When I first became Catholic in 1996, I was blown away by what happened during my first confession. The sacrament is no joke. The guilt and sin of my previous existence really were washed away. I really was gloriously free of all of it, and free to live life in a new way. It was tangible.
The Anchoress has a good post about confession, which includes a great (and absolutely true) Chesterton quote.
Update: Well, since The Anchoress surprised me with a link back to this little post, I might as well expand on it a bit.
When I went through RCIA back in 1995-1996, I remember thinking to myself about confession: "Well, I suppose it must serve as some kind psychological comfort." But nothing prepared me for the felt actuality of being squeaky clean (from the perspective of moral guilt) after receiving the sacrament. And this is not something that has faded over time. As Chesterton said in his quote, in some sense, I really do walk out of the confessional five minutes old.
Most of the time, I go to confession just to get the dusty weight of venial sin off of me (caused by such things as cussing, being impatient, not keeping my thoughts pure, ranting at jackasses on the road, being surly, etc, etc). I go into the confessional feeling this accumulated grime, and when I come out, well, the entire world (including me) feels like a fresh, pure, joy-filled creation again. It really does.
Also, frequent confession tends to keep me on my best behavior. I use an analogy with washing the car. When the car is dirty, and there is a mud puddle in the road, well, who cares. What difference does it make? *SPLASH!* But when you've just washed the car, and it's all agleam, well you avoid puddles, sprinklers, or even some guy ahead shooting off his window washer. The car is clean, and you want to keep it that way.
Just in case the parable of the carwash needs explaining: the dirty car is sinful you, the mud puddle is the next temptation. The gleaming car is you after confession, and the sprinklers or window washers are the even lesser temptations that you avoid, when before, you'd have just gone through the mud puddle...
2 comments:
Bravo! Brilliant analogy! Thank you! I have suffered over the past weeks listening to people tell me that venial sins don't have to be confessed. No, of course they don't HAVE to, but....
I know this is a really, really old post, but I just wanted to say that the dirty car analogy is fantastic. I'm a pretty new Catholic, and I like frequent Confession, usually weekly. My friends just don't understand it. I think I'll steal your analogy to explain it in the future. Thank you.
I hope you are having a fruitful Lenten journey.
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