Pope Francis meets with participants in an annual course on the internal forum, organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary
By Vatican News staff reporter
Pope Francis told confessors on Friday that love is at the heart of a good confession.
He spoke to participants in an annual course on the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary.
This year’s course took place online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Abandon
During the audience, which took place in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope relied on three expressions that explain the meaning of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: first, “the abandonment of love”; the second, “letting himself be transformed by Love”; and the third: “corresponding to Love.”
Addressing those gathered, the Pope remarked that “going to confession is not going to the cleaners to get a stain. No. It is something else.”
The first step to a good confession, he said, “is the very act of faith, of abandonment, with which the penitent approaches Mercy.”
The pope went on to say that “therefore every confessor must always be able to be amazed by brothers who, by faith, ask God for forgiveness … The pain of one’s sins is a sign of such a confident abandonment to Love.”
Transformation
“Living the confession in this way means letting yourself be transformed by Love,” he said.
Reflecting on this second expression, the Pope remarked that the penitent who encounters “a ray of this welcoming Love, allows himself to be transformed by Love,” which changes “a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.”
He added: “It’s the same thing in the emotional life: one is changed by the encounter with great love.”
Pope Francis told those present that a good confessor “is always called to perceive the miracle of change, to observe the work of Grace in the hearts of penitents, encouraging as much as possible the transformative action.”
It corresponds to love
Turning his attention to the third expression – to correspond to Love – the Pope said: “the real will to convert becomes concrete in the correspondence with the love of God received and accepted.”
Loving our brothers and sisters, he emphasized, “We show ourselves, the world, and God that we truly love Him and that we always respond inappropriately to His mercy.”
Forgiven sinners
Pope Francis went on to say, “The good confessor always emphasizes, along with the primacy of love, the indispensable love of neighbor, as a daily gymnasium in which to train love for God.”
The Pope also stressed the importance of frequent confession as “a way of sanctification, a school of faith, abandonment, change and correspondence with the merciful Love of the Father.”
In conclusion, Pope Francis remarked: “Each of us is a forgiven sinner, placed in the service of others, so that they too, through the sacramental encounter, may meet that Love which fascinated us and changed our lives.”