Tonight’s talk was on the Sacrament of Reconciliation (aka confession, aka penance). Fr. Luke’s talk was mainly centered around the Biblical basis for confession…which made this a bit of an apologetics talk, as well as one to prepare us for the sacrament. I know that there are those who think that we have to confess our sins only to God. The interesting thing is that most such people also claim to believe the Bible word for word. Nowhere in the Bible does it say we are to confess only to God. Rather, it tells us to confess our sins to one another; and of course Jesus told his apostles that He had given them the authority to forgive sins in His name (whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, whose sins you retain, they are retained.)

One of the great points he made was that several prominent protestant thinkers have spoken on the need for confession – such as Robert Schuller and Norman Vincent Peale (and a quick Google of either of those names will reveal many hate sites attacking these two for their theology…could it be because they agree with the Catholic Church on a point or two?)

In the end, Fr. Luke said, “so, what if you’re going to confession but you feel it’s not doing any good? you’re confessing the same sins over and over, but it’s not helping?” Well, he likened it to gardening. Along with the stuff you want to grow, there’s something you don’t want to grow – weeds. So you pull up all the weeds. A few weeks later, there are more weeds to pull up. Gotta get rid of the weeds in order to allow the good stuff to grow – otherwise the weeds will take over. An apt analogy, I believe.

As for me, the confessional is still one of those things I have a tough time with in my relative youth in the Church. I get dry mouthed and forget stuff I need to confess. On top of that, I forget to say, “for these and all my other sins, I am sorry…” but the intention is there, I know that is the important part. Since I was raised to believe that when I confess my sins to God I am immediately forgiven, it still seems weird to confess to a priest, even though I totally believe in the importance of the sacrament and that the priest is truly in persona Christi. I know with time it’ll become more normal to me.

Tomorrow’s talk is on Christ’s Real Presence in the Eucharist. There are surveys that indicate that an astounding percentage of Catholics coming out of the church on a Sunday believe the Eucharist is symbolic of His body and blood or our unity or something. Ugh. Fr. Luke will help to clear this up for any who may be misinformed tomorrow.