Living the Life….Confession

Confession…it’s a thing…a really good thing…a run out to your local priest and get this thing done, thing.  If you’re Catholic, you’ve probably gone at least one time this year, because frankly we’re asked to go at least that often.  But maybe instead of saying that it’s something I have to do, what if I said that it was something that I get to do?

I get to go to confession as often as I want, like everyday if necessary.  I’m not saying you should go everyday, I’m just saying you could.  But why go at all? Well, right before Jesus was getting ready to die, he spoke to the apostles, the first bishops of our Church and said,

“Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”. (Matt 18:18).

He gave them the power to loose our sins.  Why would he give sinful men that power?  Well, He did it for us.  He loved us that much and He knew one day you’d be feeling like absolute garbage because you had been a bad person, a bad wife, a bad mother, or a bad friend.

He knew and He didn’t want you to stay there in that muck because He knew the person you could be, the person He created you to be, and He didn’t want you to give up on that ideal.

He knew you needed a restart, a let’s-pick-ourselves-up-out-of -this-muck-and-begin-again button.  He knew that one day, you would really, really need to hear those words,

“I forgive you your sins, now go in peace”.

Go in peace?  Is that possible, to just walk into a little room with a priest and name your sins, and be given that peace we all desire.  Why, yes, yes it is!  I’ve felt it myself, and the greater that my sins have been…and there have been some doozies…the greater the peace I have felt when I left that confessional.

So in this Year of Mercy, maybe it’s time to begin again.  Grab your kids, your friends, your family, random people off the street, and go experience the peace that surpasses all understanding.  You put on your big girl pants, kick that self-loathing out the door, and begin again!