Confession

One

The Three Ingredients to Every Sin

Adam and Eve began the history of human sin and that first sin shows us the three ingredients present in every sin you and I commit.

The first ingredient is pride. Adam and Eve wanted to be a big deal. They wanted to be like God. 

The second ingredient is worldliness. Worldliness means there is some created good, some good of this world, that you prefer to God. It could be something lofty and sophisticated, like the knowledge of good and evil. It could be something totally banal and sensual, like a bite of a tasty apple. But whatever it is, you would rather have that worldly good, than the infinite goodness of God.

The third ingredient is disobedient self-will. Where you say, “I know God has forbidden this. I know this goes against the providential ordering of things. But I don’t care. This is what I want and I’m going to do it.”

All sin is pride, worldliness, and disobedient self-will. If we are ever to be saved from our sins, what saves us must be able to overcome these three forces within us. And that’s part of why Jesus saves us the way He does.

Two

Christ Redemptive Passion

Christ is the New Adam, the one who has come to save us from the destruction wrought by the first Adam. Look how He does it: by inverting all the motivators of sin.

The first source of all sin is pride. So look at Christ’s humility! Falsely accused, spat upon, sarcastically crowned with thorns, betrayed by his friends, triumphed over by His enemies, made to die naked and gasping for breath in public between two sinners.

The second source of all sin is worldliness. What earthly good does Christ cling to? Not friends or family or fame or physical comfort. He lives just long enough to see the crowds turn against Him, His little band of followers run away, His right-hand man betray Him, and before He dies He even gives His Mother away. He holds onto nothing, clings to nothing. 

And the third source of all sin is disobedient self-will. Before His Passion, Christ makes it clear that His entire sacrifice is directly opposed to disobedient self-will. Right before His Passion, as He sweats blood, He says, “Father, not my will, but yours be done.”

This is how sin is overcome, by counteracting pride, worldliness, and disobedient self-will. This is how we overcome sin too, in the sacrament of Confession.

Three

Confession Overcomes Pride

All of our sin, at one level, comes from pride, from thinking we’re a big deal, or trying to make ourselves a big deal. Even if it’s just the pride of saying “I’m the boss of me. This is my life, and I will do as I like.”

So what better antidote for Pride than the Sacrament of Confession? Coming back time and again, month after month, year after year, and admitting, “Yeah, I’m no different than anybody else. I do the same sins as everyone else, I make the same resolutions, I suffer the same failures.”

We all work so hard trying to show the world our good side, our admirable, interesting side. Isn’t it perfect that the Lord has instituted a sacrament where we do exactly the opposite – showing our sinful, tawdry, petty, pathetic, uninteresting side, and not mentioning our virtues or offering excuses. Just showing what’s unattractive about our personalities and not what’s attractive.

Do you know why so many of us stop going to confession? Because it’s so humiliating. And if all sin springs from pride, obviously spiritual rehabilitation will spring from humility. So thank God for the sacrament of Confession. And don’t stop going. Go often.

Four

Confession Overcomes Worldliness

All sin means prioritizing things of the world over things of God. All sin involves making creatures the standard, instead of God. Confession overcomes worldliness. Do you know why? Because if you go to confession regularly, there’s a good chance you won’t see any noticeable improvement! You’ll confess the same sins, over and over.

One Catholic comedian said that the directions for confession are the same as for shampoo: wash, rinse, repeat. In fact, there’s a good chance that if you go to confession regularly, your confession list will get longer instead of shorter.

Now worldly people always need to have some worldly, empirical standard to judge themselves by. They want “measurable” progress, and “concrete” results. But with confession, we say, “I know that your grace is working, Lord, even if I can’t see it. Even if it feels like I’m not making any real improvement.”

Because God is the standard, not the world. He is the ultimate good, and I will follow His directions even if I can’t see the worldly good getting any better. So thank God for confession. Don’t stop going. Go often.

Five

Confession Overcomes Disobedient Self-Will

All sin is an expression of disobedient self-will. In all sin, we say to God, explicitly or implicitly, “I will not do as you say!”

Christ told us to go to confession. He told His Apostles, “Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven; whose sins you hold bound, they are held bound.”

Now how could the Apostles know which sins to forgive and which to hold bound unless a person confessed their sins to them? Christ is the perfect model of one who did, out of obedience, what at some level He would rather not have done.So confession is our chance to imitate Him by obeying Him.

If we would rather not go to confession, then that’s all the more reason to go! Because then going to confession will express obedience and renunciation of our own self-will. That’s the only attitude that can possibly free us from sin.So once more, thank God for confession. And don’t stop going. Go often.