communion in vain—this is a fearful thing, brethren, a fearful thing.

Hear, brethren: the Church commands, after confession, to live as carefully as possible and not to return to the former sinful life, but to begin a new and holy life. Therefore, my brethren, I beg you, for God’s sake, for the sake of your salvation, have the intention and try as far as possible to leave off at least the most dangerous and habitual sins.

These are all the obligations that must be fulfilled at confession; and he who fulfills them fully may be assured that all his sins will be forgiven him, and he will little by little receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, and will at last become holy and attain the Kingdom of Heaven.

To this we shall add a few more observations. First, let us say something in general about sins: there are mortal sins and non-mortal sins; there are known sins and unknown sins; and there are voluntary sins and involuntary sins, and so on.

What are mortal sins? On one hand, every sin in itself is mortal—because it makes man a transgressor of the law of God and thereby subjects him to condemnation; but on the other hand, there is no sin that cannot be forgiven to a penitent man—except the sin against the Holy Spirit, which is hardened, deliberate persistence in sin even to death.

And so there is no need to know precisely which sins are mortal and which are not; a man with even the smallest and most ordinary sins can perish eternally, if he does not care for them, grieve over them, and if he does not repent in time. But on the contrary, even the greatest sinner can be saved, if he repents—as we see in the example of the robber on the cross.

And so you see that one must by no means neglect even a small sin, and still less must one consider oneself less sinful than others. Secondly, there are voluntary and involuntary sins.

We shall call involuntary those sins which are committed either from necessity, or from circumstances, or from one’s calling, or even from weakness; but we shall call voluntary those sins which are committed not from human weakness, not from necessity, but solely from an evil habit or from a complete lack of care for the soul.

Those who commit voluntary sins resemble a man who, walking through a swamp, loads himself with various entirely unnecessary burdens—and thereby sinks ever deeper and deeper.

He who has the habit of indulging in voluntary sins shows that he has entirely forgotten God, that he thinks and cares nothing for salvation—and his heart has grown too hard and stony.

Therefore, brethren, let us form the intention after confession to avoid, at the very least, voluntary sins by every means. This is quite easy; and in the meantime it will little by little bring us nearer to the Kingdom of Heaven—while God, seeing our intention and effort, will give us the strength to avoid other sins as well.

There are also people who count small sins as great and worry about them too much, while thinking almost nothing of heavy and great sins. For example: inadvertently eating meat on a fast day, or eating before the Liturgy on a feast day, they count as grave sins—while a man can be cruel to those beneath him, can drink, can curse and abuse, and give no thought to it at all.

And so one must be prudently careful: one must not forget oneself entirely, but one need not worry too much over small sins. Strive to change the very heart—and then everything will change: cut down the dry root, and the branches will fall off of themselves, and fresh ones will grow in their place.

This is all that one who wishes to be cleansed from sins through confession needs to know. Believe and hope in Jesus Christ; have a contrite heart and openly confess your sins; forgive all your enemies and adversaries; and finally, strive as far as possible to live more carefully—and then God will forgive you all your sins through the prayer of the priest.

The grace of God be with you. Amen.