Message from Fr. Peter Andronache

By now you may have heard me me talk about confession on several occasions and may be wondering why I keep coming back to that topic. The answer begins, unsurprisingly, in the Bible. In the first letter to the Corinthians, St. Paul says: “If we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged” (1 Cor. 11:31). In a similar vein, Jesus Himself said “First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye” (Matt. 7:5).

These passages leave no doubt that a Christian is called to regular and serious self-evaluation – serious enough to be called judging by St. Paul. I do not imagine this was ever an easy thing to do, but today there are many obstacles to this practice. 

One such obstacle is the rather pervasive idea of relativism – that there is no objective truth. There are areas where there is indeed no universal objective truth. My favorite color, musical style, or sport is not likely to be the same as yours. The spiritual life, on the other hand, is different. Christ said that He is the way, the truth, and the life. As human beings, we are free to disbelieve that statement. As Christians, however, that statement is normative: true spirituality has Christ and his teachings as its foundation. When we evaluate our spiritual life and what is right and wrong in our lives, we evaluate it not by human standards (including our own), but by Christ’s. 

Another common obstacle is the idea that we should accept who we are in order to be happy. There are at least two problems with this idea. The first is the underlying belief that the fleeting happiness of this life is something that should be pursued without (or with very few) reservations. Contrast this with Romans 8:18: “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” We are reminded here that our true and abiding joy does not belong to this age, but we should look for the joys of the kingdom. The second problem is that this type of acceptance is not particularly conducive to analysis and evaluation. St. Paul reminds the Ephesians of the transformation to which Christians are called: “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord” (Eph. 5:8-10). A Christian type of acceptance, then, would mean accepting the reality of our fallenness and sinfulness, of our need for Christ, and a resolve to seek out His righteousness so that, by the grace that comes from Him we be transformed into His likeness. 

The third obstacle is shame. Shame has been a difficult emotion to manage from the very beginning. We are told that, when God came to Adam after he ate from the tree, he was ashamed and hid. Unfortunately, the inability to bear that shame and own up to his mistake, instead of protecting him, led to his expulsion from the garden. To counteract our own tendency to imitate Adam, St. Silouan tells us that, for our salvation, we need to be able to bear a little shame – to face who we are and confess our shortcomings before God. Archimandrite Aimilianos in The Way of the Spirit also talks about the necessity of facing our shortcomings and the darkness in our hearts. He talks about coming before God having dropped all pretense, in our nakedness.

And so we are back to St. Paul’s admonition to judge ourselves. St John Chrysostom, commenting on this passage, says:

Paul did not say, “if we punished ourselves” but only if we were prepared to recognize our offense, to judge ourselves truly, to condemn our own wrongdoing, then we should be rid of the punishment both in this world and in the next. For the one who condemns himself propitiates God in two ways, first by acknowledging his sins and second by being more careful in the future.

Why does this understanding of our spiritual life relate to the sacrament of confession? Because confession is a concrete acknowledgment of sin. The concreteness is important, because agreeing  that we have sinned in a vague, general manner makes no demand of us. Standing before the icon of Christ, with a priest present and confessing specific sins usually brings with it an impetus to be “more careful in the future” as St. John said above.

There is more to say about the importance of confession: the grace given by Christ to the apostles to bind and loose sins, His promise to be with those gathered in His name, or the guidance that can be received from someone who should be taking the spiritual life seriously. I hope that the thoughts above shed some light on the importance of confession and that, if the sacrament is not a regular part of your spiritual life, you will consider it in the upcoming Nativity fast.

With love in Christ
+Fr. Peter