Mike Paschall . com

The power of the confessional for Catholics is not the holiness of that tiny cubicle’s secrets, but the confession itself.  It’s practical value encourages a person to bring their wrong, their sin, the hole in their soul, the wound, lay it all out there in all of its undignified ugliness, and still be received and reminded of the unconditional love of God.  The truer the confession, the richer the effects of grace.

I was reminded early this morning that the inclination we have to protect the false-self would have us spin in excuses and half-truths.  This weakness has an incredible bearing on the overall spiritual atmosphere of our personal inner health, our churches and our ministries.   The spin has us cycle in stagnation.  It goes nowhere.  It accomplishes nothing but prolongs what will inevitably be revealed:  we are broken and in need of being received (ugly warts and all).  Even the term “saving face” says much about our personal war with our false-self and ego.  Deflecting truth is not helpful to us either.  Until we can own our mistakes and take responsibility for the choices we’ve made, we sludge in the mire of our own making.  The journey through these kinds of swamps take an immeasurable toll on our peace and freedom.  Too many need a bath in the cleansing waters of truth.  Spraying perfume on a pig doesn’t really help the pig’s odor issues.  The only person deceived, is the applicator of the perfume.  Everyone else knows with their nose.  Spin in corporate America and politics is the game.  Spin with God stuff is poison to us.

Rohr talks about his work in the local jails of Albuquerque:  “In there, we try to talk without euphemism and niceties:  Don’t say the money got stolen; say, I stole the money.  Take responsibility.  Your mother hurt you, your father didn’t love you, we all know that (unfortunately, that is an all-to-familiar norm in our culture).  Now will you take personal responsibility for what you did?”  Identifying the wound is vitally important, but it doesn’t solve the entire equation.  The sooner we stop the spin and honestly say what is true about ourselves, the quicker we get to the healing we so desperately need.

The power of honest confession brings our liberation.  Spin screws us into a petrified current of isolated dormancy.

-MDP-