Do I have to confess past sins?

I am 64 years old and I often go back and remember previous sins that may have occurred 30 years ago and wonder if I had confessed them. What should I consider to go on?

A. It is a good idea when we confess our sins to a priest to add, after having finished saying our most recent sins, something like "And for all the sins of my past life" "And for all the sins that I can I forgot ". This does not mean that we can deliberately leave sins out of our confession or leave them vague and indefinite. Making these general claims is only acknowledging the weakness of human memory. We are not always sure that we have confessed all that our conscience endures, so we throw a sacramental blanket on past or forgotten behavior through the above statements, thus including them in the absolution that the priest grants us.

Perhaps your question also includes some concern that past sins, even sins from the rather remote past, have been truly forgiven if we can still remember them. Let me briefly respond to that concern. Dashboards have a purpose. Memory has another purpose. The sacrament of confession is not a form of brainwashing. It does not pull a plug in the lower part of our brain and unloads all our memories. Sometimes we remember our past sins, even our sins of many years ago. The trace images of past sinful events that remain in our memory mean nothing theologically. Memories are a neurological or psychological reality. Confession is a theological reality.

Confession and absolution of our sins is the only form of time travel that really exists. Despite all the creative ways in which authors and screenwriters have attempted to communicate the ways we could go back in time, we can only do it theologically. The priest's words of acquittal extend back in time. Since the priest acts in the person of Christ at that moment, he acts with the power of God, which is above and outside of time. God created time and bends to his rules. Then the priest's words move into the human past to erase guilt, but not punishment, because of sinful behavior. Such is the power of those simple words "I forgive you". Who ever went to Confession, confessed their sins, asked for absolution, and then was told "no?" It doesn't happen. If you have confessed your sins, they have been forgiven. They may still exist in your memory because you are human. But they don't exist in the memory of God. And finally, if the memory of past sins is annoying, although they have been confessed, keep in mind that alongside the memory of your sin there should be another equally vivid memory: the memory of your confession. That happened too!