286. Absolution
286. ABSOLUTION
Are we really forgiven by God when the priest pronounces absolution in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
As our Lord said to His disciples (Mt 28:19): teach all nations, baptizing them, etc., so did He say to Peter (Mt 16:19): Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, etc. Now the priest, relying on the authority of those words of Christ, says: I baptize thee. Therefore on the same authority he should say in this sacrament: I absolve thee. . . .
The sacraments of the New Law accomplish what they signify. . . .
God alone absolves from sin and forgives sins authoritatively. Yet priests do both ministerially, because the words of the priest in this sacrament work as instruments of the divine power, as in the other sacraments. . . .
When he says: I absolve thee, he declares the man to be absolved not only significatively but also effectively. . . . [H]e does not speak as of something uncertain, because just as the other sacraments of the New Law have, of themselves, a sure effect through the power of Christ’s passion (which effect, nevertheless, may be impeded on the part of the recipient), so it is with this sacrament (III,84,3).
To deny that we are really forgiven by God in this sacrament is to deny that God has the power and the authority to use a human instrument to forgive sins. But Christ explicitly gave that power to His Apostles.
One of the definitions of a sacrament is “a sacred sign instituted by Christ to give grace, that actually effects what it signifies”. As the Eucharist both signifies the death of Christ, by separating His Body and His Blood—the death that gives us eternal life—and also thereby actually communicates to us that gift of the grace of salvation, or eternal life; and as Baptism both signifies the washing from sin and actually communicates to us that grace; so the words of the priest in the Sacrament of Penance actually effect what they signify. They are performative words, not descriptive words. They are like “I dub thee knight” or “I hereby make you my deputy”, or the “I do” in the marriage ceremony. We are allowed here to participate in a privilege God alone has: His words do not merely speak the truth, they create. When He said “let there be light”, light was created. And when He says, through His appointed ministers and instruments, that we are forgiven, these words actually effect our forgiveness. St. Thomas expresses this point by saying that we are absolved (forgiven) “not only significatively but also effectively”. The words are not merely formal causes but efficient causes.
Not that the words themselves have this power, but only “through the power of Christ’s passion”. It is Christ Who is the first cause of all sacramental grace; and the same authority that can give grace can also authorize human and verbal instruments to carry it. To deny that is not to exalt God by demeaning natural causes, or second causes, as His instruments; it is the opposite: it is to limit God’s power and authority to use these instruments if He wills to do so.
And He does will to do so, for our sake. How much more certain we are when we receive these words from the priest authorized by Christ than when we have only our own soul’s testimony, our own faith and conscience, to rely on! How much more effectively our faith and hope is directed beyond ourselves to Christ Himself when He comes to us not only subjectively and spiritually but also objectively and sacramentally, especially, in the Eucharist!
It is true that “spiritual” does not necessarily mean “subjective” and “objective” does not necessarily mean “material”, and it is true that He is objectively real whether or not He uses material instruments. But it is much harder for us to escape ourselves when He does not do this, because our natural model for what is objectively real is a material thing. This may be a human weakness, but He teaches us according to our weaknesses, according to our needs.