Do you struggle with forgiving others or yourself? Perhaps your greater struggle is confessing your own sins and asking for forgiveness.

I’ll admit I do struggle a bit especially when it comes to confessing.

Throughout life, I’ve learned a lot of lessons. The greatest lessons are often revealed to me through my kids. Last week my daughter looked at me as I was driving and said “mom, you sure have a lot of road rage lately.” Of course, my idea of road rage and hers are greatly different. I looked at her and partially denied it. She then told me that I reacted more calmly in the past to the other peoples’ lack of obeying the road signs, driving too slow, hopping in front of me, or becoming a little personal with my car by trying to give it a nice kiss. Well she didn’t exactly say it that way but it did spark something in me later.

A few days ago, I became pretty upset with her when her plans changed from what we discussed and she hadn’t clued me in on the changes. My fuse was a little short when she came home and the punishment I laid down was perhaps a little harsh. I was upset with myself by how I responded in my words and my tone, especially when I try to teach my girls how to manage their own anger and frustrations in a healthier way. I sat in my room and pondered this little episode. As I pondered it, I recalled her comment about my “road rage”. I realized that she was right about my responses being less calm and more reactive. But calling someone an idiot is that really road rage? In all honesty, I did recognized that a number of things lately seem to spark my fuse not just other drivers.

That evening, I knew I had to ensure the next day to have a conversation with her of confessing my wrong and letting her know that I had recognized a change in my responses lately that was not positive or healthy when things seemed to frustrate me or upset me.

My lesson that day was two fold. One, her observation was actually deeper than just a little comment towards “the idiot” driving in front, beside, perpendicular, or parallel to me. Her observation helped me to see the sinful actions that were affecting a few areas in my life. Anger is a natural emotion and it by itself is not sinful. It becomes sinful when we respond in a manner that is not loving, but damaging in some way. I needed to let her know I was wrong, ask for forgiveness and repair the damage. Second it highlighted the importance of going to confession and repenting so that my heart can be forgiven and cleansed. The more I allow this to fester within me, it will grow like weeds or like a disease that overtakes my body one cell at a time, separating me from my relationships including my relationship with God. This is why it is crucial to go to confession, be absolved of the sin in our lives and repair the effects our sins have on society as a whole through acts of reparation.

In James 5:16, we are told that we should “confess [our] sins to one another and pray for one another.” Some may think that the only way to confess our sins is directly to God. We hear right here in James that we should confess our sins to one another, not just God. In the Gospel of John, chapter 20, after Jesus breathes on the apostles and ask them to receive the Holy Spirit, He tells them that “whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” As Catholics, we acknowledge that we are to confess our sins, as stated in James, (and it doesn’t have to be to God alone), and that priests have the authority to forgive sins because Jesus gave it to them as He did the apostles, as we read in John.

Lent is a season where we dig deeper into the abyss discovering the roots of sin we’ve sown. If we are intentional with our lenten journey, at the end fruit will abound and overflow from us because we will have broken up the soil that lacks nutrients, and laid down fresh soil. The key nutrient to the fresh soil is confessing our sins, seeking forgiveness and forgiving our neighbor.

My other daughter, described her first confession as taking a bath. I invite you this lent to allow Christ to cleanse you as you pour out your heart, confessing your sinfulness and accepting absolution. May the peace of Christ be with you always.

Categories: Faith, Forgiveness

Tags: #Catholic, #Christian, #forgiveness, #lent, #life