God’s forgiveness in confession
One of the main duties of a Catholic priest is to hear confession. As I sit down for confession as part of my ministry, I realize the truth of the saying, “To err is human, to forgive is divine.” This famous quotation penned by the self-taught 18th-century English poet Alexander Pope summarizes the frailty of human nature and God’s nobility. I experience it in the confessional where each man, woman and child bares his soul. There is such a strong tendency in our nature to sin. For how can one explain the behavior of a young nursing graduate slashing the throat of his own mother? Or how can a rational being deliberately shoot another to seize millions of cash? Our nature has been stained and is desperate for God’s redemption.
It is easy to hear the confession of a child preparing for his or her First Communion. Some are still innocent with their hearts untainted by malice. How often would I wish that such innocence be preserved until adolescence like the boy-saint Dominic Savio who made this resolution: “Death rather than sin!” Spending hours in confession could be draining. St. John Vianney, the patron of parish priest, was amazing in his zeal for hearing confession for 12-16 hours a day. This was his secret why his parishioners were growing in faith and holiness. He invested time to bring them God’s mercy.
Even for some Catholics, confession is foreign. They simply confess directly to God. Besides, they would rationalize, priest are greater sinners. I recall being called at the deathbed of a man, perhaps in his 70s, who wanted to confess because his children convinced him to put his life in order. His last confession was during his wedding half a century ago. There were also others who took decades to come back to confession because a priest scolded them before. It is just unfortunate that the great benefits of this sacrament has not been experienced by people because we, priests, have been lousy instruments.
Some Catholics don’t actually feel the need to confess. We can only appreciate this sacrament better in the context of human fragility. One of the things modern man has lost is the sense of sin. Our world has become very secular. We have lost the boundary between the sacred and the profane. As a result, we have lost the sense of mystery. Yet it is God’s nature to be transcendent and mysterious. Since God is holy, He is totally above evil and sin. For this reason, we need to reclaim our sense for the sacred. We need to put back the holiness of God in our lives. The efficacy of confession is the interior effort that one does to reorient himself according to God’s ways.
In confession we experience the greatness of God. People who come for confession do so in humility. They swallow their pride to start again. They did wrong. They accuse themselves. Now they are surrendering themselves to the Lord. I am constantly astonished how God can be totally unconditional in giving pardon. Peter asked Jesus: “How many times shall I forgive my brother who sinned against me? Seven times?” The challenge is not only to be forgiving but also make amends.
Forgiveness, though, does not come naturally. But we can distinguish between the emotion and the desire to forgive. While the emotion is associated with anger, disappointment or hate, which stems from human feelings, the desire to forgive is an act of will. We can choose to forgive aided by God’s grace. In fact, a forgiving lifestyle is healthier than keeping grudges and hate. Forgiveness brings inner peace. You do yourself a big favor by forgiving. Forgiveness is therapeutic. It heals. A person hurts himself in his self-made prison of resentment and hatred. Moreover, forgiveness is a sign of nobility. A person who chooses to forgive has a noble heart. And finally, a forgiving person is God-like. Forgiveness is a divine character thus people who choose to forgive become more like God. In confession, we experience the graciousness of God who chooses to forgive us. Through it, He makes us holy.
