In the context of recent discussions on the mechanics of forgiveness Fr. Chris Tessone & I were debating the concept of restitution (among other things); in that debate, changing tack, Chris asked: “what do you think the power to bind means, as given to the church and especially the apostolic priesthood in the Gospels?” At the time of reading his comments I was in a hotel in Paris, my “then” computer was not long for this world, and the next 20 days were going to be rather full, so I had to post-pone the conversation. Now, as promised I’m opening the door on this one to see what we find on the other side.
I’ll start by saying that these are only my initial thoughts – I’ve not yet had the chance to sit down and really have a good think on it.
I think that in order to best understand the idea of the “power to bind” as Chris puts it – one has to look at the role of the priest in the sacrament. I see a series of markers on the topology of the sacrament: the priest is the agent of the community, the priest bears witness to God’s act of forgiveness to the individual, finally the priest’s pastoral act of bringing closure to an episode/process for the individual. I’ll work with each of these in forthcoming posts, but scoping the landscape of the sacrament I think is useful because it highlights the simple fact that the “power to bind” can only be properly understood in the context of a “whole” experience. Take it out of that context and you are immediately faced with an abuse of “power”, and a mis-interpretation of the value and theology of the sacrament – thus my opposition to the theory being proposed in another place about the mechanics of forgiveness.
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