How many of you out there are afraid of going to confession? Me too. Okay, now… how many had the response, “I don’t have to go to confession. The Church is so negative and just wants to get me down and have me think about how bad I am.” It’s interesting to see many different negative attitudes toward our own spiritual life. Even going to confession after a year and saying three things you did tells a lot.
An old story goes like this: A guy goes to confession and says to the priest, “Ya, it’s been a year since my last confession and I’ve cursed a few times, gossipped and gotten drunk on a few occasions.” The priest responds, “Well shoot it took you a year; it only takes me two weeks for all that. We don’t value our spiritual life. We think it’s about bringing us down. That’s not what Jesus wanted at all. He came to take our guilt and shame and sin away. All we have to do is acknowledge it and say here you go Jesus. He in turn takes our sins and guarantees us that we don’t have to worry about that anymore. Now many you’ve hurt someone by a sin and you still have to deal with them, but as far as God is concerned, there is no more sin. You’re clean. All that just by going to confession.
But to get to that, we have to be aware. Most of the time people don’t want to think about anything spiritual because they think they’ll be condemned. But if we are simply awake to the good and bad we do, and realize what we are doing, thinking, and feeling, we can grow closer to God and not be so terribly afraid of going to the confessional and saying, “here you go. I am ready to be forgiven and try better next time. And badda-bing! It’s a fresh start. Here’s your money back guarantee from the Catholic Church.
Many other times though, as has been pointed out to me, we think too highly of ourselves. Think about this. Maybe you say you are not so good at this or that, or you even put yourself down alot. But how much time do you dedicate to thinking about yourself? We have become accustomed to putting ourselves at the center of the universe. Everything is about me. Whether it’s, “they don’t like me because I’m fat and ugly”, or “I’m so great a conversationalist, I can get them to see my point”. Either type focuses on yourself and that leaves no room to think about others. If, however, we do the crazy unthinkable, and think about others as well as ourself in relation to our spiritual life, we will be much happier.
