Making a good confession
Matthew 18:12-14
Jesus said to his disciples: “What
is your opinion? If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them goes astray, will
he not leave the ninety-nine in the hills and go in search of the stray? And if
he finds it, amen, I say to you, he rejoices more over it than over the
ninety-nine that did not stray. In just the same way, it is not the will of
your heavenly Father that one of these little ones be lost.”
Yesterday, I went to
confession. I know, I know what you’re
thinking: what could sweet, loving, joyful Fr. John possibly have to
confess?? Don’t worry, I got plenty of
sins. And, by the way, so do YOU. I’ll never forget what a priest once said to
me in confession. It was a number of
years ago, and my laundry list of sins was particularly long at the time. After I finished, he simply said, “That was a
good confession.” I was stunned. I expected him to reprimand me or at least to
say he was disappointed, but he didn’t.
He just smiled, and said, “That was a good confession,” gave me a few
Hail Marys and sent me on my way.
It wasn’t
until years later, after I had heard countless confessions myself, that I
learned why that confession was “good.”
Look at things from the devil’s point of view: he doesn’t just want to
make you commit a mortal sin. He’s
certainly happy about that. But what he
really wants to do is keep you out of the confessional. He knows the moment you walk in and confess
your faults, he’s left empty-handed. The
devil’s real end-game is not just mortal sins, but rather to keep you out of
confession, and, judging from the "long confession lines" here at
I.C., I would say his strategy is working like a charm. That’s why my confession was “good” – I was
in the hands of the devil, and now I was in the hands of Jesus. The devil's hands were empty.
In the
gospel today, Jesus reveals his attitude toward sinners. He asks, “If a shepherd has 100 sheep and
loses one, will he not leave the 99 and search for the stray?” And what will he do when he finds it? He rejoices!
That was the attitude of that priest who heard my confession years ago:
no reproach, no rebuke, only rejoicing that he who was lost had been
found. St. Alphonsus Ligouri counseled
priests saying: “A priest should be a lion in the pulpit and a lamb in the
confessional.” Why? Because it takes a lamb to know a lamb.
So, let me
ask you, when was the last time you made a good confession? If you respond, “Well, I don’t have any
sins,” I would answer that you don’t know yourself very well. The Bible says, “The just man falls seven
times a day” (Prov. 24:16). That’s the
just man, which means you and I fall many more times each day. Maybe you’re afraid the priest will yell at
you or remember your what you say and look at your differently. Don’t flatter yourself; we’ve heard better
sins! Mostly, remember the devil’s real
end-game: to keep you out of the confessional.
Every time you walk in and make a good confession, you leave the devil empty-handed. Don’t worry, you don’t disappoint the priest;
you’ll disappoint the devil.
Praised be
Jesus Christ!
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