The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Every Catholic knows about confession. Among the sacraments, it's only one of two that can be received repeatedly, the other being the Eucharist. Though I'll bet many Catholics don't even go to confession regularly. I, for one, had gone 2 or 3 years without going to confession. Another acquaintance of mine had gone 9 years without confession. I'd bet there are people who hadn't gone to confession in more than 15 years!

There's something strange about having to tell a priest your sins before being forgiven your sins. It does force us to question this method as surely an all powerful God doesn't need a priest to forgive our sins. I did question this and that's why there was a time I hadn't gone to confession in a long time. I mean, you could technically just go to God directly and be done with it in a few minutes. Why go through the hassle of finding a church, waiting in line, telling a complete stranger all the nasty things you've done, and pray a few prayers to get forgiveness?

I can't explain it fully - I think no one really can - but confession has an effect on people which is real and tangible.There have been countless stories of people feeling lighter when they come out of the confessionals. I can't speak for them. But I can speak for myself.

I had tried going 2 or 3 years without confession. I've tried doing rushed confessions and I've tried doing well thought out confessions with several days preparation. I've done confessions where I forgot a particular sin and I've done confessions where I purposely didn't disclose a particular sin.

You can call a confession a "good confession" if you disclose all mortal sins you are aware of at the time of the confession. You could make it even better if you prepare for it at least a day before (or the night before). And although there is no requirement for how many times Catholics should go to confession, people usually say once a year as a good benchmark.

As such, not all of my confessions were "good" and majority of them were probably rushed. What I noticed was whenever I leave the confessional after a good confession, I do in fact feel lighter. But when I leave the confessional after a "not good" or rushed confession, I rarely feel any change in myself.

My mind always tries to think about things in terms of science. I try to square this off with how confession works and if it has anything to do with some physiological property of our bodies but I'm left stuck. I'll admit I don't know much about psychology to know if there's any effect there as well.

There's something different about having the priest tell you you're forgiven your sins as opposed to simply asking God directly for forgiveness. Even though I don't understand it fully, I'm ready to claim that there does exist a real and tangible healing when one goes to confession.

If you find you haven't been to confession in a while, the door is always open. I find the priests in Redemptorist to be good at hearing confessions. And they have them almost everyday in the morning and in the afternoon. And there aren't a lot of people who go there. There are guides online but really, the priest can walk you through it no problem.

If you find yourself in a place where you're depressed or down, you might want to try and give confession a try. You might come out surprised. And if not, you lost nothing in the process.