|
|
|
Tips for a Good Confession on Divine Mercy Sunday
Associate Pastor's Column
“When once you have departed this life, there is no longer any place for repentance, no way of making satisfaction. Here life is either lost or kept… To him who still remains in this world there is not repentance that is too late.” (St. Cyprian, To Demetrian, 25; 252 a.d.)
Here we are on Divine Mercy Sunday, the last day of the Octave of Easter. Every one of the eight days, from Easter Sunday to Divine Mercy Sunday inclusive, is in fact a solemnity. It is as if we have Easter Sunday eight days in a row. The same liturgical phenomena of an “octave” has traditionally been celebrated for Christmas and Pentecost. Curiously, this is a day rich with repentance, in spite of the fact that it is in Easter. “For the sake of his sorrowful passion,” we pray, “have mercy on us, and on the whole world.” We finish the Divine Mercy chaplet with the prayer from the Reproaches sung on Good Friday, “Holy God, Holy Mighty One, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us!” Since confession is widely practiced on this day, especially in our own parish, with our special devotion to Divine Mercy, I thought it would be good to offer a few tips for a good confession. Yes, for a good confession. For a confession can be bad. For example, If we deceive the priest in how we state our sins, if we are not truly sorry, or we have no purpose of amendment, or if I examine my conscience with irresponsible superficiality, or we fail to do the penance assigned to us, and so on, we perpetrate a bad confession, and we should confess so next time we go to confession. So as an aid, here are a few tips. Confess everything. Sometimes people will say, “I did this and that.” Two little things, maybe after six months or a year of starving themselves from the graces of confession. So, judging case to case, I may help the penitent examine his conscience more. And it is not at all rare that in doing so, I help the penitent either discover or admit the many mortal sins they had committed and failed to confess. As some of these sins are particularly huge, I only wonder in amazement how come they did not confess them. Sometimes it is forgetfulness; but if it were out of a lazy examination of conscience, or out of a desire to hide these sins from the priest confessor, that person would walk away still in a state of mortal sin, forfeiting eternal life. So be not afraid, the priest only wants to give you God’s healing and restore you with the Church’s mercy: say it all. Stick to the point. Sometimes people enjoy giving their life story. Or they will give way too many details about the sin or the circumstances. It is as if they think the priest is a captive audience for their story-telling. In confession, we name the sin, say how many times we did it, and state any attenuating or aggravating information which may help the priest understand the nature and guilt of the perpetrated sin; and all that, to the best we can remember. So stick to the point (my sins in kind and number), and don’t get distracted with anything else. Don’t justify yourself. How often, unbelievably often, people go way out of their way in the confessional to convince the priest about how good they are. Confession is not to convince the priest how good you are, but how bad you are. For priests cannot cure the healthy, we can only cure the sick, and what power God and the Church has given us to cure the sick! So don’t hide your illness from the doctor. Expose it, and be not afraid, for you will find mercy and forgiveness. When penitents excuse themselves for their sins, go on long explanations, hide sins from the confessor, or declare how they can’t believe they actually did this sin or that, all that only shows that pride is still rooted in the soul. The penitent is worried about being thought of as a sinner, and wants to avoid that; and such is pride. Prove, rather, to the priest that you are a sinner, and be not afraid; for in approaching him you approach Jesus Christ, who said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Mk 2:17). Picture: Rembrandt van Rijn, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1662, Oil on canvas, 262 x 206 cm, The Hermitage, St. Petersburg. Thanks: http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rembrandt/prodigal_son.jpg.html.
|
