Saturday of the Thirteenth Week in Ordinary Time
I might be the only one, but have you ever questioned why you should go to confession? Maybe the idea didn’t even come from you. Maybe you were having a conversation with someone that went a little like this (we’ll call the other person Siegfried):
Siegfried: Hey, do you want to come over on Sunday.
You: Actually, I can’t I have to go to church.
Siegfried: Oh, ok. So are you Christian?
You: Yeah, I am; I’m Catholic.
Siegfried: Don’t you have to go to a priest or something when you do something wrong?
You: Well, I mean, kind of…
Siegfried: Why?
You: …
Whether you could supply an apologetic response (defense) to that question is not my focus for this reflection. Not that apologetics are bad, but we can fall into a trap with apologetics where we can explain the principle behind doing something, and yet never do it! No, I want to focus on a line from the gospel that I think really captures a spiritually practical reason for Confession.
In the Gospel Christ says, “People do not put new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise the skins burst, the wine spills out, and the skins are ruined. Rather, they pour new wine into fresh wineskins, and both are preserved.” When we are baptized we are made a new creation. Which only makes sense because God is pouring new life into us. That newness is renewed through the sacrament of Confession.
When we walk into Confession we are like the old wineskin. We go to confession to re-encounter the newness of our Baptism so that we can better hold and share the new wine that comes from the altar at Mass. We shouldn’t go to Confession out of fear that without it we will be discarded because of our ‘old wineskinness’. Rather, Christ’s words remind me that we should go to confession out of a desire to best hold the new wine, to hold the life and love of Jesus Christ that we receive through God’s grace.
This holding though is not the ‘holding onto’ of a child who doesn’t know how to share. Rather, it is the holding of a wineskin. A purposeful holding so that by pouring His grace into us, we can pour it out for others. Confession, primarily, is not about avoiding hell, but rather it is about allowing Christ to live more fruitfully within you (especially by returning to the Eucharist). The more intensely Christ’s heart beats within you, the more you become Christ to the World. It helps the disciple become more like the Teacher.
I invite you to restore your newness through confession and to do it as an act of love. Do it as an act of love for God who wants to pour more of Himself into you. Do it as an act of love for your friends and family as the grace of God can greatly improve our relationships. And do it as an act of love for your enemies; for if God can forgive me, how can I withhold my forgiveness?
- - Spencer Hargadon