What to do when the disease is unknown? To make a diagnosis, it is necessary to take tests, undergo various diagnostic studies! Without this, only an elder-prophet (of whom there are so few now that if we say there are none – we will not be mistaken) can make a diagnosis. How to take tests, how to undergo diagnostics in a spiritual sense? What is it? The Holy Fathers, taught by the Physician the Holy Spirit, say that the diagnosis is established by zealously following the Gospel commandments (Old Testament in the explanation of the New Testament and specifically New Testament ones). We take tests, perform diagnostics, and together with a spiritual advisor-confessor during confession, we establish the diagnosis (which, by the way, is the same for all people
– it is not knowing God (apostasy from God), just the degrees of progression and stages of the disease are different) and our own attitude to the disease.
Confession is the beginning of treatment, but by no means the end. Even the most accurate diagnosis does not destroy the disease. But if you do not get treated – the disease will not go away. And we say after confession: well, finally it is all accomplished, I repented! You have not even started repenting, healing, since confession is the beginning of repentance, an opportunity for healing, not the healing itself. And we place all our hopes on confession, as a goal, not as a means (as, in the end, we treat all the sacraments). This leads to such decline, paralysis of spiritual life. We magically hope on God that He will do everything for us, while God at the same time intercedes for us with us (ourselves). We tell God: “Enter”, but do not remove the locks from the doors, do not slide the bolts, do not labor to open the doors with repentance. Therefore, God cannot enter our heart, and after a formal, irresponsible confession remains standing outside and humbly knocking on its door… “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven, but the one who does the will of My Heavenly Father”.
We have spoken in parables for so long, given examples, images to now make certain conclusions, which if we had made immediately, at the beginning, would have thrown you into a cold sweat. But if you have thought a little, and not just found familiar letters in words, then we can move on.
You should have understood that the Sacraments of Baptism and Confession have the same function – entry into the Body of Christ, with one difference, that the first is for pagans, the unbaptized, and the second – for Christians who have fallen away from the Church through mortal sins (all sins are mortal!!! A sin in which we do not repent is mortal, kills the soul, separates from God). Both the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Confession are just the beginning of a long process of healing and in no way guarantee salvation. In the Sacrament of Baptism and the Sacrament of Confession, sins are not forgiven. I know, this phrase outraged you and you remembered the Creed, quotes from the Gospel, absolution prayers at confession, prayers of the rite of Baptism, sayings of the Holy Fathers, church prayers. So let’s theologize a bit.
“As the Father has sent Me, so I send you. Having said this, He breathed on them and says to them: Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you retain, they are retained.” In this case, it is about granting the apostles collectively, as the Church, the Holy Spirit, not a personal gift that they individually were worthy to receive at Pentecost, but a functional authority to incorporate new members into the Church – that is, to baptize. The Lord sends the apostles not to confess, but to baptize: “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit”, that is, incorporate everyone into the Church, birth in the Sacrament of baptism to Eternal Life. Sin is to be outside God, without God, with all the consequences-wounds from godless life. In baptism, a person is born into the Church, a new God-human life, restores communication with God, and gains the opportunity for healing (forgiveness) of sins. Therefore, it is said, “Baptism for the forgiveness of sins”, not in “baptism sins are forgiven”. We are baptized – so that sins may be forgiven, to begin the forgiveness (healing) of sins and eucharistic, church life in suffering, in fulfilling Christ’s commandments, living by the laws of spiritual life (we will stop in detail on them in “Part Two” “Introduction…”), to heal from the sinful contagion – pride, egoism. We are baptized – to enter the Church, only living in which one can be like God, become godlike, be sanctified from the sin-suffering, curse-decay and death (consequences of sin of godlessness). And what does “to leave sin” mean? The answer is very simple. Now they baptize left and right, just to have money, baptized godparents, that is, godfathers (who often have no relation to the church, apart from having a certificate of baptism, which certifies that they (godparents) were once baptized, of course formally) and a couple of candles and something else by tradition. In the early centuries of Christianity, it was not so. They prepared for baptism, were catechumens for months, years. They baptized only on major Feasts. The liturgy of Great Lent is indicative, when catechumens prepare for baptism. Some catechumens in the middle of Lent become those who are preparing for enlightenment, that is, they will be baptized on Holy Saturday. The Church prays for the catechumens, who will not be baptized this Easter – they are not ready yet, and for those who are “preparing for enlightenment”, that is, baptism. Therefore, “to leave sin” means to postpone the baptism of the one who is not yet ready for later, to the next major feast, or even to the next Easter! Therefore, there is no talk in this context of some magical, juridical “power” to grant amnesty to sinners. “Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”. In the context from which this phrase is taken, the conversation is about church life, which includes the sacrament of confession. But I must disappoint you again – there is no hint of forgiveness of sins by the apostles or priests, who are supposedly endowed with some magical power to forgive and release sins. Do not be lazy to read the entire eighteenth chapter, and it would not hurt to read a few comments from the Holy Fathers (e.g., John Chrysostom), and you will see that the conversation is about what I (every Christian) bind – will be bound, what I loose – will be loosed. How does this spiritual law work in the sacrament of confession? In the sacrament of confession, the penitent (confessor) asks for forgiveness (to be accepted in communion with all the consequences of sin and to suffer it, and to help him heal) in the community (not in the priest; when there were no communities, then the community began to be personified, often formally, by the priest. Detailed about this in “Part Two…”) and prayers (“Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed” – not magical formulas [absolution prayers] read one over another, but pray. About prayer in part two – V.A.). In confession, the penitent (confessor) surrenders himself to the mercy and prayers of the community, not asking the priest for forgiveness of sins. The sinner needs not juridical forgiveness, amnesty, but prayers, support to overcome sin. Therefore, confession was aloud (not whispered to the priest) before the community (while there were communities). Remember, do we confess the Creed in the liturgy quietly, or in chorus and loudly? Likewise, sins are confessed, not whispered to the ear! Now, due to the decline of church, parish life, such practice is impossible. Thus, in the sacrament of confession, I am not absolved, but I myself “absolve”, “forgive” through the prayers of the Church (in the prayer before confession we read: “… and help him to be absolved by word…” – that is, he (confessor) himself must absolve himself from sin, come out of the illusion by the power of Divine Grace. More about confession below)!