CONFESSION??? Who… me??

By RH

     What if you went to a dentist and he said that you have a bunch of small cavities, but it’s not too bad so he wouldn’t do anything about them? What would you think? Wouldn’t you ask him to fix them before they got worse?

     We all do things every day that are sins. When I went to Catholic grade school, the nuns used to tell us that sins are like little black spots or cavities on our souls. If we didn’t confess them and have them erased from our soul, they would grow and get worse. Soon, we could have a soul that is no longer pure and capable of holding Jesus. This may sound like a simple, childlike way of looking at things but it makes sense.

     If you take a few minutes every day to do an examination of conscience, you will find things that need confessing. How about driving too fast and putting yourself and others in harms way? How about your thoughts and actions about other people, even those who are closest to you? How about the times you used the name of God in vain? What about the Sundays you missed Mass? All these may seem like they are ‘not too bad‘, but they are against the 10 Commandments and are sins. The more you do these sins, the easier they are to do again until you can excuse them as being ‘okay‘.

     Reconciliation (confession) seems to be the forgotten Sacrament. Every Sacrament is instituted by Christ, to give us grace, so we can live a life close to Jesus, with the help of the Holy Spirit. We have been given this Sacrament to receive forgiveness for our sins, and have the opportunity to spend eternity in Heaven. If we value our everlasting soul, why wouldn’t we use the Sacrament of Confession and teach our children to do the same?