“I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven;
and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
(Matthew 16:19)
Dear Friends –
When Christ was setting the foundation for a Church that would survive His time on earth, He chose Peter (The Rock) to be its head, and He gave to Peter the keys to Heaven; keys that would open or keep shut the heavenly gate to sinners who were freed of their sins or condemned by them. Christ had been teaching and preparing His apostles to carry on after His death, and He told His select twelve: “As the Father has sent Me, so also I am sending you. Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” (John 20:21-23) Christ dictated the structure He wanted His church to implement,
and the Catholic Church uses this particular command from Jesus to offer its Catholic members the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Priests, following in the footsteps of the Apostles, offer Catholics in a private church confessional, the opportunity to acknowledge their sins, promise repentance and do a penance or reparation as designated by that Priest. This Sacrament of Reconciliation completed, puts the member back in good standing with God for with their sins forgiven, the gates to heaven now stand open for them. Without admitting our sins, and asking God for forgiveness (through the priest who acts “In Persona Christi”), we retain the consequences of sinning. Christ in His great love and knowledge of our ways, wanted us to live in peace, so He gave us the necessary means to remove from our conscience, here and now, the residue of bad behavior from our existence restoring peace to our soul by absolution.
Sin is firstly an offense against Almighty God, and also may very well be a transgression upon another entity depending on The Commandment broken. Certainly, if we hurt an individual in some way we can ask for their forgiveness and make reparation with them accordingly. However, it doesn’t just stop with that acknowledgment, we must still apologize to Almighty God! That’s
exactly why Christ ordained Priests to offer God’s forgiveness, here and now, so we stay close to God growing in virtue, not vice. Time after time Jesus cured the suffering, and on many occasions, He concluded with: “Thy sins are forgiven.” Why would He give His apostles this example if He didn’t want them to copy it exactly? Because forgiveness by Almighty God is absolutely essential! So often you will hear a victim blithely proclaim forgiveness to an assailant who never even proclaimed sorrow; that may ease the conscience of the victim, but certainly not for Almighty God who demands remorse. Ponder closely Christ’s exact words in this regard: “Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.” (Luke 17:3) It is our Christian’s duty to chastise a sinner out of concern for the salvation of their soul, however, the stipulation “if he repents” IS REQUIRED before we can administer forgiveness… we are not to just go about willy-nilly forgiving all the evildoers of the world! God doesn’t!
We promise God at the end of our confession, with the help of His grace, to sin no more, and we mean it, until the next occasion comes along and we must
once again seek His forgiveness. He knows very well how hard it is for us to walk the straight and narrow path, and thus, He has promised us unlimited forgiveness if we repent and continually try to change our ways. Peter asked Jesus on one occasion if seven times was enough to forgive his brother who sinned against him. “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not just seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (Matthew 18:22) In other words, God will never give up on you as long as you make an effort to repent of your sins. Find a Priest, clear your conscience, and have the gates of Heaven remain open for you!
IN PERSONA CHRISTI
This Latin phrase for in the person of Christ signifies the spiritual condition of a Priest as he administers the Sacraments of the Catholic Church. Jesus chose not to stay on earth, and in order to keep alive His memory, teachings, and Godly powers, He sent 
forth His Apostles to continue the work He had begun. In His stead, they forgive sins, cure the spiritual blindness of minds closed to God, raise to life those dead in sin, embolden the lame to traverse the difficult paths of life, and so much more. All the spontaneous miracles that Christ performed were primarily accomplished by His spoken word just as God The Father brought into creation all of life by His spoken word. That’s the mysterious power of Almighty God… all He has to do is will it, say it, and it happens… it becomes a reality! Christ raised Lazarus from the dead by simply telling him to “come out” of the tomb; He cured the Centurion’s servant long distance without seeing or touching the man just because the Centurion didn’t think he was worthy to have Jesus come and enter his house; Jesus declared lepers to be made clean and whole once again by His words, and they were! Demons were often violently confrontational before Jesus because they knew exactly who He was, and He openly rebuked them and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” and the devils left. Onlookers to this astonishing occurrence remarked, “What is there about His word? For with authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out.” (Luke 4:35-36) Jesus transferred this power and authority to His apostles and He sent them out to proclaim that the kingdom of God existed, to forgive sins that incapacitated people, and to perform miracles by repeating His words In Persona Christi.
Reality is changed instantly by human words as when a judge slams down the gavel and says “guilty” to an innocent person; or when a young man asks his love to marry him which will change both of their lives; and still, the “you are hired” or “you are fired” statement changes your future in the blink of an eye. Obviously, our words have the power to change reality including the ability to crush or uplift another’s spirit, but no human language can produce a change to reality like Almighty God’s utterances! The most important words Christ 
ever stated: “Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you. Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him on the last day.” (John 6:53-54) Christ established by those words, the means to stay with each one of us personally when at The Last Supper He instituted The Eucharistic Service that The Catholic Church has incorporated into every Mass said daily around the world. “Jesus took bread, spoke a blessing and broke it, and gave it to the disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood.” (Matthew 26:26-28) Christ is telling us we need the spiritual food of His body and blood to enter our being and become part of our spiritual body and blood. The more we consume His being, the more we become like Him, for that’s exactly what God The Father wanted for us since we were created in His image. Consequently, Jesus, through The Eucharist, gives us the means to maintain that image and grow more Christ-like! We need material food for a material body and we need spiritual food for our spiritual being, and to those who do not ingest the flesh and blood of Christ, they can never get eternal life any other way! To waylay any doubt that Christ transformed bread and wine into His body and blood we recall the power of His spoken word… when Jesus said this is My body…IT BECAME HIS BODY… when Jesus said this if My blood… IT BECAME HIS BLOOD… nothing else. The Catholic Church declares the Doctrine of Transubstantiation, where the bread and wine offered at Mass changes substance when the priest, In Persona Christi, declares it to be the body and blood of Christ which is then offered to the membership present. Other Christian Churches offer bread and wine in a symbolic ritual interpretation of The Last Supper… to receive the real Christ you must be Catholic.
An ordained Catholic priest will officiate at many ceremonies In Persona Christi. He 
will Baptize your newborn baby into the family of God and forgive your sins in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Bride and Groom he unites in wedlock before Almighty God, and prepares the dying person to meet their Heavenly Father. 
While still a human being with a personality and character all his own, a priest, outside of his Persona Christi responsibilities, is capable of being a sinner like all of us human beings, which sadly makes the news when it happens. This is a very small occurrence amongst the thousands of holy men serving their God and Church faithfully and diligently. Get to know your parish priest, pray for them, and invite them to dinner… they need family relationships just as we all do. I wouldn’t trade any friendship with the number of priests I have known, for anything else in this world… they are a Godsend… and don’t be surprised when you get through them, a very personal word from you know Who!
