Making a Good Confession

 

 

by St. Theophan the Recluse

Bishop of Tambov (+1894)

 

            Repentance is a simple matter--just a sigh and a few words, "I have sinned, and shall not sin again."  But this sigh must have passed through the heavens in order to become an intercession at the throne of Truth, and these words must erase from the book of life all the marks representing our sins.  Where can they obtain such power?  From pitiless self-judgment and in fervent contrition.  This is the path of our repentance:  make your heart softer and more humble, and then, at Confession, don't be ashamed to reveal all that shames you in the eyes of the Lord and of the people.

 

            In the matter of preparing for Communion, the greatest difficulty for us is to go to Confession and to reveal ourselves to our spiritual father.  Actually, this should be a most gratifying experience.  Is it not a comfort for him who is covered with wounds to be healed?  For him who is covered with soil to be cleansed?  Or for him who is chained to regain his freedom?  This is precisely the spiritual power of absolution at Confession.  We come with our injuries and leave healed;  we come unclean and leave cleansed; we come in bonds and leave free.  That is the promise of the Lord:  first tell of your transgressions and then you will be forgiven.

 

            Undoubtedly you will be forgiven, but first you must confess your transgressions without concealment.  Know that only an open wound can be treated, only exposed dirt can be cleansed, only those bonds that are shown can be untied.  Beware, lest you leave unhealed, uncleansed and enslaved.

 

            The action comes from the Lord.  The spiritual father speaks and acts for Him.  The Lord knows your sin, and even in your thoughts you cannot conceal it from Him, but the Lord wants to know whether you are prepared to confess your sins in His presence, if He Himself were standing before you, or whether you would try to conceal them like your forebears, Adam and Eve, in Paradise.  That is why He appears to you in the person of your spiritual father to whom you confess and who in His name gives you absolution, which by the very fact of having been uttered by weak mortals on earth, becomes impressed in heaven by the Lord's power.  Your spiritual father also represents all mankind.  He who is ashamed to reveal himself should banish this shame with the thought that here, in front of his spiritual father, the shame that he feels is lesser than that to come.  This shame can bring salvation instead of joylessness and hopelessness.  There will come the day when all our bad deeds will be revealed to all mankind, and then the shame we will feel will be such that we should rather be buried under mountains than experience it.  Therefore the Lord instituted this experiencing of shame before a single person, so you may be spared experiencing it before all mankind.

 

            But there is one great evil in our hearts--at times we are quite ready to reveal all our sins but the main one, the one that shames us the most.  Most often this is a carnal sin, but there are others that can be in this category.  He who is burdened with such a weakness is ready to perform any good deed just to leave this sin hidden, but the Lord has a rule:  give Me no alms if you are unchaste; don't fast if you are suffering from greed; don't offer prayers if you are filled with vanity.  Open up your wound, so you may be healed and imbued with goodness.  Be inspired to overcome within yourselves precisely that which resists the most.