When a person becomes sick he tries to recover his health by taking medicine. Our Blessed Lord knew that human beings are inclined to sin and thus bring on themselves sickness of soul. Indeed, mortal sin brings on spiritual death, for it deprives the soul of its supernatural life, sanctifying grace. For those who sin before being baptized, Our Savior intended Baptism as the means of forgiveness and for the birth of the soul to the fife of grace. But he knew that even after Baptism many would sin, some even grievously; and in His mercy He determined to provide these with a remedy a sacrament that would be more potent in the spiritual order than the most effective medicine is in the physical order. For no medicine can restore a dead person to life; but the sacrament which Our Lord determined to give us is able to restore the life of grace to any soul, no matter how grievously it may be laden with sin. The sacrament is Penance. Our Lord gave some indication of His purpose to provide such a sacrament when He said to the apostles: "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed also in heaven" (Matthew 18: 18). In these words is implied the power to loose men from the bonds of sin. But a clearer declaration of this sacrament is found in Our Lord's words to the apostles on Easter Sunday after His resurrection: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (John 20: 23). This power of forgiving sins, being given by Our Lord for the benefit of all mankind, has been passed down to the successors of the apostles, the bishops and the priests of the Catholic Church.
Our Savior could indeed have decreed that men should receive the pardon of their sins by going directly to God with contrition. But a sacrament, administered by men in the name of God, is a more assuring and a more effective means. The conditions for the reception of this sacrament are very easy. The penitent confesses his sins with true contrition and the priest by the authority of God forgives him. In the early days of Christianity the Church administered this sacrament with far greater severity than nowadays. The worst sinners were sometimes obliged to perform penance publicly for a long time before receiving the pardon of their sins. But today the Church is most lenient; she receives the sinner kindly and makes his return to God as easy as possible. Every day throughout the world thousands of sinners are making use of the sacrament of Penance to have the sins of many years washed from their souls and to be restored to the life of grace and the friendship of God.
Sometimes a person is refused absolution in the confessional because the priest judges that he is not sufficiently disposed for the reception of the sacrament of Penance. This is particularly the case when the priest believes that the penitent is not truly sorry for his sins or has not a firm resolution to avoid sin and the near occasions of sin in future. A person who has been refused absolution should humbly accept the priest's decision and endeavor to dispose himself properly so that he may receive absolution when he returns to confession at the time determined by the confessor.
We can never sufficiently thank Our Blessed Savior for the sacrament of Penance. We read in the Gospel of various occasions on which He Himself forgave sinners, such as the case of Mary Magdalen and of the penitent thief who hung beside Him on Calvary. We feel that these persons were fortunate because they received from the lips of Christ Himself the consoling assurance that their sins were forgiven. Yet, we too have a like assurance, for Our Lord Himself really administers the sacrament of Penance through the ministry of His priest; He himself says to us, when we have made a worthy confession: "Go in peace, thy sins are forgiven thee."