​Resurrection  of  the  Lord  Parish

​​​ Twenty-sixth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Treasures From Our Tradition

(Diocesan Publication)

The sacrament of penance has a long and difficult history.  The Church sometimes struggles with how best to be faithful to the image of an all forgiving God.  Once a very public rite with publicly visible participation on the part of the penitent, it became in time a very private matter.  By the fourteenth century, when a prayer of absolution and a laying on of hands was still required in sacramental confession, theologians were saying that even that was too much liturgy.  All that was required was confession itself, and the sacramental words Ego te absolvo, or “I absolve you.”

In 1614 the Council of Florence tried to flesh out this bare skeleton, requiring that if possible, the priest should wear a stole, that the confession should be in church, and that there be questions about the person’s state in life, occupation, and last confession.  This is the first time the Church recommended that the penitent and priest be separated by a grill, thereby eliminating the ritual laying on of hands once so central to the sacrament, substituting the priest’s raised right hand in blessing.  This is the rite that remained in force until the sacrament became the subject of very stormy debates at the Second Vatican Council, leading to a major reform in 1974 that is still only partially received.

— Rev. James Field

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