Pope Francis meets with participants in an annual course on the internal forum, organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary Penitentiary
By Vatican News staff reporter
Pope Francis told confessors on Friday that love was the heart of a good confession.
He spoke with participants in an annual course on the internal forum, organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary.
This year’s course has been held online due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Abandonment
During the audience, which was held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope relied on three expressions that explain the meaning of the sacrament of reconciliation: the first, “to abandon oneself to love”; the second, “to be transformed by Love”; and the third: “corresponding to Love.”
Addressing the congregants, the Pope remarked that “to confess is not to go to the dry cleaners to remove a stain. No, it is something else.”
The first step to a good confession, he said, “is precisely the 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 surprised by the brethren who, by faith, ask for God’s forgiveness … The pain of sins is the sign of such a confident abandonment to the Love “.
Transformation
“Living the confession this way means letting yourself be transformed by love,” he stressed.
Reflecting on this second expression, the Pope noted that the penitent who encounters “a ray of this welcoming love, allows himself to be transformed by love,” which transforms “a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.”
He added: “It’s the same in the emotional life: the encounter is changed with great love.”
Pope Francis told those present that a good confessor “is always called to perceive the miracle of change, to notice the work of Grace in the hearts of penitents, encouraging as much as possible the transformative action.”
They correspond to love
Focusing his attention on the third expression, to correspond to Love, the Pope said, “the real will to become is concretized in correspondence with the love of God received and accepted.”
In loving our brothers and sisters, he stressed, “We prove to ourselves, to the world, and to God, that we truly love Him and correspond, always inadequately, to His mercy.”
Forgiven sinners
Pope Francis went on to say, “The good confessor always points out, alongside the primacy of love, the indispensable love of neighbor, as a daily gym in which to train love for God.”
The Pope also stressed the importance of frequent confession as “a form of sanctification, a school of faith, abandonment, change and correspondence with the merciful love of the Father.”
In conclusion, Pope Francis noted: “Each of us is a forgiven sinner, put at the service of others, so that they too, through the sacramental encounter, may find that love that has fascinated and changed our lives.”