I Confess the Same Things Over and Over
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I confess the same sins over and over and nothing changes. So why keep going to confession? What is the use?
Let’s assume you have confessed all grave sin and you are in the state of grace. Then why is it that we can’t get over our sins once and for all?
The CCC 1472 tells us sin punishes us in two ways:
A. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life.
B. Every sin, even venial sin entails an unhealthy attachment to things of this world which turns us away from God.
a. This unhealthy attachment is what we call vice.
b. Pride is the beginning of all sin and vice
c. Seven roots or 7 Deadly Vices or bad habits – that is what a vice is – a bad habit
i. Vainglory, envy, sloth, anger, greed, gluttony, lust
In Confession God forgives our sin and restores our relationship with Him thus removing the eternal punishment of sin. He also gives us an increase of His divine life to strengthen us to overcome vice and live virtuously.
But Confession does not remove the bad habit – the vice. Vice is like the roots of the weeds of sin. If we don’t pull up the roots the weed grows back. If we don’t root out the vice, the sin keeps coming back and we confess it over and over.
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What do we need to do to remove the vices in our lives? four things: Go to Jesus in the Eucharist; Examine your conscience daily and go to Confession; meditate on the Word of God; practice a daily resolution.
We must admit that by ourselves we are powerless over sin — we cannot save ourselves from sin and vice. And because of sin our lives have become unmanageable.
But we believe that Jesus can save us from our sin and restore our lives to sanity. So, we make the decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God of Jesus the Good Shepherd.
And we go to Him often in the Eucharist at Mass.
Jesus awaits us at Mass to pour His saving and divine life into our souls to make us capable of doing what is impossible to do on our own.
Go to Him as often as you can.
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Next we Make the decision that we are ready to have God remove all the vices from your life. Then we make a searching and fearless examination of conscience. Go to Confession and admit to God and to ourselves the exact nature of our wrongs. Humbly asking Him to remove our shortcomings.
What most prevents us from a deeper conversion is a lack of awareness, a lack of reflection upon our lives.
We don’t learn by experience. Rather we learn by reflecting on our experiences.
Every day take a few minutes to do a brief examination of conscience.
It only takes a couple of minutes. It can be done at the end of the day or the beginning of the next day.
Try this:
Look back over the last 24 hours on your thoughts, words and actions. Identify where you did what was wrong or failed to do what was right.
Then ask – why did I do that? What were the feelings or disordered desires that prompted you to fall?
When you can identify those, you are getting to the roots of the problem.
Finish by making a concrete game plan to act differently.
You could incorporate this into your daily resolution from meditation.
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The infallible means to growth in friendship with Jesus and conversion from vice to virtue is Daily Meditation on the Word of God.
The Catechism suggests two ways to do daily meditation through Lectio Divina, that is, to prayerfully read the Bible or through the Rosary.
Either way, in meditation we do three things:
A. We listen to God by reading or recalling His Word in Scripture, Tradition and the teaching of the Church. This is the way God speaks to us.
B. Then we reflect or think about what God has said and done to understand it, to love God for it and to form firm convictions.
C. We form a resolution to put into practice what God has said to us that day.
If we do this every day we will overcome our vices, our sinful habits. If we do not do this – we will not overcome them and they will overcome us.
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Alone you cannot grow spiritually. We need others and they need us.
We all need spiritual friendship if we want to grow. We all need a small group of family and friends with whom we commit to share life regularly, ideally once a week. And when we gather, invite them to pray the Rosary and then ask them what struck them during the Rosary. Build your team and commit to meet regularly.
For many people this is an overwhelming task.
Let’s begin small by taking back Sundays.
Go to Mass on Sunday.
Then invite one other person or a handful to spend time doing good things that help us delight in the goodness of creation and the goodness of one another.
Share a meal. Go to the park and hang out and talk. Go for a walk. But whatever it is, talk with one another. Be genuinely interested in those you’re with. Just spend time together.