Let us prove ourselves followers of Jesus.

Let us prove ourselves followers of Jesus.
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To say,  "Jesus is my Saviour, I believe in Him," without living according to His words is to mock at Him.

He instituted the seven sacraments as food to our spiritual life.

To live without food is not possible.

To live our spiritual life without the sacraments instituted by Jesus is not possible.

Just as Baptism frees us from our original sin, confession frees us from the  mortal and venial sins, committed by us after Baptism.

Some so called Christians don't care for confession mainly because they have lost their sense of sin.

Confession is essential for our salvation as it was instituted by Jesus,  whom we accept as our Saviour.

Jesus gave His Apostles the power of forgiving our sins when He said to them, "Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained” (John 20:23)

To partake in the sacrament of Eucharist our souls must be free from mortal Sins.

If we receive Holy Communion
in the state of mortal sin,  we will be committing another mortal sin.

It is like muddying ourselves while taking bath.

Some people open the Bible to search for the verses in support of their beliefs.

They think that the importance and truthfulness of something depends upon number of verses supporting it!

  Sheer number of verses doesn’t correlate with the  importance of  anything.

Trinity is the bedrock of our Faith. 

The three persons of the Trinity are mentioned together just 20 times in the New Testament.

Quality of  evidence is more important than quantity.

The foundation for the Catholic view is the example of Christ Himself.

When He cured the paralytic,  He said to the people around him, "But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”

—he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”

Why did He say, 'Son of man'? 

It is to show that  the Incarnation extended outwards in space and time—through Mary, the sacraments, the formal priesthood, and the very existence of the visible Church itself.

The power to forgive sins is extended to the Apostles

The Apostles who were given power to forgive sins, 
exercised this special authority to forgive the sins of those confessed them.

In 2 Corinthians 2:10 St. Paul states, “For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ.”

So Paul is really saying that he is acting in the person of Jesus Christ  in forgiving sins.

This is the biblical affirmation of the terminology that the Catholic Church continues to use today to describe the role of priests in the sacraments of confession and the Eucharist.

In 2 Corinthians, 5:18-19, he has said,   "This, as always, is God’s doing; it is he who, through Christ, has reconciled us to himself, and allowed us to minister this reconciliation of his to others. 

Yes, God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, establishing in our hearts his message of reconciliation, instead of holding men to account for their sins.

 We are Christ’s ambassadors, then, and God appeals to you through us; we entreat you in Christ’s name, make your peace with God."

 St. Paul presents his role as more of a hierarchical one.

God the Father acted through His Son Christ.

Now Christ is acting through the apostles.

In Acts. 19:18 we read, "Many believers came forward, confessing their evil practices and giving a full account of them."

This is a  biblical proof to making confession to be forgiven.

Jesus has power to forgive sins.

Jesus is fully God and fully man.

He referred to Himself as 'Son of man' when He forgave the sins of  the paralytic​.

He exercised His power of forgiveness in His humanity and he even extended it to His Apostles and their successors.  

The Apostles  to whom this privilege was delegated, in turn, passed it down to others - our Bishops and  Priests.

Our Bishops are in the place of the  Apostles and our priests are their representatives.

Confession has a deep rooted biblical foundation.

Bible is the word of God and confession is founded it.

God became man, underwent unbearable sufferings and sacrificed Himself on the  Cross in order to give  us freedom from sin

The only  cooperation He expects from us is to feel sorry for our sins and confess them to His representative, Catholic Priest.

Let us cooperate with Him and prove ourselves His followers.

Lourdu Selvam.