Anthony Sparrow on an absolution from heaven itself

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CONTINUING the theme of repentance and healing, in this evening’s first reading (2 Chron 33) we hear how after being briefly captured by the Assyrians, Manasseh, King of Judah, heartily repented of giving Israel over to non-Jewish worship.

AND when he was in affliction, he besought the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers, And prayed unto him: and he was intreated of him, and heard his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom. Then Manasseh knew that the LORD he was God.

Affliction, repentance and confession form a key element in Christian healing too, according to St James in our second reading (Jas 5).

IS any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.

The Visitation Of The Sick provides for priestly Confession, and appoints the following Absolution to be read over those whom the priest judges are sincere in their repentance:

OUR Lord Jesus Christ, who hath left power to his Church to absolve all sinners who truly repent and believe in him, of his great mercy forgive thee thine offences: And by his authority committed to me, I absolve thee from all thy sins, In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

This authoritative priestly Absolution, given in the first person, differs superficially from the Absolution at Morning and Evening Prayer, which speaks in the third person of God’s forgiving character, assuring us that “He pardoneth and absolveth all them that truly repent, and unfeignedly believe his holy Gospel”.

Yet by ordering that the priest should stand, and that “If no priest be present the person saying the service shall read the Collect for the Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, that person and the people still kneeling”, the Prayer Book strongly indicates that even here, there is a unique ministry of reconciliation, founded on our Lord’s words to his Apostles in this morning’s second reading (Jn 20:19-31):

AND this Absolution is an act of authority, by virtue of a power and commandment of God to his Ministers, as it is in the preface of this Absolution. And as we read, “Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted” (Jn 20:33). And if our confession be serious and hearty, this Absolution is effectual, as if God did pronounce it from heaven.

Bishop Anthony Sparrow (1612-1685). “A Rationale On The Book Of Common Prayer.” Morning Prayer: Of the Confession.