Seven great reasons to confess tomorrow

At the Gregorian Institute at Benedictine College we believe it is time for Catholics to promote confession with creativity and vigor.

"The renewal of the Church in America and in the world depends on the renewal of the practice of penance," said Pope Benedict at the Nationals Stadium in Washington.

Pope John Paul II spent his last years on earth praying Catholics to return to confession, including this plea in an urgent motu proprio on confession and in an encyclical on the Eucharist.

The pontiff defined the crisis in the Church as the crisis of confession, and wrote to the priests:

"I feel the desire to warmly invite you, as I did last year, to personally rediscover and rediscover the beauty of the sacrament of Reconciliation".

Why all this anxiety about confession? Because when we skip confession we lose the sense of sin. The loss of the sense of sin is the basis of many evils in our age, from child abuse to financial dishonesty, from abortion to atheism.

How then to promote confession? Here are some food for thought. Seven reasons to return to confession, both naturally and supernaturally.
1. Sin is a burden
A therapist told the story of a patient who had gone through a terrible cycle of depression and self-contempt since high school. Nothing seemed to help. One day, the therapist met the patient in front of a Catholic church. They took shelter in there while it started to rain and saw people going to confession. "Should I go too?" Asked the patient, who had received the sacrament as a child. "No!" Said the therapist. The patient went anyway, and left the confessional with the first smile she had for years, and in the following weeks she started to improve. The therapist studied confession more, eventually became a Catholic and now recommends regular confession to all his Catholic patients.

Sin leads to depression because it is not only an arbitrary violation of the rules: it is a violation of the goal inscribed in our being by God. Confession raises the guilt and anxiety caused by sin and heals you.
2. Sin makes it worse
In the movie "3:10 to Yuma", villain Ben Wade says "I don't waste time doing anything good, Dan. If you do something good for someone, I guess it becomes a habit." He is right. As Aristotle said, "We are what we do repeatedly". As the Catechism points out, sin provokes an inclination to sin. People don't lie, they become liars. We don't steal, we become thieves. Taking a break decided by sin redefines, allows you to start new habits of virtue.

"God is determined to free his children from slavery to lead them to freedom," said Pope Benedict XVI. "And the most serious and profound slavery is precisely that of sin."
3. We need to say it
If you break an object that belongs to a friend and that he liked a lot, it will never be enough to just be sorry. You will feel compelled to explain what you have done, to express your pain and to do whatever is necessary to put things right.

The same happens when we break something in our relationship with God. We need to say that we are sorry and try to sort things out.

Pope Benedict XVI stresses that we should prove the need to confess even if we have not committed a serious sin. “We clean our homes, our rooms, at least every week, even if the dirt is always the same. To live in the clean, to start again; otherwise, perhaps the dirt is not seen, but accumulates. A similar thing also applies to the soul. "
4. Confession helps to get to know each other
We were very wrong about ourselves. Our opinion of ourselves is like a series of distorting mirrors. Sometimes we see a strong and splendid version of us that inspires respect, other times a grotesque and hateful vision.

Confession forces us to look at our life objectively, to separate real sins from negative feelings and to see ourselves as we really are.

As Benedict XVI points out, confession "helps us to have a quicker, more open conscience and thus also to mature spiritually and as a human person".
5. Confession helps children
Even children must approach confession. Some writers have pointed out the negative aspects of childhood confession - being lined up in Catholic schools and being "forced" to think about things to feel guilty about.

It shouldn't be that way.

Catholic Digest editor Danielle Bean once explained how her brothers and sisters tore the list of sins after confession and threw it into the church drain. "What a liberation!" He wrote. “Postponing my sins to the dark world where they came from seemed entirely appropriate. 'I beat my sister six times' and 'I spoke behind my mother four times' they were no longer burdens I had to carry ”.

Confession can give children a place to let off steam without fear, and a place to kindly get the advice of an adult when they are afraid to talk to their parents. A good examination of conscience can guide children to things to confess. Many families make the confession an "outing", followed by an ice cream.
6. Confessing mortal sins is necessary
As the Catechism points out, unacknowledged mortal sin “causes exclusion from the kingdom of Christ and the eternal death of hell; in fact our freedom has the power to make definitive, irreversible choices ".

In the XNUMXst century, the Church has repeatedly reminded us that Catholics who have committed a mortal sin cannot approach Communion without having confessed.

"In order for a sin to be mortal, three conditions are required: It is a mortal sin that has as its object a serious matter and which, moreover, is committed with full awareness and deliberate consent", says the Catechism.

The US bishops reminded Catholics of the common sins that constitute serious matter in the 2006 document "Blessed are the guests at his dinner". These sins include missing Mass on Sunday or a feast of precept, abortion and euthanasia, any extramarital sexual activity, theft, pornography, slander, hatred and envy.
7. Confession is a personal encounter with Christ
In confession, it is Christ who heals and forgives us, through the ministry of the priest. We have a personal encounter with Christ in the confessional. Like the shepherds and the magi at the manger, we experience amazement and humility. And like the saints at the crucifixion, we experience gratitude, repentance and peace.

There is no greater result in life than helping another person return to confession.

We should want to talk about confession as we talk about any other significant event in our life. The comment "I will only be able to do it later, because I have to go to confession" can be more convincing than a theological discourse. And since confession is a significant event in our life, it is an appropriate answer to the question "What are you doing this weekend?". Many of us also have interesting or funny confessional stories, which must be told.

Make confession a normal occurrence again. Let as many people as possible discover the beauty of this liberating sacrament.

—–
Tom Hoopes is Vice President of College Relations and Writer at Benedictine College in Atchison, Kansas (USA). His writings have appeared in First Things' First Thoughts, National Review Online, Crisis, Our Sunday Visitor, Inside Catholic and Columbia. Before joining Benedictine College, he was executive director of the National Catholic Register. He was press secretary for the chairman of the US House Ways & Means Committee. Together with his wife April he was co-editor of Faith & Family magazine for 5 years. They have nine children. Their views expressed in this blog do not necessarily reflect those of Benedictine College or the Gregorian Institute.

[Translation by Roberta Sciamplicotti]

Source: Seven great reasons to confess tomorrow (and often)