Those of you who dread the Confessional like myself, may have another dread–confessing before your parish priest. Now, in my parish we have many priests, some of you may not be so lucky. If you attend a certain Mass, you may very well never see the other priest. However, in my Archdiocese at Advent and Lent, the Churches hold confessional services where priests from around the city visit and hear confessions. These services are very popular. To tell you the truth, I tend towards the priest who is not mine. It is hard enough to get into the confessional much less confess before your priest who you like and knows you via your work at the Church. I tend to be very active in my parish.
I have realized, though, that if I really want to grow spiritually, I need a confessor who really knows ME. All of me. The good and the bad. So yesterday, as a form of penance, I went to my parish and begged God to give me the necessary grace to make a good, honest confession. So imagine my pure JOY and happiness when I realized I did not know the priest. During the summer we have many visiting priests so I was thrilled.
I was telling the priest how difficult it was for me to come to my parish to confess but decided I would do it as an act of penance and how thrilled I was that I did not know him when he responded “I am the new assistant priest. I will be here longer than all the other priests.” I had to laugh. I then told him “Lovely, and of course we must meet in the confessional.” And as he said, “there is no better place to meet.”
Today I have much more peace knowing that I A)am forgiven and B) have a great Confessor who knows the real me and C) my Confessor will be stationed at my Church for a long time so he will be good for my spiritual growth.
Let us be so thankful that God gives us the opportunity to get clean again. As St. Paul says in today’s 2nd reading, as Nate pointed out, “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.” WOW! So our struggle, you all, is nothing new. It is part of the human condition and really, we need all of the help we can get. Go to your local priest and confess to him and be thankful that dread is the worst part of it. Go get yourself some of that Sanctifying Grace.
(cross posted at RCM)
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