Resistance to Confession

At least one of you knows that there’s an issue in my life that kind of revolves around confession these days.  Following are some insights that have come to me whilst pondering this problem.

I think we can all agree that only the Catholics and Orthodox have valid Sacraments (all of them).  This is, of course, due to their possession of Apostolic Succession.  So therefore it is perfectly obvious to me that if one confesses his sins to God in private, one cannot be sure of forgiveness, because that’s not how Christ and the Apostles talked about having one’s sins forgiven – the instruction was ‘confess your sins one to another’ and when the Lord instituted the Sacrament He said, ‘those sins you shall forgive are forgiven, those you retain shall be retained.’  And so forth.

Anyway, to some people, the big stumbling block to conversion to Catholicism is the Confession issue.  The just don’t want to do it!  Why not?  Who wouldn’t want their sins forgiven – and not just forgiven, but absolved, which is a much stronger word.  Erased, wiped out!

Answer:  lack of Faith.  Remember, Faith is a gift.  So here we have a person who has been blithely going along, confessing to God in the privacy of their own home, or some Protestant house of worship somewhere, or in the car on the way to the grocery store.  And then they get this urge that they just have to have the ‘Real Jesus’ as in Communion.  Eucharist.  The Blessed Sacrament.

So for a while they just go skipping up to Communion at the local Catholic parish as if they are, indeed, Catholics. (Some of you might say, so what’s wrong with that?  Lots of Catholics probably go to Communion who haven’t been to Confession in a long time.  Well, that’s wrong too, but that’s not my point right now.)  Then I guess they sort of have a crisis of conscience (oho!) and quit going to church altogether.  What a dilemma!  They want Jesus but can’t have Him on their terms because their terms aren’t the Church’s terms.  In order to receive Him, they have to really receive Him.  In a public confession of Faith (in what the Catholic Church teaches, also abjuring and recanting from all heretical beliefs they may have held in the past).  And just before that, in the Confessional.  Where any priest/catechist worth his chasuble (or phelonion, as the case may be) would insist on a life confession.  Hoo-boy!

“But wait!”  they say.  “I already confessed all those sins.  And I don’t have any sins now!”

And now, you see, we are at a serious disconnect from reality and Truth.  For if previous sins were already confessed, and forgiven, one would have no problem confessing them again to the priest, because he stands in persona Christi  and if you already confessed them, then Jesus has heard them before, and if He forgave them once, he’s not going to go back on his Word (after all, He did say “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life…..”) and not forgive them this time.  And if they weren’t, well, there isn’t any sin that can’t be forgiven if one truly is contrite and confesses it in humility.  And believe me, priests have heard it all!

So they have some kind of doubt, in some greater or lesser degree.  Either they doubt that they were forgiven in the first place when they confessed in private (good doubt), or they doubt that God the Son gave his priests the power to forgive sins in His name through the Sacrament of Holy Orders (bad doubt), or they doubt their particular sin can be forgiven for some reason (balderdash, assuming they are truly sorry and will sincerely try not to sin any more).  Or they are simply not sorry for their sins (bad again).  Or they really do think they have nothing to confess (I am not even going to go there).

I was once asked, not too long ago, how I could bear to confess my sins to a man.  I answered that I do not confess them to a man, but to +Jesus Christ+ Who suffered and died for those sins.  I’ve also been asked what I confess.  And that one I wasn’t sure how to answer.  I mean, I know what I confess, but is it anyone else’s business?  So I just made a general sort of answer involving impatience, gossip, that kind of thing.  but I don’t think it made an impression.  I felt very bad afterwards, as if I had somehow let God down.

So let’s pray for all doubters, asking the intercession of the Holy Apostle Thomas, beseeching God to grant to all who doubt the grace and gift of Faith, so that they too may “not see, yet believe.”

Ha Ha!

I mentioned in my previous post (which languished, due to excessive busyness, in draft-land for way too long) that there was a newly-ordained priest at St. John’s here who might be receptive to the idea of a Tridentine Mass celebrated there.  Um, I doubt it.

As soon as I can get back to the photo developing place I will have wonderful (I hope) pics to post, of the checs’ summer project.  The built a replica of our parish church, complete with cantor’s balcony, pews, iconostasis, both altars, tetrapod, the whole bit.  It’s pretty splendorous.

Updates

First, the garden. I took the first tomato to church last weekend and gave it to my priest – I’ve been doing that since the first year I had a garden. I’ve got whitefly on the tomato plants, and just spraying with water wasn’t getting the job done, so I had to go spring for some insecticidal soap which I hope will kill the little buggers. They don’t hurt the fruits but they sure make the plants look pitiful!

I have beans. I don’t know how many because I haven’t picked yet, but as I was pulling some weeds last night I noticed at least two so I will pick this evening.

The corn is REALLY TALL! I have tassels, and ears forming, some of which have silks already!

I took a big chance this year and planted very early for my climate zone – the gardening people say the last frost date in these parts is the end of April/middle of May…..and I put the tomatoes in on May 7, and everything else got planted on the 13th of May. The corn was up to my knees shortly after June 4 – almost a month ahead of ’schedule’!

Herbs are growing like gangbusters. I’ve made pesto several times, putting in pecans instead of pinenuts (guess that makes it southern-style pesto I use the oregano and thyme quite often, and the rosemary is unbelievably tasty on baked potatoes and pork roast. Also I’ve put in some hyssop, black peppermint, and lemon mint in the flower bed with the spearmint that ByzCat gaveme last year.

Now for other things…..

I’m delighted with both B16’s motu proprio and his statement that all the confusion about the statements in the documents of V2 about the ‘Church of Christ subsists in the Catholic Church ‘ being just that – confusion, and that we Catholics really do, after all, belong to the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church. But honestly I don’t think either of those things are going to make much difference to the average LR Catholic, and probably not to the NO Catholics who need these documents the most. It seems to me that many Catholics have gotten very used to having their faith on their own terms, and what do they care that now any priest can celebrate the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass according to the 1962 Missale Romanum?

The thing is, you can’t have faith on your own terms, because then it’s not faith, it’s pride at the very least, and idolatry of self at the worst. The 6th Chapter of St. John’s Gospel makes that clear. Faith on one’s own terms is why there are Protestants. It’s worse than a cafeteria, in my mind….it’s more like going to Texas Roadhouse (a casual steak-and-fixins restaurant) and loudly proclaiming that you are vegan and you’re going to start a boycott of all Texas Roadhouse restaurants everywhere because there are no real vegan choices on their menu. Or going to a Byzantine Divine Liturgy, where the entire service is chanted without instrumental accompaniment (and you’ll never hear Amazing Grace and its like), then complaining about the music. (Some readers will know I didn’t make that example up).

Back to the motu proprio – what do I think it will mean for Catholics in my neck of the woods? Well, first of all, there is only one parish church left in town with a high altar intact – the university parish. And it’s a stronghold of several very liberal and ‘progressive’ groups of lay Catholics. So I don’t think there will be a Tridentine Mass there any time soon, although there is a newly-ordained priest there who might be receptive to the idea if properly approached…..and the other three parish churches, having been constructed during the heyday of ‘modern’ church architecture, render even a Low Mass nearly impossible because of the floor plan and other details:

St. Luke the Evangelist – no altar rail, chairs on 3 sides with the Sanctuary the 4th side of the square, choir at the front of the nave. However, there is enough room between the top step and the front of the altar for a priest to celebrate ad orientem if desired.

St. Francis de Sales – no altar rail, Tabernacle not even in the nave but in a separate chapel, seating in the round so that 25% of the parishioners at any given Mass have their backs to the Tabernacle, no altar steps (in fact the nave is rather like a bowl with the Sanctuary at the bottom ).

St. Mary’s – no altar rail. but the Sanctuary steps are wide enough for parishioners to kneel upon them to receive, and there’s room in front of the altar here as well, for celebrating ad orientem. Tabernacle is in a separate chapel, but at least it’s at the east end of the nave, next to the Sanctuary. There’s a picture in a previous post, from Advent 2006….