Jan 28 Wed
How can I take better responsibility for my sins?
God gives each of us a job description, and He requires a nominal rate of return in response to the gifts He lavishes upon us. So, with God’s grace, we till the soil of our souls by confessing our sins and receiving God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. Repentance paves the way to virtue. God sends us forth from Mass, and we proclaim the Gospel with lives of virtue.
We need the Gospel to remind us that God punishes us for our unrepentant sins: “That servant who knew his master’s will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.” We fear the pains of hell, as we should.
Jesus, through the Church, gives us the Sacrament of Penance and facilitates repentance. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Identifying and articulating our sins isn’t easy. Our date with the confessional helps us manifest our repentance with integrity. Distinguishing between perfectly benign emotions, sinful inclinations, and sinful actions takes time and effort. But the confessional, echo chamber of verbal articulation, helps.
The five steps to a good Confession are:
- Examination of Conscience: Recall your sins since your last confession, asking for the grace to see them clearly.
- Sorrow for Sin: Fear of punishment is good, but sorrow motivated by love of God is best.
- Resolve to Avoid Sin: And to avoid the near occasions of sin.
- Confession of Sins: Honestly, without hiding or excusing them.
- Act of Penance: Expression of the desire to repair the harm caused by sin.
We often hear, “I don’t need to go to a priest for Confession because I confess my sins directly to God.”
Good for you! Many make this claim. But most of us play psychological mind games when it comes to taking responsibility for our sins, and dismiss them with platitudes such as “I had no choice” or “God understands.”
Even Catholics who frequent Confession struggle to develop the habit of identifying and taking responsibility for their sins in the privacy of their hearts. A daily examination of conscience helps, even for those who frequent Confession.
Auricular confession, in contrast, is courageous and liberating. There is no other venue on earth that facilitates the identification and articulation of sins with precision while taking responsibility for them than the Sacrament of Penance protected by the inviolable Seal of Confession. Not psychological therapy, not a lie-detector, not the Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous program, not even police interrogations—as valuable as these things are.
Every morning, two questions may help us adorn our lives with the beauty of God’s goodness.
What can I do today that will make the world a better place because I am alive?
With God’s grace, will I give more today than I take?
Once, I asked a 95-year-old lady those questions. She replied, “Father, I pray three rosaries every day, including one for you.” She may have added, Checkmate.