How does Christ Act as a mediator in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?.
In the Sacrament of reconciliation, Christ acts as a mediator. Throughout this paper I am going to explain how Christ does this. .
To start let me explain what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is. The Sacrament of Reconciliation .
"is the liturgy that, in form of petition, confession, and absolution, makes present the gracious judgement of God on repentant sinners. Within the Church it is a sensible sign of human conversion from a situation of having gone astray, something that does not simply happen to us, but in which we ourselves actively cooperate"(Herbert Vorglimer, Sacramental Theology, The Liturgical Press, Collegeville, Minnesota, 1992, p.219-220).
Christ acts as a mediator through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, which is through Mankind's refusal of God's will. People who refuse God's will are sinners. There are two ways in which we can sin. We can sin mortally, or we can sin venially. Mortal sins are final or finished, and cause an eternal separation from yourself and the Lord Jesus. Venial sins aren't as bad as mortal sins, but if you let them add up, you can still eternally separate from the Lord.
No matter how we sin, if we become guilty for our sins, Reconciliation has occurred. We may feel bad for the sin we have committed, but the Sacrament of Reconciliation has not occurred until God gives us forgiveness for our sin. "And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors"(The New Oxford Annotated Bible, New Revised Standard Version with the Apocrypha, New York, 1973, Matthew 6:12).
This quote shows that Jesus feels that we should forgive to others, as we would want others to forgive to us. Jesus is saying we need a Penance in order to forgive. We need both ourselves to want to be forgiven, and we must have Jesus forgive us. This is how Jesus acts as a mediator, by forgiving us for our sins that we have repented upon.