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itsdavid
Guest
I have a serious dilemma.
I fell away from the faith completelt for several years during high school and early college. I am still in college now. During my time not believing and first coming back, I smoked Marijuana habitually and lied frequently about it to my parents, sometimes in answer to point blank questions. On one occasion I allowed someone else to take the fall for me in a situation in which we were caught smoking and lied against his name to protect myself. Since I have come back to the faith and realized that smoking pot is wrong, I have stopped and will never do it again. I have developed a great relationship with my parents and I think I am genuinely making them proud with my achievements in college. They do and can trust me now. Most of the situations involving the lies are dead and buried, so to speak. I did, however, “get away” with them; the lies were never uncovered. Recently, I have begun to feel tremendous guilt about them and about lying point-blank to my loving parents. The Catechism says that reparation must be made to those lied to. I’m wondering what this means exactly and whether one must tell the truth even long after the fact. Telling them that I lied about those things would reopen a lot of old wounds and would, I think, devestate my parents. With such a good relationship established now, and because I am behaving well and making them proud, is it really necessary to rehash all these old situations (which would really affect them emotionally) or is confessing these sins and moving on good enough?
Thank you.
I fell away from the faith completelt for several years during high school and early college. I am still in college now. During my time not believing and first coming back, I smoked Marijuana habitually and lied frequently about it to my parents, sometimes in answer to point blank questions. On one occasion I allowed someone else to take the fall for me in a situation in which we were caught smoking and lied against his name to protect myself. Since I have come back to the faith and realized that smoking pot is wrong, I have stopped and will never do it again. I have developed a great relationship with my parents and I think I am genuinely making them proud with my achievements in college. They do and can trust me now. Most of the situations involving the lies are dead and buried, so to speak. I did, however, “get away” with them; the lies were never uncovered. Recently, I have begun to feel tremendous guilt about them and about lying point-blank to my loving parents. The Catechism says that reparation must be made to those lied to. I’m wondering what this means exactly and whether one must tell the truth even long after the fact. Telling them that I lied about those things would reopen a lot of old wounds and would, I think, devestate my parents. With such a good relationship established now, and because I am behaving well and making them proud, is it really necessary to rehash all these old situations (which would really affect them emotionally) or is confessing these sins and moving on good enough?
Thank you.