, in absolving sinners in the Sacrament of Penance? The same
Lord who instituted Baptism for the remission of original sin established
Penance for the forgiveness of sins committed after Baptism. Did not the
Apostles exercise Divine power in raising dead bodies to life, and in
raising souls that were dead to the life of grace? And yet no one but
Scribes and Pharisees accused them of usurping God's powers. Cannot the
Almighty, without derogating from His own glory, give to men in the
nineteenth century privileges which He accorded to them in the first age
of the Church?

Far, then, from dishonoring, we honor God by having recourse to the
earthly physician whom He has appointed for us, and, like the multitude in
the Gospel, we "glorify God, who hath given such power to men."(462)

Others object thus: Why confess to a Priest, when you may confess to God
in secret. I will retort by asking, why do you build fine temples when you
can worship God in the great temple of nature? Why pray in church when you
can pray in your chamber? Why listen to a minister expounding the Word of
God when you can read the Gospel at your leisure at home. You answer that
the Lord authorizes these things. So does He authorize priestly
absolution. This objection is not new. It is very old.

St. Augustine, who lived fourteen hundred years ago, will answer the
objection for me: "Let no one," remarks this illustrious Doctor, "say to
himself, I do penance to God in private; I do it before God. Is it, then,
in vain that Christ has said: 'Whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be
loosed in heaven'? Is it in vain that the keys have been given to the
Church?" The question for us is not what God is able to do, but what _He
has willed to do_. God _might_ have adopted other means for the
justification of the sinner, as He might have created a world different
from the present one. But it is our business to take our Father at His
word, and to have recourse with gratitude to the system He has actually
established for our justification. Now, we are assured by His infallible
word that it is by having recourse to His consecrated ministers that our
sins will be forgiven us.(463)

It is related in the Book of Kings that Naaman, the Syrian, was afflicted
with a grievous leprosy, which baffled the skill of the physicians of his
country. He had in his household a Jewish maid-servant. She spoke to her
master of the great prophet Eliseus, who lived in her native country