By Fr John Flader
I go regularly to confession but I know many people, including my husband and son, who hardly go at all. How can I encourage them to go more often and what has happened that so few go these days?
If we look back over the years, it is clear that in the 1960s and early 70s many people went to confession regularly. There were a good number of priests in the parishes and often there were queues of people waiting to go to confession on Saturdays, as well as on other days.
Then, more or less coinciding with the introduction of the new Rite of Penance in the mid-1970s the numbers fell off. With the new rite there was certainly a misunderstanding of the mind of the Church, with some people suggesting that we were no longer to go to confession frequently with our “laundry list” or “shopping list” of sins. Rather, we were to wait for the big conversion after we had fallen away and so confession would be much less frequent. This of course was false. There were other factors as well, but what is certain is that the numbers of people going regularly to confession dropped significantly from the mid-1970s on.
What can we do to help people return to the sacrament? Apart from praying and offering little sacrifices for them, we can remind them that the sacrament of Penance has at least the following ten benefits. They appear, along with much more on this sacrament, in my little booklet Why go to confession, published by the Catholic Adult Education Centre in Sydney in 2008.
First, and most obviously, we receive forgiveness of our sins. When we have been burdened by sin it is a great relief to hear the words of forgiveness – “I absolve you from your sins” – and to know that “what is loosed on earth is loosed in heaven” (Mt 18:18).
Second, we receive sanctifying grace, a sharing in God’s own life, which makes us holy and pleasing to him. When we have been stained by sin, even venial sin, we come away from confession with our soul completely clean and filled with divine life. For this reason, regular confession is a great help in growing in holiness.
Third, we receive a specific sacramental grace proper to each sacrament which in this case helps us to avoid falling again into the sins we have just confessed. While we know we may fall again, we experience a greater strength after confession to avoid doing so.
Fourth, each confession brings a new beginning in the spiritual struggle. Especially when we have come with mortal sins, but also when our sins have been venial, the knowledge that we are clean and full of grace is a big help in deciding to struggle harder to avoid falling again. People who do not have this sacrament do not have this clean break, this decisive moment in which to begin again. It is a big help in the spiritual struggle.
Fifth, we are always helped by the words of advice and encouragement the priest gives us in confession. They are a brief form of spiritual direction and they orientate us in our spiritual struggle.
Sixth, we grow in self-knowledge through the examination of conscience that necessarily precedes confession. We come to know ourselves better, to see our weaknesses, and this helps us to improve in those areas.
Seventh, we grow in the virtues of humility and sincerity by the fact of confessing our sins to the priest. Sometimes we may be embarrassed to confess certain sins but the very fact of telling them to another helps us grow in these important virtues.
Eighth, the penance the priest asks us to undertake makes up at least in part for the temporal punishment owing for our sins and thus shortens our time in Purgatory if indeed we need to go there at all. This too is a big help in growing in holiness.
Ninth, confession often brings about healing of the soul. If we have gone into the confessional burdened by guilt, anger, hatred, desire of revenge, sadness or even depression, we often emerge significantly healed and ready to begin again.
And tenth, as the fruit of the other benefits, we always leave the confessional with a deep sense of joy and peace of soul. It is the joy experienced by the prodigal son when, after confessing his sins to his father, he is embraced and kissed and given the best robe (cf. Lk 15:11-24).
With all these benefits, it is a real shame that so many of our fellow Catholics miss out. We should make use of the sacrament regularly ourselves and do all we can to help others do the same.
