Within the framework of “The Church and the Law” series of interviews Iravaban.net talked about the confession with Rev. Aram Asatryan, the Spiritual Pastor of the Holy Hovhannavank Church of Ohanavan of Aragatsotn Diocese.
– Padre Aram, what is confession and how is it done?
– Confession is one of the most personal states that a person can have and it comes from the counsel of repenting. To repent means to have a change of mind, if we try to understand this word from the ancient Greek, the very first meaning is to change one’s mind, that is, to understand that you have been on the wrong path and you want to return from that path to the right path, and of course the resulting action is confession. In the Gospel, Christ tells Peter: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. He gave grace to the apostle so that he could forgive people’s sins. At the time of confession, this binding and loosing process takes place. The believer, realizing his sins, repenting for his sin, approaches the priest and asks him to cure him of his “disease”.
People come to the church and confess before the liturgy. The practice of the Armenian Church is as follows: confession takes place in two ways: individual confession and general confession.
– Can all priests be confessors?
– In order to be a confessor, the passed path of that priest is also important, and what victories he would have had. When I talk about victories, I mean the fight against evil. It is interesting when said: God did not give the priesthood or confession to the angels, because the angels were not sinful. God gave it to man, because only a man who had tasted sin, who had felt the taste of sin, could help someone like him, so that he would never partake of that meal. That is why God gave confession to the priests, so that the clergy, having overcome sin, could draw that path for their kind.
– How does a believer choose a confessor? Do people often turn to a priest for confession?
– I, being a clergyman, have my own confessor and it is important for me to have someone who has a prayer and a spiritual life. It is very important that the clergyman, who represents God and presents the word of Gospel, should apply that word in his life. It is very important for the clergyman to be someone whom you can trust and rely on.
– Can a believer change his confessor?
– It is not encouraged to change the confessor, but if there will be cases where he feels that he needs a different confessor… you know, let me say it this way: fathers are not changed, even though fathers are not to our liking. In recent years, at least for me, the number of people who need to confess has increased. I look at all this very positively, because the person who comes to confession also has the awareness that he is guilty.
– Is there any way that a believer should follow and come to the consciousness of confessing his sins?
– The first thing is ignorance. Yes, what I did was wrong, I offended my father, God, as a result of my sin. Sin is the reason that the relationship between man and God is broken. And if I have offended my father, as a consequence, I will also be deprived of certain things. And God deprives us of grace.
– Is confession an obligatory condition for a believer?
– Confession is mandatory for a believer, because, you know, the first way to go to confession, you must realize your sin, and you must understand what your sin is.
– What are the priest’s actions after the confession?
– After confession, our first thought is not to punish the confessor, but to help him, because if this person did not have a problem, he would not have come to us. We should welcome him with open arms and put the medicines of love in his heart.
– What should the believer do in order to be forgiven of his sins? Can a sincere confession be enough?
– First of all, he should have a change of mind, understand that he is wrong, he should have remorse, and he should have conversion and desire to get rid of that disease.
– In civil life, when a person admits guilt in court, it is taken into account during the sentencing. Does the confessor also take into account that the person has admitted his guilt and applies milder options of responsibility?
– That confession must be voluntary. Even God will not like a forced confession, it is a confession of violence and such person does not feel his crime. We encourage voluntary confession, so that a person consciously wants to make a change in his life.
– The priest-confessor of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church cannot be questioned as a witness about the circumstances that became known to him during the confession. How justified is this regulation?
– Once, the judicial system belonged to the church, and we see from the Old Testament that God also chose judges from among the wise men of the people, in order to regulate the inner life of people, and the clergy, being a very important part of the community, should contribute to the justice of the community. But when making those decisions, the clergyman must rely on the Holy Book, because the only true and fair judge is God himself.
Details in the video.
Hasmik Sargsyan
