Why confess to a priest? Why not directly to God?
In short: Because Christ Himself willed it so. After the Resurrection, He breathed on the apostles and said to them: receive the Holy Spirit; those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven (John 20, 22-23). Forgiveness passes through the Church, through men established by Him, not because God could not do it directly, but because we need to hear with our own ears that we are forgiven.
The Orthodox nuance
Let us be honest with the objection, it seems logical. If God sees everything, why tell it to a man as well? Except that a sin kept only in the head stays hidden, and sin feeds on what is hidden and on shame. When you bring it into the light, out loud, before someone, you have broken its power. That is why confession hurts a little, and that is also why it heals.
And it matters who the priest is at that moment. He is not a judge who takes God's place. In the office of confession, the priest says clearly that he is only a witness, and that the One who forgives is Christ. The priest is rather like a doctor, the spiritual father who knows you and gives you the right remedy: a piece of advice, a rule, an encouragement. The Fathers, especially Saint John Climacus, speak of confession as a healing of the soul, not as a humiliation.
And do not forget: we are not only minds, we are also bodies. We have sinned concretely, often against others, with deeds and words. That is why the healing too is concrete, through a visible gesture, through a spoken word, and not only through a fleeting thought: Lord, forgive me.
Sources
- John 20, 22-23 (the power to forgive, given to the apostles)
- Matthew 18, 18 (what you bind and loose)
- James 5, 16 (confess your sins to one another)
- Saint John Climacus, The Ladder