Confession, or, 'Why wait 'til I get where I'm going? Jesus will meet me where I am!'

"Yeah when I get where I'm going,
there'll be only happy tears.
I will shed the sins and struggles,
I have carried all these years."
-Brad Paisley, 'When I Get Where I'm Going'

I heard these lines while listening to a Brad Paisley song one day and thought, "Why wait?!?"

One of the blessings of being Catholic is that we have held to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus gave the apostles authority to offer forgiveness in His name:

"And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the holy spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." John 20: 22-23

And since the early days of the Church, Christians have confessed, repented their sins and moved on intending to sin no more. Unfortunately, we are nowhere near perfect in the sinning no more department. So that makes it all the more important that Christ gave this gift to us that we may find absolution, release our burdens and start over with a clean slate. It stops the downward spiral into sin.

As an example, how many of us have started a diet, lost a few pounds, then slipped, just once, and had a few potato chips? The next day, maybe it's a small piece of cake. The next thing you know you're three days into a "BigMacpizzachocolateshakeicecreamsundaenachosGuinnesscannoliDQBlizzardchinesebuffetwhoopiepie" bender and most of the weight you lost is standing behind you with a billy club about to knock you out and invade your body again. (I know of which I speak far too well, trust me...)

This outcome is less likely if you make a plan, keep track of what you are eating, and give yourself some accountability. Reconciliation is the same way. It makes us examine our conscience, see what junk food our soul has been eating, put down the spiritual box of Twinkies, and move on.

Christ tells us to be humble. What is more humble than sitting down with someone representing Him and the rest of your church community and admitting your shortcomings?
Christ tells us to go, and from now on, do not sin any more. If you go to reconciliation with a repentant heart, then that is your intent. Again, this is a very high bar to set for ourselves, but that is the true intent in our hearts when we confess sins. It is an attempt to put them in our past and move on.
And finally, the best part, Jesus tells us to trust in his mercy. When we go to confession we are trusting that no matter what we bring to Him, Jesus is capable of forgiving us and giving us the grace to move past it and put it behind us. Are we telling our sins to the priest who is just a man? Yes, he is just a man. But when he holds his hand up he doesn't say, "Just because I think I'm an important super-special guy, I say you're good too and your sins are forgiven."
No, the priest says, "I absolve you of your sins in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.". He is there as a representative of the church and the community and to exercise his authority, given to him by Christ, as one of the successors of the apostles, as an imperfect man himself, to forgive your sins, clean your slate and send you back into the world with the hope that you'll sin no more. In a way doesn't it make it more amazing that Christ trusted this group of ragtag twelve (oops, I mean eleven) imperfect men, with such an awesome power?

It's Jesus' mercy that gives them that authority and Jesus' mercy that forgives our sins. It's Jesus' mercy that gives us that hope that tomorrow, we'll do better, and the hope that even if we're not perfect, Jesus will be there in the confessional with open arms, wanting to hear what is troubling us and what we struggle with. He wants us to bring these things to Him and lay them down and accept His mercy.

A lot of people I talk to say, "Why should I tell my sins to another man?". It's not about that other man or even how imperfect he may be. it's about Jesus giving us a way to air these struggles and lay them down. It's a way to acknowledge that there are sins (a truth sorely missing in a lot of the world). It's a way to acknowledge that we are not perfect, but, that we can truly experience Christ's mercy in a tangible way and go back into the world with renewed hope that maybe, just maybe, next time our list won't be so long.

So you can hold on to those sins and struggles until you get where you're going. I'm going to go drop that stuff off now and accept Christ's mercy today. Because when I go and I humble myself to admit my weaknesses and feel His mercy wash over me, no matter what vessel He decides to use, I am born again, every time.

God bless!
P.D.O.