Is Confession Becoming a Lost Art?
WED EP Reflection 102120 (Ps 38, Luke 10: 17-24)
Is confession becoming a lost art? That is the question asked by Forward day by day devotion today. Do you confess your sins? Is confessing our sins important? I want to bring out the idea that we are all part of the catholic church universal. Confession is not the tradition that only belong to the Roman Catholic Church, it is the [universal] early church’s tradition[1]. When one reads Ps 38, one senses the need for confession: “O Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger; do not punish me in your wrath… For my iniquities overwhelm me; like a heavy burden they are too much for me to bear…My wounds stink and fester by reason of my foolishness… I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; I go about in mourning all the day long… My loins are filled with searing pain; there is no health in my body. I am utterly numb and crushed; I wail, because of the groaning of my heart.” This seems to be an experience of someone in deep trouble. Someone who knows that he/she has done something deeply regrettable, and whose conscience is heavy.
King
David’s conscience became heavy after the prophet Nathan told him about what he
had done: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you
king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your
master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all
Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you
even more. Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in
his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to
be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now, therefore,
the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took
the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 2 Sam 12. King David went on
to repent before the Lord and experienced the consequences of his actions,
which unfortunately did reach his entire family. Why is it hard for us to
repent and confess our sins? If we could be honest with ourselves and with God,
we would realize that we need to confess our faults, mistakes and/or sins. The early church had what they called
penance, which is defined as an outward expression of repentance or atonement,
or self-punishment. My thinking was that confession could be itself a form of self punishment by trusting God and your fellow Christian believer to listen deeply to you as you make things right with God and your fellow people.
It appears that even if most people don’t warm up to the idea of confession, but there has to be a will to know why should we care about confession. Luke’s account tells us that through what was happening with Christ’s miracles and his teachings, the Kingdom of God was being brought to the people. We have to depart from anything that is of Satan's kingdom! Jesus said: “I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning.” What Jesus meant was that Satan falls from heaven when he falls from the throne in men's hearts. Good preaching of the Gospel does fly like lightning through the world, and wherever it goes, pull down Satan's kingdom. This made me remember the things that take hold of our hearts: People in my country were often manipulated by Shaman and pay exorbitant amount of money for protection in exchange of lucky charms. The Gospel of Jesus Christ freed many people with a new understanding that God is the only one who can protect us.
Confessing is hard because, there may be feelings of shame, especially fearing that people would look down on us. But think about it, if you have done something wrong to someone, wouldn’t this be a good penance to go back to that person and confess it and ask forgiveness? How many of us feel comfortable with it? We know it is the right thing to do, but we end up shying away from it. Perhaps our ego plays a big role in that. Martin Smith wrote that we sin by thinking and acting as if there were a realm to which, God is indifferent or within which God is impotent. Is there anything like private morality? Smith asked real pointed questions like this one: “Are there areas of your life where you have carried on as if God has no say or interest?” I think the more honest we are with ourselves, the more we discover how much we need God in our lives for strength and also our own need for confession. We need to speak to our priest or your spiritual director, schedule a time for a “reconciliation of a penitent” which is called the sacrament of confession. Confession is a personal and intimate encounter with God in the company of a fellow Christian believer. Seek someone who have done it and listen to his/her experience with you. We need to return to our Christian roots.
Blessings to you!
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