Pope Francis meets participants in an annual course in the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary Institution
By the Vatican News employee reporter
Pope Francis told confessors on Friday that love is at the heart of a good confession.
He spoke to participants in an annual course on the internal forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary Institution.
This year’s course was held online due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
Abandonment
During the audience, held in the Paul VI Hall, the Pope reflected on three phrases that explain the meaning of the Sacrament of Reconciliation: the first, “surrender to love”; the second, “to be transformed by love”; and the third, “corresponds to love.”
Addressing those in attendance, the Pope noted that “going to confession is not going to the dry cleaner to have a stain removed. No. It’s something else.”
The first step to a good confession, he said, “is precisely the act of faith, of surrender, with which the penitent approaches mercy.”
The Pope went on to say that “every confessor should therefore always be able to be amazed at the brethren who, by faith, ask for God’s forgiveness … love.”
Transformation
“To live confession in this way means to let love transform yourself,” he emphasized.
Reflecting on this second phrase, the Pope noted that the penitent who “encounters a ray of this welcoming love, allows himself to be transformed by love,” which turns “a heart of stone into a heart of flesh.”
He added: “It is the same in emotional life: one is changed by the encounter with a great love.”
Pope Francis told those in attendance that a good confessor “is always called to perceive the miracle of change, to notice the work of grace in the hearts of penitents, and as much as possible to encourage transformative action.”
Matches love
The Pope turned his attention to the third expression – to correspond with Love – and said, “The real will to repent becomes concrete in the correspondence with the love received and accepted from God.”
By loving our brothers and sisters, he underlined, “We show ourselves, the world, and God that we truly love Him, and we always inadequately reconcile with His mercy.”
Forgive sinners
Pope Francis went on to say, “The good confessor always points out, in addition to the primacy of love, the indispensable charity as a daily gymnasium to exercise love for God.”
The Pope also stressed the importance of frequent confession as “a mode of sanctification, a school of faith, abandonment, change, and harmony with the merciful love of the Father.”
Finally, Pope Francis noted, “Each of us is a forgiven sinner, placed at the service of others, so that, through the sacramental encounter, they too can meet that Love that has fascinated and changed our lives.”