Quick Apology: The authority to forgive sins…
One of my favourite things about having a blog is that, every now and then, I’ll get an email out of the blue from someone I don’t know. I love getting emails from people I’ve never met. There’s something quite wonderful in having an interaction with someone from across the continent or even the world, all because of something you’ve written!
Very often when I get emails they contain questions of an apologetics nature. I’m trying to get better at converting these email exchanges into posts. So, in light of that, I would like to share a response I gave to an email I received a few weeks ago. The gentleman asked the following question:
While discussing Christ’s establishment of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, I brought up John 20:21-23. My Protestant friends said that this is Jesus’ way of warning everyone not to hold a grudge against someone by retaining their sin. I know what Jesus was doing here, but I lack the bomb-proof Catholic response to this interpretation; can you help?
I’m not sure if my response qualifies as “bomb-proof”, but here was my reply…