Pope says God’s mercy is greater than man’s sins

(March 7, 2008) Pope Bendict XVI said on Friday that if there is a certain dissatisfaction with the sacrament of confession in our days, it is because priests at confession sometimes insist more on the guilt and punishment of sin rather than on personally experiencing the mercy of the Father. Addressing some 700 participants in an annual Lenten course for priests who hear confessions, Pope Benedict observed that our age is unfortunately losing the sense of sin. Recalling the Gospel episode of the sinful woman anointing the feet of Jesus, the Pope said those who come for confession need to be helped to experience God’s tenderness for sinners who repent. And Lent, he said, is a favourable time to meditate on the reality of sin in the light of the infinite mercy of God, whose highest expression is in the Sacrament of Confession. Pointing to the sinful woman of the Gospel, the Pope said, ‘one who loves most, God fully forgives him.” Therefore, the message that one needs to transmit, the Pope said, is that whatever the sin, if one humbly recognizes it and trustfully approaches the confessor, he or she always experiences the peaceful joy of God’s pardon. Penitents must be made to understand the importance of the guilt of sin but when confessors insist only on the accusation of sin, one risks pushing to the background that which should be central to the sacrament – namely, the personal encounter with God, the Father of goodness and mercy. At the heart of the sacrament of forgiveness, the Pope stressed, lies not sin but only the mercy of God, who is infinitely greater than all our sins.