Can't I confess my sins directly to God?

1493 One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church, must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he remembers after having carefully examined his conscience. The confession of venial faults, without being necessary in itself, is nevertheless strongly recommended by the Church. Catechism of the Catholic Church, Ch. 2 Art. 4, Vatican website

"And the Lord sent Nathan to David. ... And Nathan said to David: ... Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel: I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee from the hand of Saul,
And gave thee thy master's house and thy master's wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and Juda: and if these things be little, I shall add far greater things unto thee. Why therefore hast thou despised the word of the Lord, to do evil in my sight? ...
And David said to Nathan: I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David: The Lord also hath taken away thy sin: thou shalt not die." (2 Samuel 12:1; 7-9; 13)

"As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." (John 20:21-23)

Let's face it, confessing our faults to another human being is not an easy thing. I remember quite vividly when I approached the confessional for that first time in a while. I was in a cold sweat; I was terrified. To my great relief, I found that the priest was kind and sympathetic and I had nothing to fear. I realized that the priest is was there to forgive, and not to condemn. The evil one makes a mountain out of a molehill in order to keep people away from this powerful Sacrament. The truth is that you will be happier for going. The overwhelming majority of priests will treat a penitent with great kindness. In return for your brave effort in approaching the confessional, you will receive forgiveness, God's love, mercy and peace. For those of us who approach the Sacrament more frequently, we receive strength to resist sin and grow in holiness. The grace we receive from submitting to God's will and humbling ourselves is immense.

As we see even in the Old Testament, God works through human agents and the physical world around us. In Sacred Scriptures, God uses words, symbols, and gestures to effect spiritual things. God "passed over" the first-born of the Israelites by marking their doorposts with blood of the lamb. Our very redemption was effected in a visible way through Christ's bloody death on the cross.

We are not angels, we are men and women composed of flesh and blood. We gather information through our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste and smell. We learn spiritual truths by relating them to the physical world. We learn about unfamiliar things best by relating them to things we know and experience. We do not generally experience the spiritual with our senses, so to know them God assists us by the use of symbols, words and gestures. The Church has always understood this. God used symbols to effect grace in the Old Testament, and Jesus uses symbols and words to effect grace in the New Testament.

Our Church transmits grace to us through the sacraments which effect what they signify. For instance, in Baptism, the effects of original sin, and actual sin (if present) are washed away. Jesus instituted Baptism using water, because we understand water's property to clean our bodies, so He uses it to clean our souls. The imagery is simple, and anyone can understand it.

Jesus uses bread and wine as the vehicle by which He makes His sacramental dwelling with us. At the words of the priest acting in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) at the words, "This is My Body" the bread and wine are destroyed, and Jesus becomes present under the appearances of bread and wine.

In the Sacrament of Penance, we also have a tangible sign. The signs and words of the sacrament also effect what they signify. The priest raises his hand in blessing, giving us absolution that assures us that our sins are forgiven. These signs and words help us to understand what is really happening. If we prepare properly, express sorrow verbally for our sins, and hear the words of the priest, it can bring us tangible comfort that our merciful God has truly heard our plea and grants us forgiveness.

Jesus expects us to take these sacramental symbols seriously. In Mark 16:16, Jesus says, "He that believeth and is baptized, shall be saved", and again in John 3:5, "Amen, amen I say to thee, unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." In regard to the Holy Eucharist, Jesus insists over and over again in the Gospel of St. John, Chapter 6:

"For my flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, abideth in me, and I in him. As the living Father hath sent me, and I live by the Father; so he that eateth me, the same also shall live by me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead. He that eateth this bread, shall live for ever." (John 6:56-59).

Jesus insists on the importance of Baptism and the Holy Eucharist. In the Sacrament of Penance he uses a very special sign to indicate to His apostles the power He transmits to them.

The action Jesus uses to confer the power of forgiveness is highly significant: He breathes on the apostles. When Jesus confers the power to forgive sin, it is only the second place in the Bible where God breathes on persons. In the book of Genesis, God's breathes life into Adam: "And the Lord God ... breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7) So, it is appropriate here that He breathes on the Apostles, because as God breathed and gave new life to Adam, so that Adam could go forth and give life to the human race, now God made flesh, Jesus Christ, the new Adam breathes on His priests so that they may forgive the sins of men. The lesson here is that as God breathes in new life to man, He breathes in restored spiritual life as well through the Sacrament of Penance. The words of Jesus at this time signify quite clearly the role of the priest as the minister of God's forgiveness.

The plain sense of Jesus's words here is that the apostles, the first priests of the New Testament, are to judge which sins to forgive and which to retain. Through this command to the apostles, Jesus gives us a choice: repent, go to the priests to have the life of our souls restored, or do not repent and continue under the weight of our sins. The implication seems clear: if confession is available, the ordinary means of God's forgiveness is to confess them to a priest, who must hear our sins so that he can know which sins to forgive and which to retain. (If someone cannot go to confession right away, he should make an internal act of sincere sorrow for his sins and go to confession at the first opportunity.)

A wise parent will know that children appreciates gifts more when they work for it. God our Father offers His priceless forgiveness for free, but requires a token response beyond a vague, whistful sentiment. Our confession of sin to a priest, compels us to "hear" what we ourselves are saying, and admit verbally to God and man that we have sinned and are sorry. We tell God through the priest that we want to mend our wounded souls. This is an occasion of spiritual growth.

By the Sacrament, He gives us the opportunity to grow in virtue. By confessing our sins to a man, we exercise the virtue of humility. The greatest of all virtues is love (1 Cor. 13:13) but the gateway of all virtue is humility. The saints tell us that we cannot achieve heaven without it. It is that virtue by which we are given the courage to drop all the baggage we accumulate throughout life so that we may "enter in through the narrow gate" to eternal life. When admit our sin to another man, it harder, but far more profitable. Our human nature will more easily understand that we are accountable for our sin.

The counsel of a good confessor can help us to grow in sanctity. Sin makes our souls sick, God has given us the gift of the priesthood to represent Jesus, our spiritual Physician. God means us to have intimate union with Him and to listen to His inspiration in prayer, but we also grow in holiness through the counsel of others. The spiritual counsel of a wise confessor is a great treasure, and one that pays great spiritual dividend, and it is worthwhile to seek out such a pastor.

When the priest hears our confession, and raises his hand in forgiveness, he does so in persona Christi. It is Christ who absolves us through the priest. Most Catholics are aware of this, but there is a social aspect to Confession, just as there is a social aspect to sin. Our sin hurts the entire Church. When we pray and gain virtue, we strengthen the Church, when we sin we weaken it. In the early Church, sins were confessed publicly. Thankfully, we can confess our sins in strict confidentiality through the seal of confession now, however there is still an aspect of mending our relationship with the community. When we hurt someone, we ought to make reparation to that person when it is feasible to do so. We make reparation for the social effects of sin through Confession by telling our sins to the priest, who in addition to acting in the person of Christ, also represents the community.

So, by the Sacrament of Penance, which Our Lord gave to the Church after His resurrection by breathing the Holy Spirit of God upon them, we gain peace and forgiveness. The gates of Heaven are open once more, and the Holy Spirit once more reigns in our souls. We reconcile and become friends with God and with the whole Church. As difficult as it is to approach this Sacrament for the first time after a long absence, the priest of God is waiting for us - not to condemn us, but to offer the Lord's forgiveness. Let us consider the great gift of healing we receive there. For those of us who go more often, let us appreciate frequent confession and consider the many graces we receive from a sincere examination of conscience and honest confessions of our faults and failings. Through this sacrament of God's mercy, we reclaim our great dignity as God's daughters and sons, and grow in grace, holiness and love. May God bless you.