To confess, or not to confess...

Often, there are statements we hear that stay with us a long time. One of those for me is from my moral theology professor at the Seminary. He said "never underestimate the ability of God's people to screw up there lives." It was not a joke, but more a commentary on who we are as sinners struggling to cope in this world and where we more often show the inability to resist temptation. I also like the title of a priest friends talk that he titled "confession - its not just for the elderly." While the sacrament is largely ignored due to a more protestant view that my confession is between me and my God, it does have many of the young giving it a chance.

Some of the most profound confessions I have heard are from the high school age students and I could not help but think back to what my seminary professor had said as I watch it being fulfilled. I hear and see some battered and bruised sinners in tears looking for reconciliation from the God that is there to restore. Many young adults also bring battered and broken lives to the sacrament and seek us to show them God's love. Reconciliation is one of the most rewarding aspects of the priest's life. It is an uncomfortable thought to share a persons failings with another, but the sacrament asks a demonstration of what Jesus asks and showed Himself, which is the ability to humble ourselves. Most priests go to confession at least once a month to remind themselves of what it is the Church asks of all of us a minimum of once a year.

It is our conscience that we have lied to and ignored when we make excuses and list numerous justifications to ourselves for not making use of reconciliation. If we are truthful with ourselves, (and the conscience will tell you in the depth of your heart) it is not because we don't believe in reconciliation as a discipline, but we do not want to subject ourselves to a perceived humiliation or embarrassment. As a priest, I think one of the graces of ordination is to see sin and sinner with the eyes of Jesus. To be able to see through sin and see the human being as God sees us in Christ. After all, as human beings, we all seek reconciliation with God...we as priests are no different. If the priest is not as gentle as a lamb in the confessional, he has strayed to far from what he was taught.