DEVELOPING THE
CHRISTIAN
LIFE—CONFESSION !
— The Preparation.
It is well we recall the obligation Christians have to attain the highest grade of sanctity in this life. Spiritual adult life is maintained by Confession or Penance, the Sacrament which helps us to persevere in the state of grace.
In these spiritually perilous days Confession is the remedy and principal means to annul the victories gained over us by the enemies of our soul,—our own fleshly sinful desires, the World and the Devil.
There are essential dispositions necessary to receive well and profit from the Sacrament, provided we come to Confession well disposed, with a good and sincere will, and the firm proposition to amend and put to flight our sins. A permanent attitude of fight is required by Souls to overcome their inclination to sin and to vanquish defects. Formal sin at the end of the day is an act of the will. In other words we sin because we want to. We resolve to sin in the mind before we consummate any sinful act. This consummation is called voluntary sin.
It is presumed that Christians are seeking to be perfect in accord with Our Lord’s teaching-be you perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect-- and they come to Confession with a disposition that seeks to love and please God. Even so, the dispositions might have degenerated and now take the form of a need for the Sacrament, by reason of fear of the consequences of mortal sin or God’s punishment.
Unfortunately there are those today who have obscured in themselves the sense of grave sin, and ignoring the consequences live unconcerned in the bondage of sin or in permanently sinful states.
They have become slaves to Sin and Satan. They have abandoned the sure way of the Church and defy God to judge them. Woe! To them when they must appear before the judgement seat!
Should a penitent seeking perfection have the misfortune to fall in moments of weakness by committing mortal sins, he should confess them fully and sincerely at the very beginning of his confession, and not half conceal them amidst a multitude of venial sins.
He should state with all sincerity the number and type of his sins and the causes that brought them about, and ask the Confessor for the remedies that can work a cure.
This indeed requires a great act of humility and self abasement.
It is then that the penitent can observe in himself and see as though in a mirror the grade of his pride or his lack of humility A humbling experience indeed, good for the soul, that demonstrate and crumbles the root of any false idea that we might have conceived about ourselves and our own goodness.
Even bad people like to think they are good. Nobody likes to think they are bad. We personally disassociate ourselves from our sins by building an amnesia wall in our mind that blots out from our immediate consciousness the gravity of the sins we have committed.
The penitent should have a deep sorrow for sin called contrition for having offended God, because we love him. Lesser dispositions are acceptable called attrition, these are lower dispositions that motivate us, fear of hell, fear of God’s justice and his punishment, loss of interior peace, love of self or loss of self estimation; but these motives although imperfect are nevertheless acceptable to God and are sufficient to make a good Confession.
The priest’s absolution obliges the penitent to wilfully avoid the occasions and causes of sin in the future. It is said he who wants the occasion of sin wants the temptation
So he also wants the fall.
e.g. He who wants to read pornographic material wants to fall in a sin of impurity.
This is the reason why the firm purpose of amendment is an essential pre-disposition to receive well the Sacrament of Confession, and explains why so many keep falling in the same way afterwards; as they refused to impose on themselves the necessary denials of self to avoid future falls.
You may say to an alcoholic you are prohibited to take a drink because FOR YOU it constitutes a grave temptation to sin. But for somebody else this occasion is indifferent and constitutes no occasion of sin. The fact the alcoholic sinned is because he wilfully entered into the temptation which was too much for him, and he had not the strength to resist. But had he never entered into the temptation he would never have fallen.
Once absolution has been received the penitent must keep before his mind and within his heart an abiding and lively sense of sorrow, and the disposition of will to avoid entering on purpose known and foreseen occasions of sin. He must remember his sincere duty to repair the past evil done, and his already forgiven sins, by an austere and mortified life, and by an ardent self sacrificing love.
The debt of sin should be repaid in this life by penance rather than wait for Purgatory in the next. NEVER FORGET THE GUILT OF SIN IS FORGIVEN BY CONFESSION BUT THE DEBT REMAINS FOR PAYMENT IN THIS LIFE OR IN THE NEXT.
An isolated sin even though grave,--when confessed or pardoned by at least the desire and intent to make an act of perfect contrition (for love of God) will not hinder spiritual progress. Those deprived of the Sacrament of Confession by the circumstances of these days should make an act of perfect contrition with a desire for the Sacrament so even though their intentions might be defective the desire for the Sacrament would supply their defect of intention in the eyes of God.
So much for serious Mortal Sins! Venial sins as such should be distinguished from deliberate venial states. These are perpetual venial sins committed with full knowledge that one is doing wrong and displeasing God by a constantly deliberate selfish preference for some created good over some virtue. Call it practised egotism.
Many venial sins are committed though with mitigating factors for having been committed rather than by deliberated wilful action but in a moment of surprise, fickleness, frailty, verbosity, lack of vigilance, tiredness or cowardice. These venial sins are regretted immediately on the spot and illicit from us a firm purpose of avoiding them in the future.
Here it is seen how the just man falls 7 times a day.
Deliberate venial states are a very serious obstacle to perfection specially if the sins recur frequently and the heart has become attached to them. For example wilfully keeping petty grudges, habitually forming rash judgements, speaking ill of others—in much talk there is always many sins against the virtues,-i.e. against charity, kindness, amiability, friendship, and by defect false judgements, back-biting, criticism etc.
We might also yield to the attraction of inordinate natural affections,- that is human respect or human love or preference, which we might put before supernatural love or duty. Sins of human respect are very rarely recognised and confessed.
Perhaps we stubbornly hold to our own judgement and to our own will when another has demonstrated to us our errors? Intellectual pride is recognised in the depth of our consciousness but is soon forgotten and rarely confessed as such.
All these are chains that bind us to the earth and prevent us from taking flight toward God and the pursuit of higher perfection.
St John of the Cross likened these failures to a bird that could not fly because a small thread had it pegged to the ground.
When we wilfully refuse Almighty God the sacrifice of our tastes and our own way,
We fail against the mortification necessary for advance in perfection.
Such faults should be corrected at any cost if we desire to advance.
We should exam ourselves in our preparation against each of the individual virtues, one by one, but first it is necessary to know the virtues which we offend against constantly. Perhaps it is speech, or laziness opposed to diligence, patience opposed to impatience, magnanimity opposed by pusillanimity etc. The necessary examination should be done also against the commandments, have we failed or offended by act, defect, or omission against any?
For example have I failed against charity by an uncharitable tongue, by actions or
fault in the practise of charity. Because rooted in a bedrock of egoism (Self preference or self-love) which is opposed to the practise of love of neighbour I failed in the required self-sacrifice and the exercise of the virtue of generosity and liberality.
We should exam ourselves for pride and contrast it with its opposite virtue of humility. We should know what type of pride we suffer from, and how it manifests itself in us.
e.g. vainglorious thoughts are a fruit of pride by which we know that the tree of pride is grown in us. Have we sinned against the virtue of religion? by defect of our religious duties? Against our state of life? by the perfection we should bring to Married Life as husband, wife etc. –have I failed in my duties with children etc and children with their parents? etc.
In this manner each confession will be a step forward in the way of perfection.
