Herbert McCabe on Forgiveness « Theology Forum

Herbert McCabe on forgiveness from the Theology Forum :

"Never be deluded into thinking that if you have contrition, if you are sorry for your sins, God will come and forgive you - that he will be touched by your appeal, change his mind about you and forgive you. Not a bit of it. God never changes his mind about you. He is simply in love with you. What he does again and again is change your mind about him. That is why you are sorry. That is what your forgiveness is.
You are not forgiven because you confess your sins. You confess your sin, recognize yourself for what you are, because you are forgiven. When you come to confession, to make a ritual proclamation of your sin, to symbolize that you know what you are, you are not coming in order to have your sins forgiven.
You don’t come to confession in order to have your sins forgiven.
You come to celebrate that your sins are forgiven. [...] Being contrite, self-aware, about your sin is the same as believing in the love of God, smashing the punitive satanic god and having faith in the real God who is sheer unconditional love for you. You could say that it is your faith in God’s undeviating love for you that lets you risk looking at your sins for what they are. Telling your sins to the church in the sacrament of confession is just a form of the creed; you are saying, ‘I am really like this and all the same God loves me’ [...]
(Faith within Reason, pp. 158-9)"