In early Christianity, baptism was the only sacrament of forgiveness available to the sinner, which created the obvious problem – what do people do if they sinned after they were baptized? The problem became especially acute as more and more Christians publicly rejected the faith in the face of intense persecution by the Romans. The Church needed a way to welcome back repentant apostatizers. So by the second century, a practice developed whereby the penitent would publicly confess his or her sins and then complete “years, sometimes decades, of penance, such as kneeling each Sunday in sackcloth and ashes at the door of the church building, begging the prayers of the faithful.”[1] Who’d like to go first? Well, now that I’ve made private confession sound a lot easier, it’s time to come clean, and that’s Jesus’ invitation to us in our readings this morning.
Our first reading from Leviticus presents the strict laws governing leprosy. These laws were intended to prevent the spread of the highly-contagious disease, as there was no cure for leprosy at the time. “In practice, the law led to a distancing of lepers from the community.”[2] They were labeled ‘unclean’ and forced to live as outcasts, apart from their families and friends. As Pope Benedict XVI explained, “leprosy [is] a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart that can distance us from God.”[3] In ancient times, physical illness was associated with sin, so when Jesus heals the leper who begged for his help, he not only cures his physical illness, he makes him clean, frees him from sin, and reunites him with God and the community.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience. It is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor . . . .”[4] Our sins distance us from God and neighbor, and if we don’t “humbly confess them, trusting in divine mercy, they will finally bring about the death of the soul.”[5] Thank God for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But God’s great gift of forgiveness in the Sacrament can’t be received if we don’t acknowledge that we’ve sinned, and that it’s time to come clean. Like the leper in our Gospel, our cleansing from sin begins when we admit our sinfulness and ask for pardon.
It seems like Confession has become the Sacrament we all love to hate. That’s because confession “requires humility expressed in self-knowledge and self-accusation.”[6] Now who wants to do that? It’s hard enough to admit that we’re wrong, let alone talk about it. Well, our Psalm teaches us that confession is good for us. After confessing his sins to God, our guilt-ridden psalmist declares: “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away.” And if Scripture isn’t proof enough, science agrees. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, observed that “[v]ery often it is ‘sinful’ thoughts and deeds that keep [people] apart and estrange them from one another. Here confession has a truly redeeming effect.”[7] Psychological studies also show that the long-term benefits of regular confession include “improved mood, reduced symptoms of psychological distress, fewer illnesses, and even improved immune function.”[8] So if you want to be happier, healthier, less anxious, and avoid the flu, go to confession!
Now, the most common objection to the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation is the requirement to confess our sins to a priest. My sins are between God and me; why do I need an intermediary to obtain God’s forgiveness? Well, first, sins aren’t just between God and the individual sinner. Every sin has a ripple effect on the whole community. That’s why the Church started with public confession and penance in the first place. Second, Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Church teaching make clear that Jesus commissioned the Apostles and their successors to forgive sins on his behalf; he didn’t leave us to our own devices to forgive and absolve ourselves.[9] That would be a conflict of interest. And third, both theology and science agree again: we maximize the healing benefit of confession when we verbalize our sins to another person, particularly when that person is recognized as having the spiritual authority to absolve us of our sins.[10] When we speak our sins, we own them; when we hear the words, “I absolve you,” we let them go.
Confession is all about being honest with ourselves, acknowledging our faults and weaknesses, and dealing with them so they don’t control our lives.
Our first reading from Leviticus presents the strict laws governing leprosy. These laws were intended to prevent the spread of the highly-contagious disease, as there was no cure for leprosy at the time. “In practice, the law led to a distancing of lepers from the community.”[2] They were labeled ‘unclean’ and forced to live as outcasts, apart from their families and friends. As Pope Benedict XVI explained, “leprosy [is] a symbol of sin, which is the true impurity of heart that can distance us from God.”[3] In ancient times, physical illness was associated with sin, so when Jesus heals the leper who begged for his help, he not only cures his physical illness, he makes him clean, frees him from sin, and reunites him with God and the community.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that “sin is an offense against reason, truth, and right conscience. It is a failure in genuine love for God and neighbor . . . .”[4] Our sins distance us from God and neighbor, and if we don’t “humbly confess them, trusting in divine mercy, they will finally bring about the death of the soul.”[5] Thank God for the Sacrament of Reconciliation. But God’s great gift of forgiveness in the Sacrament can’t be received if we don’t acknowledge that we’ve sinned, and that it’s time to come clean. Like the leper in our Gospel, our cleansing from sin begins when we admit our sinfulness and ask for pardon.
It seems like Confession has become the Sacrament we all love to hate. That’s because confession “requires humility expressed in self-knowledge and self-accusation.”[6] Now who wants to do that? It’s hard enough to admit that we’re wrong, let alone talk about it. Well, our Psalm teaches us that confession is good for us. After confessing his sins to God, our guilt-ridden psalmist declares: “Blessed is he whose fault is taken away.” And if Scripture isn’t proof enough, science agrees. Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, observed that “[v]ery often it is ‘sinful’ thoughts and deeds that keep [people] apart and estrange them from one another. Here confession has a truly redeeming effect.”[7] Psychological studies also show that the long-term benefits of regular confession include “improved mood, reduced symptoms of psychological distress, fewer illnesses, and even improved immune function.”[8] So if you want to be happier, healthier, less anxious, and avoid the flu, go to confession!
Now, the most common objection to the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation is the requirement to confess our sins to a priest. My sins are between God and me; why do I need an intermediary to obtain God’s forgiveness? Well, first, sins aren’t just between God and the individual sinner. Every sin has a ripple effect on the whole community. That’s why the Church started with public confession and penance in the first place. Second, Scripture, Sacred Tradition and Church teaching make clear that Jesus commissioned the Apostles and their successors to forgive sins on his behalf; he didn’t leave us to our own devices to forgive and absolve ourselves.[9] That would be a conflict of interest. And third, both theology and science agree again: we maximize the healing benefit of confession when we verbalize our sins to another person, particularly when that person is recognized as having the spiritual authority to absolve us of our sins.[10] When we speak our sins, we own them; when we hear the words, “I absolve you,” we let them go.
Confession is all about being honest with ourselves, acknowledging our faults and weaknesses, and dealing with them so they don’t control our lives.
† When our conscience gnaws at us for
something we’ve done or something we’ve failed to do, it’s time to come
clean. It’s time to go to confession.
† When our relationships are broken, and we constantly find ourselves set apart from our community, it’s time to come clean. It’s time to go to confession.
† When our relationships are broken, and we constantly find ourselves set apart from our community, it’s time to come clean. It’s time to go to confession.
† When we hear ourselves say, “I don’t
need to go to confession because I don’t sin,” it’s time to come clean. It’s time to go to confession.
† If you think this homily was written
just for you, it’s time to come clean. It’s
time to go to confession.
Confession isn’t always easy, but it’s a lot easier
today than it was in the Second Century. The simple fact is, we’re happiest when we
come clean, just like the leper in today’s Gospel.
After receiving Jesus’s compassionate healing and merciful forgiveness, the former leper couldn’t contain himself. He joyfully spread the Good News to all who would listen. We all deserve to be that happy, and the key to that happiness is in our own hands. God’s forgiveness is waiting for us. All we have to do is acknowledge our sins and ask for it. It’s time for a humble examination of conscience. It’s time to be happy. It’s time to come clean.
After receiving Jesus’s compassionate healing and merciful forgiveness, the former leper couldn’t contain himself. He joyfully spread the Good News to all who would listen. We all deserve to be that happy, and the key to that happiness is in our own hands. God’s forgiveness is waiting for us. All we have to do is acknowledge our sins and ask for it. It’s time for a humble examination of conscience. It’s time to be happy. It’s time to come clean.
[1]
Ray R. Noll, Sacraments: A New
Understanding for a New Generation (Mystic, Twenty-Third Publications,
2006) p. 115-6.
[2]
The Didache Bible (San Francisco,
Ignatius Press, 2014), note to Leviticus 13: 1-59, p. 125-6.
[3]
Pope Benedict XVI, Angelus, February
15, 2009.
[4]
Catechism of the Catholic Church
1849.
[5]
Pope Benedict XVI.
[6]
The Didache Bible, note to Psalm 32,
p. 634.
[7]
C.G. Jung, “The Theory of Psychoanalysis,” The
Collected Works of C.G. Jung (New York, Pantheon Books, 1964) p. 192.
[8]
Aaron Murray-Swank, “The Healing Practice of Confession,” Spirituality &
Health, January 28, 2012, https://spiritualityhealth.com/articles/2012/01/28/healing-practice-confession.
[9]
See, e.g., John 20:23; CCC 861.
[10]
See, e.g., Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together (New York, Harper and Row
Publishers, 1954) pp. 115-6; C.G. Jung, p. 192-194.
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