3 reasons to go back to Confession

Growing up, I always thought it was a little weird when people came out of the confessional with tears in their eyes. How hard can it be? Just step in, confess the same things you’ve been saying for years, and bam! A clean white soul. It seemed pretty simple to me.

Until, of course, I realized the Sacrament of Confession is a much bigger deal than that.

It wasn’t until college that I realized the impact of Confession and how important it is. Before, I knew it was something you do as a Catholic (a couple times a year in my case). I remember confessing the same things for years, probably because I didn’t fully examine my conscience. But as far as I can remember, it never had a huge impact on me.

Perhaps it’s a consequence of getting older and learning more about my Catholic faith, but now Confession has become a much more integral part of my faith life.

That being said, Confession is also what I consider one of the hardest parts about being Catholic. Going to Confession forces me to admit my shortcomings. And it allows God to open my eyes to see myself as the less-than-perfect person that I am. It is humbling, to say the least. So I’ll never tell you it’s easy.

Our modern world doesn’t like to encourage us to admit the we’re wrong sometimes. We’re told that we just have different opinions and need to agree to disagree. Perhaps this is why so many, including myself, have spent extended periods of time away from this sacrament. After all, it’s contradictory to the world to admit that we made mistakes.

But here are three reasons to consider returning to this sacrament:

1. The devil doesn’t want you to.

In the Screwtape Letters, the senior demon instructs his apprentice to keep the patient (the human he’s in charge of winning over for the devil) confused, stopping him from thinking rationally. “Do remember you are there to fuddle him,” the apprentice is told. “Keep everything hazy in his mind now, and you will have all eternity wherein to amuse yourself by producing in him the peculiar kind of clarity which Hell affords.” The devil doesn’t want us to recognize our shortcomings, because he hates humility. He wants to keep us prideful in the belief that our sins don’t matter. In the end, they will matter. So we’d best start recognizing that now.

2. Our souls need healing.

St. Thomas Aquinas said “In the life of the body a man is sometimes sick, and unless he takes medicine, he will die. Even so in the spiritual life, a man is sick on account of sin. For that reason he needs medicine so that he may be restored to health; and this grace is bestowed in the Sacrament of Penance.”

3. No sin is too big to keep us away from God.

“Confession is an act of honesty and courage - an act of entrusting ourselves, beyond sin, to the mercy of a loving and forgiving God,” said St. John Paul II. It takes courage and trust to place our faults before God. But take heart! God will take a contrite heart and bring it closer to him through a sincere confession. There is nothing anyone can do that pushes a person beyond God’s mercy if they are truly sorry.

The funny thing is that now I’m the one who cries. It’s not like I’ve ever murdered someone and had to come clean about something like that. It’s hard to explain, but experiencing God’s mercy so tangibly (no matter how big or small the sin) will do that sometimes.

It’s a beautiful and hard and humbling thing to take advantage of God’s mercy through the sacrament of confession. But it’s always there for us. He is always there for us, waiting for us to come back. What are you waiting for?