One of the talks I heard was given by Fr. John Riccardo and I've heard him explain this more than once. He always says this: We confess our sins to any number of people everyday. We tell a friend, a sibling, a co-worker, a spouse; "you won't believe what I did!"
We have a natural tendency to want to get it off our chest; to put it out there and see what someone has to say about it. We're confounded as to why we would do such a thing or how we could continue to be so weak in a particular area. For example, yelling at the kids, being grumpy with your spouse, telling a lie to save face, taking something that does not belong to us. The list could go on and on.
We are sinners. A fallen people striving to do better.
So Jesus gave us the gift of Confession. Some will say, "Why do I have to go to a priest? Can't I just tell God my sins and be forgiven?" The answer is "yes". But there is so much more to it than just telling God. He already knows.
Confession gives us some great gifts. Two of them are humility and grace.
How easy it is to say to God, in your head, I did _________________. (Fill in the blank).
How HARD it is to confess out loud, "I did ___________________. " Though we may say it to a trusted friend, we tend to justify our behavior with an added "but" or "because". How HUMBLING it is to walk into a confessional and lay all the blame on ourselves without excuses and admit that we have messed up.
But with that humility the floodgates of grace open and pour out on us.
With this grace we can move forward and try harder to sin no more. This grace gives us peace. It increases our hope. It make us stronger. What a gift!
To be continued . . .
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