An examination of conscience done by Jesus himself ... by San Filippo Neri

A young man had come to Filippo to confess and in fact he confessed.

But his was not a sacramental confession, as they say: the accusation of a person who feels guilty. He said his faults, the son, as one who narrates his walk without any sign of repentance, without any sign of regret: the sins were then heavy and many, and it also seemed that the young man said some as a skill.

Philip understood that the young man was not repentant, he was not understood of the evil he had done, that there could be no real purpose and so here is a very effective remedy which also struck in the mind like a flash.

- Listen, my dear, I have a very urgent thing to do and you have to wait a little: stop here, in front of this beautiful Crucifix and look at it.

Filippo went away and several minutes passed and then others more and then a long while: he was in the room praying. The other in front of the Crucifix a little watched patiently, a little, with boredom, but since Filippo did not arrive he began to think.

The Lord, he reflected to himself, was thus reduced, for our sins, for my sins ... It would have been a great bad pain, that three-hour crucifixion ... And then all the rest.

In short, unwittingly, the man made a great meditation on passion and in the end he was moved and kissed the Crucifix and almost cried.

Then Philip returned, saw him, understood that now the sinner was prepared.

Certainly the grace and also the prayer of Philip intervened, but the procedure to get there does not lose anything of its playful originality.