"Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (St. John 129).

This "taking away the sin of the world" Christ did by His atonement, by taking upon Himself the punishment of others, as Isaiah said the Christ would do, viz.,

He bore "our infirmities and carried our sorrows...He was wounded for our iniquities, was bruised for our sins...and by His bruises we are healed" (53:4-5).

   Please to note that John the Baptist, a son of a priest of the house of Aaron, whose head was cut off for denouncing Herod's adulterous relationship, says that Christ came to take away "the sin," not sins, "of the world." His reference was to the "sin" that afflicted all mankind, original sin, for which Christ primarily atoned. Also John saw in Christ the "Lamb," which reminded the Jews he spoke to of the sacrificial lamb offered by the high priests in the Temple for the sins of the people. You will recall that in my letter on Baptism it was shown that, according to Catholic teachings, man shares in the merit gained by the "Lamb of God" offering Himself for the "sin of the world." Man shares in that merit individually through baptism, which wipes out actual sins as well as the stain due to the sin of Adam.
   The mercy of Christ is seen in the Sacrament of Penance which He instituted, through which the sins man commits after baptism are forgiven.
   The Sacrament of Penance is generally called Confession, as forgiveness presupposes the sin committed to have been voluntarily disclosed, sorrow expressed, and promise made to sin no more, before the penance is imposed and absolution given.
   Forgiving sins is a prerogative of God, or some one delegated by God. Hence forgiving sin by Christ, in His own name, compels the conclusion that He is either God or a fraud who blasphemed by "making Himself equal to God," as the Jews charged Him (St. John 5:18). At the time when the paralytic was carried to Christ, He said to him, mercifully, "Son thy sins are forgiven thee" (St. Mark 2:1-11). This created a stir among the Scribes, for our forefathers, like the Jews of today, repudiated the idea of the divinity of Christ. They protested that His action was blasphemous, which it would have been were He not true God as well as true man. The said,

"Why does this man speak thus?
He blasphemes.
Who can forgive sins, but God only."

The answer of Christ was the performance of a miracle, curing the paralytic of his physical ailment. It was like saying, "I will prove to you that I am God. If, by My mere fiat, I can cure the physical ailment of a man who has laid on his mattress for years; then is it not just as easy to cure this man of faith of his moral ailment?" Christ then said,

"I say to thee arise, take up thy pallet (mattress), and go to thy house."

And immediately the paralytic "arose and went forth" to the amazement of all.
   The mercy of the Great Physician of souls did not end with His work in Palestine, for His mission was to cure sin-sick souls throughout the coming ages. Therefore Christ delegated His power to His priests. Here is the commission given to the Disciples of the Lord, which has continued to be carried out by succeeding bishops, and through them by the priests,

"As the Father sent Me, I also send you, ... whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" (St. John 20:23).

   Before so saying, Christ had already given Peter, and then the disciples as a whole, the power to "bind" and "to loose on earth (what) shall be bound (or loosed) in heaven" (St. Matt. 16:19-20; 18:18). Thus, throughout the Christian ages, priests have carried on Christ's mission of mercy by forgiving sinners, in the name of Christ (not in their own name), by the delegated power of Christ. That is why St. Paul said, "If I have pardoned anything, I have done it in the person of Christ" (2 Cor. 2:10).
   Such merciful consideration of sinners was unknown in Jewry. That is why they condemned Christ for eating with sinners and publicans (St. Mark 2). Hearing the condemnatory remarks of the Scribes and Pharisees, Christ said to them,

"It is not the healthy who need a physician, but they who are sick. For I have come to call sinners, not the just" (St. Mark 2:17).

   I assume that you know confession to have been a most important part of the principal sacrificial ceremony of the Mosaic Law, as recorded in Leviticus 16. One of the victims for sin was a scapegoat, a he-lamb without blemish, upon whose head the sins of the congregation were placed by the high priest, after which it was let loose in the wilderness. This ceremony was preceded by confession of sin on the part of penitents. It is well to recall to mind the fact that such a sin-offering ceremony is a thing of the past, as Jews no longer have a high priest, an altar, or a Holy of Holies needed for the sacrifice. They ended when the Lamb of God, the Christ of the Jews, set up a tribunal of penance. This took place after the resurrection of Christ, after his blood had been shed on the Cross for the sin of the world.
   The greatest affliction that man suffers is due to sin-sickness of the soul, hence forgiveness is its cure, through reconciliation of the sinner with God against whom he sinned. Confession is the God-made merciful remedy for this soul-racking condition of man; for those disorders that affect him physically as well as through the qualms of conscience. Confession brings peace of mind and purity of heart, which is the state of true joy. Longfellow bespoke the celestial affect of it, in depicting the soul beauty of Evangeline after confession,

"But a celestian brightness - a more ethereal beauty -
Shone on her face and circled her form,
When, after confession,
Homeward serenely she walked, with God's benediction upon her. When she had passed, it seemed like the ceasing of exquisite music."