The rules for confession
by Fr John McCaffery OFM
As a priest I have often wondered why people avoid receiving the sacrament of Penance – or going to confession as it is generally called.
Nobody likes to have to admit their wrong-doing. If I am accused by another, that is bad enough. But when I have to own up to my own failures, that is difficult, and it calls for courage.
But we know that in confessing our sins, we speak to Christ, through his priest and with the proper dispositions, we receive absolution of our sins and we find a tremendous peace.
“If your sins are as red as scarlet I will make them as white as snow.” These are God’s words and so he is not going to turn anyone away who comes with a contrite heart and the firm intentions of avoiding sin in the future.
Having been to Medjugorje on many occasions, I have heard hundreds of confessions of people from all over the English-speaking world. It is a great privilege for a priest to receive a penitent who may have been away for years, and in humility comes to find Christ. That priest must treat that person with the utmost kindness and gentleness, as Christ did when he was on earth. Some penitents feel they are going to receive a terrible scolding for their misdeeds, and so they are inclined to stay away. This is not so; after all, a priest has to be a penitent himself and he knows the courage it takes to admit sin and be prepared to do penance.
Our Lady spoke about going to confession: “Do not got to confession through habit, to remain the same after it. No, that is not good. Confession should give an impetus to your faith. It should stimulate you and bring you closer to Jesus. If confession does not really mean something to you, it will be very difficult for you to be converted.” (7/11/83)
How often should a person receive this Sacrament? Again I find that people attend the Penance Services in Advent and Lent, so they go to confession twice a year. I always point out to such people that the spiritual life is similar to our physical life; and if we ate and drank only twice a year we would be pretty pathetic specimens of humanity!
Our Lady recommend that we should go once a month, and she says that if that became a practise it would be the remedy for the Western world.
The rules for confession are simple:
a) Make it complete, tell everything that is serious.
b) Make it contrite, be sorry for your sins.
c) Make it clear, don’t try to cover up sins to be confessed.
d) Make it concise, without unnecessary details.
e) Make it sincerely, to avoid sin in the future.
Lord, against you alone have I sinned;
what is evil in your sight I have done;
O purify me, then I shall be clean;
O wash me, I shall be whiter than snow. Psalm 50