Religious Content Revisited

Remember the other day when I was venting about confession and how I felt about it? Remember I said I could not see the point if we were truly sorry, and that God knows we are sorry, so why tell it to another person? Remember when I said I felt it was no one's business but God and mine? Well, today I think God wanted to let me know that there was error in my thinking. Guess what the homily was about today!!!??!!!

Yup, confession. Father Z always starts out very light-hearted and cracks many jokes. He is a happy man, jolly, if you will. He looks like a Santa, complete with longish hair, a white beard and a belly of mirth. Quite a nice guy! So, he started out by talking about how important the sacrament of reconciliation is. He joked that the visiting priest this week is from Wisconsin so after the Penance Service Tuesday Night (when they do they continuing 3-parish series about Sacraments) we never have to see him again so we can tell him whatever we want. He also joked that last week a parishioner went to confession and then immediately after mass had his blood pressure checked in the fellowship room and it was twenty points lower.

Then things became serious. He explained that this sacrament, this Reconciliation, is between us and God. It is up to us to explain it to atone for our sins because God already knows what we did, HELLO! God watches all the time! But there are many reasons for sharing it with another person. As Christians we are called to be witnesses. We need to share the good and bad. We need to help others see the errors of their ways by our example. Plus, confession has the added benefit of being a counseling session of sorts. Why keep it all bottled up inside so it explodes one day when you least expect it? Get it out, deal with it, be sorry for it, make peace with it. But most of all OWN it, move past it and learn from it. That is why we go to confession. God does not expect us to be perfect, just forgiven. God does not expect us to forget about it but to use it as a lesson.

The act of confession is not enough. In order to truly be forgiven it is up to us to be sorry for our sins, to confess them and to atone for them. Only then can Grace be imparted on our souls from Christ and then our souls can move closer to God.

Even though I am sure I was taught this lesson many times before, it never dawned on me WHY we do this. I have never looked deeply into the meaning of what we do. I have just done it out of routine, out of habit. I have memorized it all and can recite just about anything. But the philosophy behind it all never became clear to me until recently (this is yet another reason why I think people with Autism Spectrum Disorders do well in the Catholic church, there is tons of rote memorization, everything is the SAME, SAME, SAME as far as ritual worship, but I will not go into that just now). Maybe I am just maturing or maybe I am just ready to accept God and Jesus for who they are. Not that I have not been willing before, it just feels right now.