Over the past few years there has been a rise in what is called “sympathetic villians”, which is where common and well known antagonists are taken and given human back stories and issues that make them seem as just misunderstood heroes. The problem with this method is these figures were never meant to fit into our world that way. Figures like “Maleficent” literally means “evil doer” and represents the devil before baptism. Cruela Devil even has her name mean ‘cruel devil’. Recently a figure such as the wicked witch is explained away as just a person born differently. We have always had a way of trying to make friends with our antagonists, including sin.
As we reach now the third week of advent, we are welcomed with a strong criticism of John the Baptist: people come to him asking for guidance and he steers them away from their sins. John is a perfect image of sin and what the confessional does. Last week we talked about the power and importance of an apology in restoring a relationship which fit in with the first part of confession: the need to have contrition or sadness for our sins. This week we will focus on the next important part which is the actual act of confessing one’s sins to a priest. There are 5 objections as to why people don’t go to a priest for confession:
- Feel they don’t need to go to a priest, they can go to God. My dad use to say, when he was going hunting that he was going to “mass in the woods”, his excuse for not going to church on Sunday while hunting. The thing is, this excuse only works if you actually do what you say. Saying/identifying as something doesn’t make it actually happen or be done. People who say they confess straight to God, usually are those who don’t actually do even that. The simple thing is: God has revealed that confession is necessary. Jesus has told his disciples it is this way, he gave them the power, the letter to James speaks of it, even the history of the church has made it so. The church holds the importance as a precept. What better a world we would have.
- False impressions of personal holiness. We do other good things so we don’t need confession. Sins come in all shapes and sizes, and all sin has a consequence on others. The suffering we experience is if nothing else a consequence of the sin of adam and eve. Our sins hurt others too. We think we will get a free pass for something. We feel entitled. We want communion, but we don’t want what says we may not be ready.
- Self justification: we are so willing to lie about what we did just not to get convicted of doing something. Adam point to eve. Sometimes people create the most outlandish stories when I ask about mass. God is totally merciful, but he is totally just as well. What is the justice? We repent. That is the justice to grant mercy. We need to relook at the whole stance of being a sinner: me standing in line with confession. There is something awesome that we see this life style as a challenge we are all facing.
- Who is the church to say what is sin and what isn’t? We live in a world of relativism. God has shown the church the way out. We don’t use this logic when we go to the doctor. We feel that as long as we make a set of rules and live by it, then all is good. However, that only becomes true for me but not for the world. Imagine going to a police to settle a dispute and it were just left to his or her personal judgment.
- Committing the same sin over and over again. It is like cancer treatment, different levels and different attachments to sins. We have to keep working on it. We can’t just say because there is someone worse than me then it is ok for me to keep going with my sin. The real heart of the issue is not even frequency of sin, but how committed are we to our sins. The lukewarmness of sins.