Bless Me Father

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the two sacraments of healing. One might suspect the Church calls it that to convince people to confess their sins to a fallible human person.  Yet, anyone who takes advantage of this wonderful gift Christ left for us knows better.

It's just one of those things. You can't explain it. You have to experience it. Before confession, I'm angry at myself. I berate myself and I tell myself the priest needs to give me a good talking to. I tell Jesus to go ahead and use the priest to chastise me because I deserve it. I go in and start to confess my sins. The priest doesn't chastise me. He just says,
"O.k. anything else?"

All of the suddenly what I did seems insignificant. I think to myself
"Wait a minute, I screwed up. Why am I not feeling bad about it anymore? I was just feeling bad about it. I should still be mad at myself."

It's like when I was a child and I was mad at my mother for something and I went to bed mad telling myself I was still going to be mad about it in the morning. I wasn't going to let it go. Then I'd wake up and not be mad about it. I'd actually be a little frustrated that I wasn't mad about it because I wanted to carry it around and torment my mother with it. Often times, this is what happens in confession.  Beforehand, we hang onto our sins, dwell on them and obsess over them.  When we finally bring ourselves in front of the priest who stands in Persona Cristi, suddenly the sins are taken away and we are set free.

This is why it is a sacrament of healing. We are suddenly born again. We may go in intending to hang onto the sin but Jesus takes them away. Sometimes we may succeed in hanging onto remnants but soon after, even those disappear as we do our penance. I've seen some protestant lament that they wish they could confess their sins the way Catholics do. I wish they could too. I wish everyone had access and would take advantage of it. People spend hours in psychotherapy talking about their past and about the things they can't get over. You'd be amazed at what ten minutes talking to a priest will do compared to hours talking to a therapist. Not that psychotherapy doesn't have it's place. It does indeed. But never underestimate this sacrament of healing. As someone who's done both, I can attest the Sacrament of Reconciliation really is a sacrament of healing.