Is Confession a Burden?

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Blaise Pascal in Pensees offers the following reflection:

“The Catholic religion does not bind us to confess our sins indiscriminately to everybody; it allows them to remain hidden from all other men but one, to whom she bids us reveal the innermost recesses of our heart and show ourselves as we are. There is only this one man in the world whom she orders us to undeceive, and she binds him to an inviolable secrecy, which makes this knowledge to him as if it were not. Can we imagine anything more charitable and pleasant? And yet the corruption of man is such that he finds even this law harsh; it is one of the main reasons which has caused a great part of Europe to rebel against the Church.”

Is confession as Catholics know it the reason why so many Catholics have left the Church? Is it what keeps many Protestants from joining the Church?

Your thoughts?
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Is confession as Catholics know it the reason why so many Catholics have left the Church? Is it what keeps many Protestants from joining the Church? Your thoughts?
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Don’t know about you, but my initial desire to not understand or practice chastity was what kept me from the Church.
 
Nope…I was very eager to begin receiving this Sacrament!!!

In it Christ either restores or increases his life in us.

In him is true life and joy!
 
Confession, it seems to me, emphasizes humility. Are those who avoid confession, or those who leave the Church, tending to do so because they have trouble being humble? I am amazed at how many people convert to the Church, knowing that they are expected to confess their sins to a priest.

On the other hand, I had a cousin who became Catholic, and years later left the Church, with the complaint that Catholicism had to be the hardest religion in the world to practice. I came to believe that she must have been referring to confession, as Pascal suggests.
 
Confession is the chance of getting it right with God again, to obtain His forgiveness with sincere and humble remorse for sins. No parental or civil authority weighing in, although there are sins calling for the involvement of parents or civil authority.

It is not a burden. It is a way to unload the burden (of guilt), the outcome of a committed transgression against the Creator and/or our neighbor.

If at all, confession is a big factor that Catholics remain Catholics, that lapsed Catholics come back, and a good reason for Protestants to join the Church. I understand that Martin Luther believed it be a good thing but did not place enough importance in the sacrament. One of his big mistakes!
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InSearchofGrace said:
It is not a burden. It is a way to unload the burden (of guilt), the outcome of a committed transgression against the Creator and/or our neighbor.
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I agree. I couldn’t wait to go to confession and pull out the hooks that the devil sinks into us and then pulls us around with.
When you can see how sin controls a person, it makes the breaking of the chains in confession very attractive. Christ brings freedom, not bondage. Life and fullness of life. Joy. Increases our ability to love. To smile.
 
I agree with many of the posts above. I regard confession as a blessing and a possibility to reconcile with the Lord, repent from my sins, learn of them and keep growing as a human being and catholic.

So no, confession is not a burden to me. A blessing it is.
 
Do you think particularly heinous sins will discourage people from confessing, and might even provoke them to leave the Church? For example, do you think Catholics who commit same-sex sodomy might be so ashamed that they cannot face a priest (most confessionals now are face-to-face), or might go to confession without confessing the sin? How can they be restored if their shame overcomes their humility, as Pascal suggests above?
 
Of course there are times when someone would have commited sins they are so ashamed of, than facing a priest could be difficult.

But i know from own experiences, that once you overcome them, the devils chains and grip on you will be broken in the end.

There has been times when i have been so close to do sinning, but instead i have gone straight to confession and then mass. That feeling beats nothing in this life, not even being in love.

Gods grace beats everything on this planet. Over and over and over again.
But remember, this is out from my experiences. Im not an apologist, priest, theolog or expert, im just a small man, a sinner, a catholic. In the big picture, im just the fly on your wall.
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Do you think particularly heinous sins will discourage people from confessing, and might even provoke them to leave the Church? For example, do you think Catholics who commit same-sex sodomy might be so ashamed that they cannot face a priest (most confessionals now are face-to-face), or might go to confession without confessing the sin? How can they be restored if their shame overcomes their humility, as Pascal suggests above?
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I think as with all sins, how someone feels about confessing is based on two related things:
  1. How they really feel about the sin, i.e. if they feel guilty, i.e. their conscience, i.e. if they have the heart to really try to stop
  2. How they feel about their ability to make an effort to stop and not have to go through the embarrassing procedure of confessing again.
I think for any sin, if the person feels strongly that they will be able to turn their back on it, they will not feel so disinclined to confess.

“humility” is a good word because confessing can cause us to feel humiliated
 
Charlemagne_II said:
Blaise Pascal in Pensees offers the following reflection:

“The Catholic religion does not bind us to confess our sins indiscriminately to everybody; it allows them to remain hidden from all other men but one, to whom she bids us reveal the innermost recesses of our heart and show ourselves as we are. There is only this one man in the world whom she orders us to undeceive, and she binds him to an inviolable secrecy, which makes this knowledge to him as if it were not. Can we imagine anything more charitable and pleasant? And yet the corruption of man is such that he finds even this law harsh; it is one of the main reasons which has caused a great part of Europe to rebel against the Church.”

Is confession as Catholics know it the reason why so many Catholics have left the Church? Is it what keeps many Protestants from joining the Church?

Your thoughts?
Click to expand...
Confession is how we experience God’s mercy in a tangible way. Yes, it can be tough sometimes- but it’s worthwhile, because of the assurance we have of forgiveness and of God’s love for us. This may sound strange, but I actually enjoy going to confession. Sometimes, I have to humble myself in particularly painful ways- but the joy that comes after those times makes the pain worthwhile.
 
As someone who has not gone to confession yet (I will be joining the Church at Easter vigil this year - yay!) I initially found the thought of confession to be terrifying. The thought of having to tell someone the deepest secrets of my heart seemed like too much to bear. But I had already become convinced that the Catholic Church contained the fullness of the faith - so I pushed my fears to the back of my mind and pressed on. Eventually, I was taught more about confession in RCIA, and when I learned about it from a Catholic perspective, rather than from my previous Protestant perspective, I found it was not such a burden as I had imagined it to be. Now, by God’s grace, I am not “shaking in my boots,” so to speak, at the thought of having to go to confession.
 
I think Confession is a blessing. I stayed away from this healing sacrament for 13 years and when I finally went back I felt a weight lifted and also a responsibility to pass on the forgiveness I had received. It wasn’t a feeling of burden that kept me away from the sacrament but maybe just a stale faith the held me back for some time but a couple of years ago I immersed myslef in the faith and overcome with shame I went back to the sacrament. I now go regular and I get so much out of it and it keeps me straight, so not a burden a necessity.
 
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