No, as a priest I have no power or authority to forgive sins -- only God can do that. So, quite often when I hear confession, a person would say something like-- and now father please forgive me my sins. No human can forgive other people’s sins. We can’t even forgive ourselves our own sins. Only God can do that. And often we forget how blessed and even privileged we are that we have such a merciful God. Most of us after leaving the confessional are relieved, filled with joy, because we have been forgiven. And we can find proof for that in the Gospel reading today when Jesus said: “the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth.” “They were all astounded and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this.’” When you sin, seek God’s forgiveness and then glorify our merciful God.
