Good Morning!
Last week we talked about the book “How to Make Great Decisions” by Father Mike Schmitz. I gave a quick overview of the book here. This week we are going to be taking a closer look at that first set of questions: Examining Yourself. More specifically today, we are going to be talking about the sacrament of reconciliation. It is an essential part to answering “yes” to that first question: “Are you in a State of Grace?”.
My Relationship with Confession (Spoiler!- It hasn’t always been good one)
Now I don’t know about all of you but I’ve always had a somewhat difficult and complicated relationship with confession. I always dreaded going (still do some times). There was the guilt, the embarrassment, the nerves. Oftentimes I would feel like I must have done it wrong: I didn’t feel miraculously different. Wasn’t I supposed to feel great after confession? I could probably count on one hand the number of times I’ve walked out of a confessional and thought “wow that was amazing, I’m so glad I did that”. Nearly all of them were on retreats (where pretty much everything feels like that).
Needless to say, when the first actionable step in “How to Make Great Decisions” was “go to confession” I was somewhat disappointed and more than a little bit discouraged. What was so important about confession anyways? And what did being in a State of Grace even mean? It all sounded a little bit “too holy” for me. However, after months of living, praying, and thinking, here is what I have found:
A State of Grace
In order to understand and appreciate confession, we have to first understand “a State of Grace”. What is it and why it is so important? To be in a State of Grace simply means to be living fully in God’s presence. His grace, His love, His being. This is what God wants for us because He knows it is the only thing that will fulfill us. Therefore, it is what we should want for ourselves.
It may seem daunting and impossible, maybe even ridiculous. But I promise you, it’s not as difficult as it may seem. You see, God is always present – from the moment we were baptized His presence is always there. All we have to do is not choose to turn away from it.
The Role of Sin
To sin is to turn away from God and to give a part of ourselves to something else; to leave it in something else’s not-so-loving hands. God gives us the freedom to do this because he gives us the gift of free will; we get to choose what to do with each moment; we get to choose where to live it.
Some of you may be thinking: well if I get to choose within every moment why does the past matter? Can’t I just choose to live in God’s presence within this moment? And to that I say absolutely, in fact you should choose that. The problem with leaving it at that though is that the past does matter. Right now, this moment is brand new. Yet it contains all of the moments that came before: we carry them with us one by one. This means without reconciliation, when we sin we would be trapped in that sin forever. A part of us would always be separated from God. We would never be able to wholly live in his presence. In other words, living in a State of Grace would be impossible unless we were born perfect. Lucky for us, God knows we are not perfect. He gave us the sacrament of Reconciliation so that we may always have the ability to live wholly in a State of Grace.
The Gift of Reconciliation
I would like to share with you my understanding of reconciliation through a metaphor of sorts. (you may want to get used to metaphors- it’s apparently one of my favorite ways to communicate). Imagine your life as a pile of pebbles. Each moment is another pebble God gives you and you get to decide where to put it. You can either give it to God or you can give it to something else. greed. lust. envy. The list goes on and on. Every single time God gives us another “pebble” we have to make that choice: where will we put it?
The answer to that question often depends a lot upon habits (which we will touch upon next week). Even with good habits though, there can be times where we slip and a pebble ends up elsewhere. As soon as that happens, our life is no longer wholly in God’s presence. It’s split between God and our sins. Unfortunately, once we place a pebble we don’t have the power to take it back; we can’t go back in time. But God is beyond time and through his Grace He gives us the chance to reconcile with those stray pebbles.
When we go to confession we are not just telling God of the “pebbles” we chose to give to sin. He is all knowing so He already knows. We’re asking God to use his power (His forgiveness) to remove those pebbles from the bonds of sin. We are asking Him to reunite them to himself. And he DOES. He Forgives us. And that forgiveness breaks the bonds of sin tearing us apart and reunites us -wholly- to Him. All we have to do is ask. That’s what confession is for. That’s the gift of reconciliation: the freedom to be made whole again.
An Opportunity to Receive
It is my hope that there is a desire within you as there is in me to go to confession. I hope you have the desire to receive the gift of reconciliation. However, I know that even after deciding you want to go to confession many things can stand in the way. One of the biggest of which is the thought “but I don’t know how” (or I don’t remember). But don’t worry!
I’ve made a printable booklet: Reconciliation- A Simple Guide to Making a Great Confession. It can be folded into a tiny pocket-sized book by following the along with this video. You can bring this guide book right into the church and confessional with you! Simply fill out the form below and you’ll have free access to the PDF. Plus you’ll join my mailing list where I’ll be sharing all sorts of exclusive content! It’s the perfect way to ensure you’re comfortable and confident as you humbly come before God and his Mercy ♡
If you’re interested in reading Father Mike’s Book “How to Make Great Decisions” you can order it here and I will get a small commission from Amazon at no extra cost to you!
Have more questions or want to talk? Feel free to leave a comment, contact me through the connect page, or reach out on instagram. I hope to hear from you soon! Until then, stay smiling, and keep on growing 🙂
-me
[elijah jane]
