Metr. Saba Explains Confession as a Sacrament of Spiritual Healing

ENGLEWOOD, NJ — Metr. Saba has published the first installment of a reflection on the Sacrament of Confession, describing it as a process of spiritual healing through Christ rather than simply an examination of past actions or a form of psychological counseling.

The hierarch emphasizes that a priest’s central responsibility is to serve as a spiritual father, helping people pursue what the Orthodox Church calls “life in Christ.” Although priests today undertake many educational, pastoral, and social responsibilities, Metr. Saba writes that these activities must ultimately contribute to the spiritual healing of the faithful.

Drawing on the teachings of the Church Fathers, he explains that humanity’s passions arise when the natural powers of the soul are misdirected. Pride, bodily desires, hatred, anger, and resentment distort these powers and draw people away from God. The purpose of confession, he says, is not to suppress human nature but to restore its proper condition through the healing work of the Church.

Metr. Saba cites St. John Climacus and St. Maximus the Confessor to explain that created things are not inherently evil; rather, sin results from their misuse. He then turns to Scripture, presenting Christ as the physician who heals humanity’s wounds and restores fallen human nature. The parable of the Good Samaritan illustrates this work, with Christ bringing the wounded man to the inn, understood as an image of the Church.

Previously, the UOJ reported that Metr. Saba welcomed Abbess Makrina to Massachusetts parishes.