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Why this need for confession? I suppose the answer, \u201cbecause it forgives sins\u201d is too simplistic for our psychology-obsessed world. But for whatever reason, the desire undoubtedly exists in the human heart, as made manifestly obvious by the various and bizarre attempts to fulfill that desire. We have for instance:<\/p>\n
The out-pour.<\/strong> This is very frightening if you are the individual chosen to listen, and not entirely satisfying if you are the guilty. But I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve all been on one end or the other: You are sitting down, perhaps with a date, when she starts crying. You ask what\u2019s wrong, and by God, she tells you. She was abused at a young age and now hates boys entirely; she has become purposefully manipulative. In fact, she says, she\u2019s manipulating you right now. Or perhaps it is the boy who pours and the girl listens; he\u2019s addicted to pornography. Her turn: She used to cut herself. He used to take painkillers. She hates her mom. He hates his dad. Perhaps the girl confides in her best friend, the boy in his roommate. Whatever it is, we\u2019ve all been there; the desire to tell our sins is strikingly apparent. And yes, there is obvious value in this telling. But what after?<\/p>\n The problem is that we human beings don\u2019t just want to tell<\/em> our sins; we want to be rid of them if they haunt us, free if we are addicted to them! But what can the listener do? He could say that it\u2019s OK, that he doesn\u2019t blame us, which is all well and fine for him, but we\u2019re<\/em> not OK, and we<\/em> certainly blame ourselves. He could commiserate, which is nice, but leaves us in the same position as before. While an out-pour can be comforting \u2013 you stand up from it having been accountable to another human being \u2013 it can also be depressing: \u201cGreat! Now some one else knows. And I still did\/do it.\u201d It is good, but it fails to satisfy.<\/p>\n Then of course, there\u2019s the recent phenomenon of the online confession.<\/strong> This is always interesting. It might manifest itself on the small scale, perhaps as a Facebook status \u2013 \u201cIt\u2019s time for me to get over all the crap in my life\u201d \u2013 or on the large scale, perhaps as a blog. Confessions of a _____ \u00a0is a pretty popular title for blogs, and I have seen words filling that blank ranging from the mildly sinful \u2013 \u201cShopaholic\u201d and \u201cMean Mommy\u201d \u2013 to the scary \u2013 \u201cAbortion Addict\u201d, \u201cWelfare Queen\u201d, and \u201cSexaholic\u201d. People want to confess.<\/p>\n Again, the problem is that the desire for confession is not satisfied by mere response. A man puts up the status \u201cDrugs have ruined my life, I\u2019m quitting,\u201d on Facebook, and he gets 32 likes, three comments that say \u201cGood for you!\u201d, \u201clol, why?\u201d, \u201cwait, is this a joke?\u201d, respectively, and a final one that says \u201cgood job!\u201d The problem is that our sins are not forgiven by a mass of people agreeing with them or disagreeing with them. We\u2019ll feel relieved, for the weight of a secret is off our heads, but it fails to satisfy. When we log off the internet, we are still alone with ourselves, and we still screwed up. It\u2019s just that now people know.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the psychiatrist\u2019s office.<\/strong> Don\u2019t get me wrong, these men do great work. But there comes a point when our modern take on psychology \u2013 which all too often denies the reality of sin \u2013 is simply an attempt to fix spiritual problems with physical methods; prescribed pills and the like. The problem with this method is that it\u2019s evasion.\u00a0\u201cI feel incredibly guilty because I\u2019ve performed sexual acts with my members of my own sex,\u201d says the patient. \u201cLet\u2019s talk about that guilt,\u201d says the psychiatrist. And despite thousands of dollars and years of therapy spent attempting to get rid of the guilt, it often remains. \u00a0Why? Because guilt is not The Thing; guilt is the symptom. In this manner, psychiatry is inherently limited to treating symptoms, never the underlying disease, because \u2013 though it shouldn\u2019t be this way \u2013 so many in the\u00a0profession\u00a0deny the existence of the disease; by denying the existence of sin.<\/p>\n The Roman Catholic priest operates in a much less subtle way. He heavy-handedly, with absolute disregard for your feelings, hears your sins\u00a0as sins. <\/strong>You approach him, he smiles, you say, \u201cBless me Father, for I have sinned.\u201d You tell him how long it\u2019s been since you last confessed. You tell him your sins. And then he performs the single act that every other form of \u2018confessing\u2019 strives for but cannot attain. Every trip to the psychiatrist, every blog post, every emotional out-pour seeks after this,\u00a0consciously\u00a0or not; the\u00a0forgiveness<\/strong> of your sins. It\u2019s why Catholics go to Confession. The accountability is wonderful, yes, the getting-something-off-your-chest feeling is fantastic, yes, simply sharing your guilt with some one is a beautiful thing, again, yes. But you want more.\u00a0You want to undo the wrong, to heal the wound.\u00a0You want to be a child again, to be made innocent, pure as snow. And through the amazing sacrament of Reconciliation, you are. You are free. You are clean. You are reconciled to God and to your brother man. Your sins are not avoided, brushed over, transformed into not-sins, shared to everyone, or\u00a0commiserated\u00a0over. They are eradicated, forgotten by God. And the Catholic, in a very real way, is aware of it.<\/p>\n I do not aim to convince anyone of the reality of this event, nor list its biblical foundations, though if any one would like to share their own experiences or knowledge below, feel free. I simply hold that all \u2018confession\u2019 is mere imitation of Confession, weak and trembling fingers that point to The Real Thing. And The Real Thing is a sacrament that truly allows us to say, \u201cIt is a good, true and beautiful thing, being Catholic.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Confession is the best. I am absolutely convinced of this fact because the sacrament is one of the few Catholic Things that atheists, agnostics, and members of other religions will get \u2013 at worst \u2013 only mildly annoyed about and \u2013 at best and most usually \u2013 wishful, dreamy and sentimental about. Honestly, the number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[46],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-best-religion-in-the-world"],"yoast_head":"\n
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And there\u2019s no bullshit, no pride, no \u201cthese are the things that the actions of my parents have conditioned me to do\u201d, no hoping the priest will say \u201cOh those? Those aren\u2019t sins! Everybody does that!\u201d No, you confess your sins, you admit to them. He \u2013 in a thick Irish accent if you\u2019re lucky \u2013 gives you some advice on how to stop sinning.<\/p>\n