Is this a good argument for confession to a priest?

Started by drummerboy, November 01, 2019, 09:05:25 AM

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Non Nobis

#15
Quote from: John Lamb on November 16, 2019, 08:12:30 AM

In each and every one of the sacraments, Christ really, physically, and spiritually approaches us. That's precisely what a "sacrament" is. It's something that makes Christ's invisible grace, physically present to us—because we are bodily creatures. Nowhere on earth is Christ more fully and tangibly present to us than in the sacraments, since it is Christ Himself who administers the sacraments—the priest is His instrument.


Christ (Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity) is really (and not just mystically) present in the Sacrament of the Eucharist.  Christ is present, but not in the same way, in the other Sacraments.  He is present in His grace and by acting in the priest (minister) instrumentally, really but mystically. Physical things in the Sacraments are the means He uses to give grace, but only in the Eucharist is Christ Himself hidden under them (their appearances).

I'm not sure what you mean by calling Christ's grace present bodily/physically.    I wouldn't want to say every spiritual good is also present physically. Or if you do, it at least needs explanation - e.g. that they affect the body only is as much as a man's body and soul are distinct but united during life. Otherwise it seems body and soul could be understood as a kind of a mishmash.

You are more expert (and better with words) here than I am, but the above is my imperfect understanding.
[Matthew 8:26]  And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds, and the sea, and there came a great calm.

[Job  38:1-5]  Then the Lord answered Job out of a whirlwind, and said: [2] Who is this that wrappeth up sentences in unskillful words? [3] Gird up thy loins like a man: I will ask thee, and answer thou me. [4] Where wast thou when I laid up the foundations of the earth? tell me if thou hast understanding. [5] Who hath laid the measures thereof, if thou knowest? or who hath stretched the line upon it?

Jesus, Mary, I love Thee! Save souls!

John Lamb

Yes Non Nobis, I know my words were ambiguous there. When I say that Christ comes to us physically in the Sacraments, I don't mean that Christ Himself is physically present in each of the Sacraments, but that He comes to us in a physical way through them, since each Sacrament has a physical component (like water for baptism). Point being that He uses physical things in the world to communicate with us through the Sacraments.
"Let all bitterness and animosity and indignation and defamation be removed from you, together with every evil. And become helpfully kind to one another, inwardly compassionate, forgiving among yourselves, just as God also graciously forgave you in the Anointed." – St. Paul