Confession is a splendid act, an act of great love. Confession is the only place to which we take ourselves as sinners, as bearers of sin, and come away as sinners who have been forgiven, without sin.
Confession is nothing other than humility put into action. Formerly, we used to call it “penance”, but the truth is that it is a sacrament of love, a sacrament of forgiveness. When a breach opens up between me and Christ, when my love cracks, all sorts of things may come to fill up the crack. Confession is the time when I let Christ take away all cause of separation, everything that destroys. The reality of my sins has to be the first thing. For most of us the danger of forgetting we are sinners, and must go to confession as such, hangs over us. We must go to God to tell him how sorry we are for all we could have done and that has wounded him.
The confessional is not a place for trite conversations or gossip. One subject alone holds sway: my sins, my sorrow, my forgiveness, how to overcome my temptations, how to put virtue into practice, how to grow in the love of God.
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