Instrument Of Reconciliation Analysis

Kathleen Hughes article she reflects upon Pope Paul VI’s powerful metaphor with relation to the Rite of Penance – Walking on the edge of two great abysses – sin and love, sin and grace and death and resurrection. Reconciliation is an invitation to plunge into God’s mercy, love and forgiveness and deepen our friendship with Christ. Sin represents everything that destroys our friendship with God. Reconciliation repairs our relationship with God. Reconciliation begins when a person is incorporated into the body of Christ at baptism. We maintain and strengthen this relationship through the eucharist and reconciliation. Eucharist is the regular sacrament that renews and strengthens our baptismal reconciliation. We have the sacrament of ‘reconciliation’ when we do something to damage our union with Christ, to restore the relationship. This is how the sacrament of reconciliation is a ‘sacrament of conversion’.
Reconciliation can be described, as a sacrament of "penance" as this describes the essential interior disposition required for this sacrament. As explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is called the sacrament of penance, because it consecrates the penitent’s personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction. The sacrament of reconciliation is a sacrament in which the priest, as the agent of God, forgives sins committed after baptism, when the sinner is heartily sorry for them, sincerely confesses them, and is willing to make satisfaction for them. This power to forgive sin, which Jesus conferred upon his apostles, is now given to priests. When the priest raises his hand and says these words, "I absolve thee from thy sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” the penitent’s sins are forgiven. These are called "the words of absolution." This makes reconciliation a sacrament of “ Forgiveness”. It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an