Posted on 03/01/2015 12:52:48 PM PST by NYer
The confessionals are empty. The sinners have gone away. Or should I say, “sin has gone away.” Not to be judgmental, but rather to be observant, I sense poignantly a lack of what I would call “sin awareness” among modern Catholics. We seem to have assimilated the secular notion that the concept of sin places outdated, even psychologically damaging restraints on people, or that the feeling of guilt for wrongdoing (or wrong-thinking) is emotionally debilitating. Thus, we see in society the virtual elimination of the word “sin.” We don’t want to hurt anybody’s self esteem. Catholics, perhaps innocently, have bought into this nonsense.
Cohabitating young adults are seen going to communion with apparent impunity. Our children are taught in public school health classes that masturbation is “normal” (as if a mathematical average equals absolution). They are told that abortion is a legitimate medical procedure, as if “medical” means okay. Some adults with decades-long resentments against others apparently have no problem allowing these self-destructive feelings to fester and to ignore the basic Christian concept of unconditional forgiveness.
Our young appear to have almost universally adopted the idea that pre-marital sex is acceptable. Pro-choice Catholic politicians take the sacraments in a blatant display of hubris, arguing ignorantly that abortion is a matter of conscience. Football fans cheer when a member of the opposing team has his head nearly separated from his body. Marriage seems in many cases to be about as serious as “going steady” was when I was in high school. And on and on.
Our pope is emphasizing the need to welcome the disaffected and to affirm them as Catholics. Fine, but we need also to reaffirm doctrinal truth. These objectives are not at loggerheads; both are mutually, authentically Christian. In making Catholicism a living faith for sinners of all stripes, we must also meet the challenge of truth telling and not lower the bar for re-entry.
We are weak, all of us, and in constant need of the wonderful sacrament of reconciliation. I am a sinner, and as such I have a need for the confessional at least monthly. Not because I have a scrupulous conscience or because I’m “hard on myself,” but because I believe human frailty to be a constant state requiring constant vigilance.
I suppose with a profoundly informed conscience many of us could survive spiritually with a once-a-year confession. Not I. I know myself better. I would become lazy, apathetic, and removed from the spiritual world. From a purely selfish standpoint I am spiritually refreshed by the sacrament of reconciliation. It’s not a question of merely “staying out of Hell this week.” Rather, it is a moment of understanding of my potential for some degree of holiness and a realization of the nature of God’s mercy.
I want to be straight with Him. I want to thank Him for his mercy. Thank him for His Cross. Ask Him to shape me up. Give me more self-discipline. Respond to His will. This is when I am most happy, most optimistic and most confident.
Why have we forgotten these things? Have we been so misguided by warped interpretations of Vatican II that we think that serious sin has disappeared? Do we even know what is venial and what is mortal? Do we think that examination of conscience and an act of contrition are always enough to prepare for the Eucharist? Do we really understand what is sin and what isn’t? Are we so naive as to think that secular psychobabble can replace doctrinal truth?
If the laity can’t answer these questions satisfactorily, why shouldn’t we expect our clergy to answer them – the same clergy that would admonish us to take advantage of a confessional that may be open, in most cases, no more than forty-five minutes to an hour each week? My pastor is pretty good at this. His message is strong and fairly frequent. But I have lived a long life as a Catholic, lived it in nine different parishes, and have seen the sure but gradual decline in the use of the confessional.
How can Catholics take the confessional seriously when they do not have the answers to these questions? When a parish of 3,000 people produces fifteen or twenty penitents at the confessional each week?
The problem of a seriously diluted sacrament lies as much with the clergy as with the laity. Not to be hard on the clergy, who have probably become discouraged at the dramatic downturn in confessional visitations, but the educational problem (from the pulpit) is theirs to solve. And in the process, as the British would say, they need “to put a little stick about.”
I am sure there are some priests who believe that the confessional, for a time, had become a Jansenistic ritual of scrupulous excess, that we needed to “loosen up, ” and know that we are all basically good and needn’t be too worried as long as we haven’t created a major “separation” from God. Like what? Murder? Adultery? Coveting my neighbor’s goods? And any number of other sins, great and small, that have not disappeared from human hearts or the world.
If we are going to argue historically that private confession only appeared after several Christian centuries, we had better still today know exactly what would take its place. Because what we seem to have at present is Eucharistic anarchy: “I’m a good person. I can go to Mass and Communion any time I want.” So why, exactly, did Christ have to come into the world and die a horrible death on the Cross?
Thank you very much for sharing this feedback.
I wish my Methodist denomination had “confession” with our clergy.
Confession is a Sacrament. Just as God empowered his priests to be instruments of forgiveness in the Old Testament, the God/man Jesus Christ delegated uthority to his New Testament ministers to act as mediators of reconciliation as well. Jesus made this remarkably clear in John 20:21-23:
Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
Catholic priests trace their heritage back to Jesus Christ through the laying on of hands.
We are missing something important by not having it.
Agreed. It is not unusual for non-Catholics, including Jews, to go to Catholic confession. The priest may listen to their confessions but does not have the authority to absolve them of their sins.
My younger sister teaches at a Catholic school, is in the church choir, and receives communion every week. She told me last year that she hasn’t gone to confession in about 30 years.
NO one sins anymore ... they screw up, mis-speak, blow it, etc.
The illegal undocumented in our White House said that terrorists have high jacked a religion
The "religion" is islam ... which translates into "submission" which is the entire message of the Koran, and the Koran speaks to believers to submit and force others to submit, and if others don't submit, kill them
Bottom line;
terrorists are apologists for the "religion" and killers the practioners
It's all in the language
I sin daily, and after 1 John 1:9,
I walk away upright ... clean.
This is a Catholic Caucus thread intended to prevent nonsensical comments such as that.
Many of us have had a less than positive experience in the confessional and, like you, used it as an excuse to put off returning until ... whenever. Priests are human and can have a bad day, just like us. It took me many years to return. I summoned up the courage to do so and picked a night when the lines were long. Shaking, I began by stating it had been x years and the priest responded by saying he did not have the time to hear x years of sins and could I just list one. I was stunned but later recognized that I was wrong to pick that night and returned on another day.
I may have a change of heart before I check out.
Each day is a gift; that is why they call it the 'present'. You don't know when you will be checking out but you have the gift of today in which to reconcile with God, just in case. Perhaps you could begin your confession by relating the bad experience you had and ask the priest to guide you through your confession. In preparation, consider reflecting on what Pope Francis recently said:
The Oct. 10, 2014, homily, which is excerpted in the booklet, said the best way to guard one's heart is with the daily practice of an "examination of conscience," in which one quietly reviews what bad things one has done and what good things one has failed to do for God, one's neighbor and oneself.
The questions include:
-- Do I only turn to God when I'm in need?
-- Do I take attend Mass on Sundays and holy days of obligation?
-- Do I begin and end the day with prayer?
-- Am I embarrassed to show that I am a Christian?
-- Do I rebel against God's plan?
-- Am I envious, hot-tempered, biased?
-- Am I honest and fair with everyone or do I fuel the "throwaway culture?"
-- In my marital and family relations, do I uphold morality as taught in the Gospels?
-- Do I honor and respect my parents?
-- Have I refused newly conceived life? Have I snuffed out the gift of life? Have I helped do so?
-- Do I respect the environment?
-- Am I part worldly and part believer?
-- Do I overdo it with eating, drinking, smoking and amusements?
-- Am I overly concerned about my physical well-being, my possessions?
-- How do I use my time? Am I lazy?
-- Do I want to be served?
-- Do I dream of revenge, hold grudges?
-- Am I meek, humble and a builder of peace?
Catholics should go to confession, the pope said, because everyone needs forgiveness for their sins, for the ways "we think and act contrary to the Gospel."
Read More.
It really is painless and I promise that you will emerge feeling a huge weight has been lifted off your shoulders.
Also you may not be aware that I live to Mount Angel Monastery and a Carmelite motherhouse too.
Also you may not be aware that I live close to Mount Angel Monastery and a Carmelite motherhouse too
Ping to my post #47.
My priest told me you don’t have to go to confession as long as you have a clear conscience. They don’t want to hear that you had a bad thought. Or you went over the double yellow line on the highway. So I have a clear conscience at the moment. If I do something bad I’ll scurry to confession.
Have we been so misguided by warped interpretations of Vatican II that we think that serious sin has disappeared?
That's what happens when people go off on their own, with their own agendas. We obey God through the Church. Anyone who does not isn't a true practicing Catholic.
Because what we seem to have at present is Eucharistic anarchy: “I’m a good person. I can go to Mass and Communion any time I want.”
A person has to be prepared in order to receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament. It is not always easy, but it is always worth it.
“...when the line is right there in front of you, it’s a lot harder to pretend like it doesn’t exist.”
Exactly, a good point.
FReegards
If you think it is dead, you attend the wrong church. We have them on Saturday afternoons, 3:30-5, long lines; on Wednesday evenings; Sunday before the Latin mass at 1 and ANY TIME you request one. The lines are long.
Thank you, old player. I also think they are interesting discussions, with the caveat always that you don’t have to read something that is of no interest to you. Of course. As a Catholic convert, I love confession.
Confession is not dead for those that take their Catholic faith serious. I go every week, whether I have committed a moral sin or not.
“I derive my strength from daily Mass and Communion”
~ Vince Lombardi
There’s always a line at my parish and the surrounding ones.
My goal is once per month ... most times I make it, sometimes I don’t. Missed February. :-(
Ours has two in residence and three others that come in on weekends, along with three ordained deacons. We have seven scheduled Masses per weekend, and most are well-attended.
Glad that my archdiocese is having a Lenten special confession hour on Monday evenings.
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