Ok I am going to ignore everyone else and say my two cents.
Let us say you are on medication for an illness. But, after a while, the illness goes away. You feel better, and thus you stop taking the meds.
Now, let us assume that you have been taking the meds long enough for the initial symptoms of the illness to not appear (basically, if the norm is that your feet turn blue, then before you felt better and your stopped the meds, your feet turned blue and you would have to start taking the meds again).
Slight problem here. You’re human, which means despite your immune system and physical health, you are still susceptible to illness.
What happens is that you start to get ill in different ways. Instead of your feet turning blue, you start to have some trouble breathing. You think it is because you have been running a lot lately, and so your lungs are getting used to your new schedule. Ok, fine.
But on top of your breathing, you start to feel dizzy more often. Ah well, it’s hot outside, increased temperature and your exercise would lead to less oxygen and so you feel more light headed.
But then your feet turn blue. Yikes… better get on those meds. But it is too late, the illness you thought was gone simply presented itself in different ways until you recognised it. You’re going to need new lungs. It’s ok, I guess, you have the money (and luckily there is a GREAT donor), but the scars are going to stay with you for quite a while.
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Confession is to the soul what a medical treatment is to an illness. It is one of the sacraments of healing. You get spiritually sick, by sinning. So you have to go to confession to get better.
If you stop going regularly, then the following things will happen:
**You start to feel more independant.
**You start to realise that since you don’t go to confession, someone is going to have to take control of your life. You.
You start to realise the exact consequences of your actions.
Which means you can get around them and still ‘feel fine’
**
When you get around them, you learn it will lead to other habits.**
It’s basically going from cigarettes to pot because to take them, you smoke both of them, and they are just as easy to get, if you know where to look.
**Your sense of morality deteriorates
Your pride becomes your beacon, not God’s will
When you place yourself above others, respect for humanity is thrown outside the window.
**You become more angry, you’re self absorbed.
You cut your life off from others, as well as God.
You thus become inwardly focused, and then when that happens…
You are alone
Because then, when you fail, who will pick you up?
You need confession, because it keeps our moral compass aligned, our priorities correct, and our dependency is with God, and not us. Seeing as we kill each other on a daily basis, I’m pretty sure I want my money on the big guy.
Regular confession therefore, allows us to penetrate deeper the sacred mystery of ourselves, and that of God. We realise what we can do by ourselves, and what we need His help for. If you stop the once a year thing, then sin is going to come back in different ways. There are seven to choose from. Go ahead, take your pick, evil is bound to choose one for you sooner or later anyway.
Mortal sin isn’t the thing. It’s like an accident, A&E is always going to be there when the going gets tough.
It’s about realising who you are. We are human. Body and soul. We get colds, we are still going to have to take asperin for headaches. We get sick. If we don’t get better, then we die. It is as simple as that (I think that solves the mystery on how sin leads to death as well… ah well. It’s early days yet…).
I don’t think that some people understand… that when they stay away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation… they are doing themselves OUT of a very precious gift. A personal encounter with Our Merciful Lord… and a chance to receive His healing graces.