ON CONFESSION

 The following are ten Biblical passages related to the Sacrament of Confession, but each in a unique way.  Pray over these; meditate on them; trust in God’s mercy and them make the best confession in your life: “Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.”(Psalm 34:8)  By Father Ed Broom

1. Prodigal Son: Luke 15:11-32

Read and pray over the Parable of the Prodigal Son before going to Confession. Beg for the grace to understand what God really wants you to learn from this spiritual masterpiece. Every time you read and meditate upon this spiritual gem, God will enrich you with new and deeper insights.

However, in all times and places, the central message is that the Father is God, the Father who is full of love, mercy and compassion to all those who trust Him. Saint Pope John Paul II wrote an entire encyclical on this one Parable: Dives in Misericordia. Read it and meditate it!

2. Psalm 51

Pray before and after going to confession Psalm 51.  This is the heart-felt Act of Contrition that King David prayed after he committed adultery with Bathsheba and then murdered Urias the innocent man.  Beg for the grace to have true repentance for your sins.

True sorrow, true and heartfelt contrition, is essential to making a good confession. David humbly admits that his sin is his own doing and blames nobody except himself. May we own up to our own sins and blame only ourselves always, like David, trusting in God’s infinite mercy!

3. John 20:21-23

Read and pray over the Institution of the Sacrament of Confession that first Easter night when the Apostles were in the Upper Room and Jesus breathed on them the Holy Spirit and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit: whose sins you shall forgive they shall be forgiven; whose sins you shall bind shall be held bound.”

Be exceedingly thankful for this great gift bestowed upon the Church and its members the same day we celebrate His victorious triumph over death, the day of His Resurrection from the dead. In fact, every time we go to confession we personally celebrate the death to sin in our own person and rise to the new life of grace! Every confession is a Paschal-Easter experience! The Lord Jesus is risen in us, Alleluia!

4. John 21: 15-19

Read and meditate this conversation between Jesus and Peter. After the Apostles have made the miraculous catch of fish Jesus walks with Peter along the shore and asks him three times if Peter really loves Him. Peter is repairing for the three times that he denied Jesus three times shortly after the Last Supper.

Pray for the grace to truly be repentant for your sins and make a perfect act of contrition — a contrition of love!  Love covers a multitude of sins. You become the repentant Peter; tell the Lord you are truly sorry for your sins and how much you really love the Lord.

5. Luke 15:1-7

The Good Shepherd leaves the 99 to pursue the one lost sheep. Recognize that you are the lost sheep and you have great value in God’s eyes. Your soul has infinite value in the eyes of God. You were redeemed not by the blood of lambs or goats, nor bought back by gold or silver, but redeemed and ransomed by the Blood of the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. (I Pet. 1:18-19)

6. John 10

Jesus is the Good Shepherd that goes after the lost sheep. However, once you have experienced the loving embrace of Jesus the Good Shepherd then it is up to you to be a Good Shepherd for the sheep that Jesus has put in your charge.

The key for us to be a Good Shepherd is that we must first be a good sheep of the Good Shepherd, to hear His voice and follow Him. After we have experienced and we Taste and see the goodness of the Lord in Confession, then let us bring others to the loving embrace of the Good Shepherd!

7. Luke 23:39-43

Jesus and the Good Thief. In this passage firmly believe that the worst of all sinners can actually become the greatest of all saints if we simply trust.  JESUS I TRUST IN YOU…JESUS I TRUST IN YOU…JESUS I TRUST IN YOU.

Venerable Fulton J. Sheen poignantly asserts: “And the good thief died a thief because He stole heaven.” Proclaim from the rooftops the infinite mercy of God, even to those who believe that their sin goes beyond His mercy! A truly inspiring experience is to read the Diary of Mercy in My Soul, by Saint Maria Faustina.

8. Matthew 8:1-4 

Every Sacrament has a specific sacramental grace — that of Confession is healing! Jesus came to cure and heal the sick, all of the sick that trusted in Him.  We have to see ourselves in the leper; sin is leprosy and all of us are sinners.  As Jesus touched and healed the leper, so He can touch and heal me if I allow Him.” ”Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them as white as the snow.” 

Saint Damien who worked with the lepers on the island of Molokai in Hawaii suffered most because he had no priest to heal his own spiritual leprosy of sin. Thank God that you have access to priests who can heal your spiritual leprosy through Confession!

9. Galatians 5:16-26

Saint Paul contrasts those who live according to the flesh and those who live according to the spirit. Those who live according to the flesh will have a harvest of corruption and death. Those who live according to the spirit will experience the fruits of the spirit and experience eternal life.

Confession helps us to put to death the works of the flesh and to be led by the Holy Spirit. May we form the habit of frequent confession, conquer the desires of the flesh and conquer them and live the true freedom of the sons and daughters of God.

10. John 11: A Lazarus Experience

Saint Augustine compares Confession to Lazarus. Lazarus was dead and buried for four days and Jesus came and brought him back to life. What happens spiritually in Confession is the same: we leave our old life of sin, our spiritual death in the Confessional (the bandages—symbolically our sins) and we rise to new life in the spirit.

On Confession from Pope Benedict XVI:

In a novel speech, he connected the New Evangelization and confession, saying that the effort to spread the Gospel draws life from “the sanctity of the sons and daughters of the Church, from the daily process of individual and community conversion, conforming itself ever more profoundly to Christ.”

“Thus each confession, from which each Christian will emerge renewed, will represent a step forward for New Evangelization.”

Priests are also able to become collaborators in the New Evangelization by hearing confessions, the Pope said. They have as many possible “new beginnings” as sinners they encounter, he noted, because those who truly experience the mercy of Christ in confession will become “credible witnesses of sanctity.”

Pope Benedict also reflected on what happens spiritually during the sacrament of confession. The repentant sinner is “justified, forgiven and sanctified,” thanks to the divine mercy, which is the “only adequate response” to humankind’s need for the infinite, he said.

The forgiveness of sins has a direct impact on efforts to spread the Gospel, he explained, pointing out that  only those “who allow themselves to be profoundly renewed by divine grace can internalize and therefore announce the novelty of the Gospel.”

On Confession by Pope Francis:

“Some say, ‘I confess only to God.’ Yes, you can say, ‘God forgive me,’ but our sins are also against our brothers and sisters, against the church,” he said at a general audience in February 2014. “This is why it is necessary to ask forgiveness from our brothers and sisters and from the church in the person of the priest.”

Embarrassment or shame is another reason people stay away from the confessional, which the pope sees as a normal feeling, but one that should be overcome. “Sometimes when you’re in line for confession, you feel all sorts of things, especially shame, but when your confession is over, you’ll leave free, great, beautiful, forgiven, clean, happy — this is what’s beautiful about confession,” he said.

On Confession by John Paul II

“It would be illusory to desire to reach holiness — according to the vocation that each one has received from God — without partaking frequently of this sacrament of conversion and sanctification.”