Lesson 26
What Will The Priest Think Of Me?
Welcome back to the Lenten Lessons on the Sacraments! Today is our final lesson on the sacrament Confession, also known as Reconciliation or Penance. Did you know that there is only one approved apparition of the Blessed Mother in the history of the Church where the Blessed Mother asks the visionary to make a “General Confession”? Yes, you heard me correctly. A General Confession. Those were the words of the Blessed Mother to Adele Brise on October 9, 1859 in Champion, Wisconsin. The Blessed Mother was directing Adele to teach the faith to the immigrant children in central Wisconsin, because they had left their Catholic villages in Europe and were in danger of losing the faith. During that Apparition Our Lady said:
“I am the Queen of Heaven who prays for the conversion of sinners, and I wish you to do the same. You received Holy Communion this morning and that is well. But you must do more. Make a general confession and offer Communion for the conversion of sinners. If they do not convert and do penance, my Son will be obliged to punish them.”
So, what is a “General Confession”? It is a confession of all your mortal sins and venial sins that you have committed during your life, even if you have already confessed them. You might think that would take forever, but it does not. There are only Ten Commandments, and you only have to mention the kind and number. If you are scrupulous, you should not do it, but if you are vain and proud – and most of us are even if we don’t recognize it – it can be very helpful to grow in humility and in love for God.
St. Josemaria, the found of Opus Dei – an organization that St. John Paul the Great once remarked had the “charism of confession” – recommended that penitents stick to the three C’s of confession: Clear, Complete, Concise.
What does it mean to be clear? For instance, it is not enough to say, “Father, I am sorry. I’ve been bad.” That’s pretty generic. It would be much better to say, “Father, forgive me, I broke the third commandment by not attending Sunday Mass at least ten times this year, and also I did not support the Church financially, and I have not given away any money to the poor but I could have, but instead I bought a luxury car.” That’s much clearer, and ultimately will be much more helpful for the sinner.
St. Josemaria used to tell a humorous story to illustrate the point. “Back in the olden days a curmudgeon went to confession and said, “Father, I am sorry. I stole a rope.” The wise confessor thought to himself “Well, that’s not a big deal.” But then he asked him a question: “By chance was there anything attached to the end of the rope?” “Well, yes there was. There was a mule at the end of the rope.” The priest asked again, “Was the mule carrying anything?’ “Well, yes he was carrying leather saddle bags on his back.” So the priest asked one more question: “Was there anything in those saddle bags on the back of the mule at the end of the rope that you stole?” “Well, yes, there was! There were four bags of gold!” Ha! Technically speaking, all he stole was the rope. But that was not a clear confession. He had actually stolen four bags of gold! So let’s be clear in confession.
Second, the Confession has to be concise. Speak about your sins, not the sins of your spouse or children or brothers or sisters or co workers. Your sins, and get to the point. Make it concise.
And finally, it has to be complete. You have to confess all of your mortal sins that you are aware of, by number and kind, no matter how shameful or embarrassing. That is why you have an absolute right to go to confession in a confessional behind a screen so the priest does not know who you are. If you cover up a sin on purpose, you commit another mortal sin of sacrilege.
You might be thinking, “What will the priest think of me?” I can’t speak for other priests, but when a penitent comes to me and confesses shameful mortal sins, which are almost always sins of weakness or sins of the flesh, and not done out of malice or direct hatred of God, I think, “What a good person he wants to be. What courage and humility.” And then I do my best to support them with my prayers.
So tune in every day of Lent to learn more about your Catholic faith, because if you Learn it, then you can Live it; and if you Live it, you will Love it; and if you Love it, you will never Leave it!
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