To begin to grasp the function of absolution in Christian liturgy we have to understand that Christianity is an embodied religion. Christians believe that we learn the deepest lessons of life in our bodies not simply in our minds. We learn and grow through seeing, hearing, touching, tasting, and smelling.
In the eucharist, using all our senses, we re-embody the drama of Christ’s death and resurrection. We experience in bread and wine, the present action of God in Christ.
When as a priest I stand before the community and pronounce,
Almighty God have mercy upon you,
pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
I am using sound and sign to embody in the present, the action of God’s Spirit in the heart of each person in worship. That which is signified in my action, in some mysterious way takes place in the heart that responds with faith.
It is not just that something happened long ago. God’s grace and forgiveness continue to happen mediated through words I am appointed to speak. As Christ is mystically and mysteriously present in bread and wine, so he is actively present in sound and sign as I speak words of absolution and mark the community with the redeeming sign of the cross.
The priest is not issuing a theological statement in the hope that the congregation will grasp the concept of forgiveness and be transformed by this idea. The priest is inviting us into the transforming mystery of grace and forgiveness.
In utter fear and trembling, with the deepest humility possible, the priest gives voice to the deep mystery of God. Then, joined in mystical communion with the confessing community, the chemistry of God’s grace is released again in the fresh and immediate work of God’s Spirit.
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