How approach should the priests take in dealing with people’s sins? And what is their authority?

Origen writes that just as the apostles knew how to use their authority, so will the priests, who are ordained according to the order of Christ, the Great High Priest, know how to use their authority.¹⁶²⁸ He affirms the same concept in another context as well. In one of his homilies on Leviticus, he writes that Christ, who laid the foundation of priesthood in the Church, willed for the priests to bear the sins of their people and in the likeness of their divine Master, grant forgiveness for these sins.¹⁶²⁹

St. John Chrysostom says that priests on earth “have received an authority which God has not given to angels or archangels. Not to them was it said, ‘What things soever you shall bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven; and what things soever you shall loose, shall be loosed’ (c.f. Matt. 18:18) … What priests do on earth God ratifies above. The Master confirms the decisions of his slaves. Indeed, he has given them nothing less than the whole authority of heaven.”¹⁶³⁰