'I Confess'...What Exactly?

I Confess

To Almighty God

And to you, my brothers and sisters

That I have greatly sinned

In my thoughts and in my words,

In what I have done and what I failed to do

Through my fault,

Through my fault,

Through my most grievous fault.

Therefore, I ask the Blessed Mary, Ever Virgin,

All the Angels and Saints,

And you my brothers and sisters,

To pray for me to the Lord our God.

How often have you prayed this prayer?  Did you even need to read the whole thing?  Or did you just skim through it once you read the first line?

The Confiteor can have that effect when we pray it during Mass, too.  This isn’t surprising, seeing as how we pray it almost every single Sunday.  Zoning out when we recite it, though, is to our detriment because the Confiteor is a beautiful prayer and a wonderful reflection on both our sinful nature and on our relations to others.

‘I Confess’

Confessing our faults to those who were harmed by them is a necessity within our Catholic faith.  Notwithstanding an entire Sacrament dedicated to such an act, the first line of The Confiteor assumes the necessity of explicitly and outwardly seeking forgiveness from those who have been harmed by our sins.  Under ordinary circumstances internally confessing our sins and seeking forgiveness within our heart, while necessary, is not sufficient for true repentance.  We must also at least attempt to externally express our sorrow over the wrongs that we have committed.  The Confiteor serves as both a reminder and an example of that very confession.

‘To Almighty God’

All offenses due to sin begin and end with God, for God is Goodness itself, Justice itself, Perfection itself; thus, anything that is not good, not just, and not perfect is, by definition, not of God.  From the smallest of faults to the greatest of evils, all sins are an affront to God-Who-Is-Love.  Seeking His forgiveness is paramount to a life of holiness.

‘And to you, my brothers and sisters’

Jesus is God.  All sins are offensive to God.  Thus all sins are offensive to Jesus.  The Church (i.e. those who have been baptized and have become followers of Jesus) is part of the Mystical Body of Christ.   Therefore, when one sins against Jesus one necessarily sins against the members of His body.  

It’s easy to see when we directly bring harm to an individual; if I steal from someone, that person has been directly affected by my sin.  Jesus himself has also been offended by my theft.  So far so obvious.  What we often forget, though, is that my stealing from a particular person is also a sin against the entire Body of Christ, for the Body is not separated from the Head.  Thus, I not only sinned against Jesus and the individual, but against every ‘brother and sister’ in existence.  

‘That I have greatly sinned’

This is the heart of the Confiteor: a public confession to God and to the Church that we have sinned against them.  Though the Church no longer requires us to publicly state our specific sins to the multitude, She maintains a remnant of that abandoned practice within this prayer.  Admitting our own faults merely in the silence of our hearts is easy to do and easy to abuse.  Without the 'public' part of public confession it is all too easy to 'inwardly' seek God's forgiveness while, in reality, not doing much of anything to show true anguish and conversion of heart over the harm we have done.  Confessing our sins to the priest alone is sufficient to bring this end about.  But keeping an element of a total public confession can serve to bring about a small measure of shame where we otherwise might be tempted to take our sins too lightly.

‘In my thoughts’

Some of the worst sins that we can commit are those that only God and the sinner are aware of.  Make no mistake: people are harmed by any and all sins; even the ones that take place behind closed doors; even the ones that occur only within our mind.  As said earlier, if sin offends God then it must necessarily offend His Body.  Whether everybody or nobody knows that we committed the sin is irrelevant.  Shining a light on these ‘secret sins’ is, thus, the perfect start for reconciliation and penance.

‘And in my words’

Gossip, slander, detraction, lying, unnecessary arguments: how often per day do we commit these, and other, sins of the tongue?  How often per day do we pray and reflect upon using the gift of speech for God’s purposes?  Sins of the tongue are probably the most common sin that surrounds us in daily life and is, therefore, the sin we are probably the most susceptible to.  There are times where it really is better for us and for others if we just keep our mouths shut.  But when we fail to do so in those cicumstances we must take ownership of that failure, even if everyone else around us fails to see anything wrong with it.

‘In what I have done’

We all know the Ten Commandments; we know the things that we should not do to our God, to our neighbors, and to ourselves.  And yet, due to our selfish ambitions, or self-imposed weak wills, or lack of love, we do them anyway.  Every day, almost without fail, we treat somebody the way we hate being treated, or do to another what would break our hearts if it were done to us.  Judging what is right and wrong is not all that we need to be able to do; we must also be able to act on the very judgment we make.  Knowing the right and wrong thing to do is pointless if we do not act accordingly.

‘And what I have failed to do’

Proper moral action is not merely not doing the things that we should not do, but more so doing the things that we should do.  Feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned, and the like; do we do these things that Jesus explicitly told us we must do if we are to enter the Kingdom of God?  How often do we make the right judgment in our mind (‘I know in this scenario facing me right now that this is what I should do’) and yet freeze when it comes to actually do it?  And why do we freeze?  Usually because of cowardice, anger, hatred, laziness, or jealousy.  Doing this, anything less than what we are called to do, is nothing short of hatred towards God and hatred towards our brothers and sisters.

‘Through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault’

Temptation to sin comes from a variety of sources.  Committing a sin, however, does not; there is only ever one source for actual sin, and that is the self.  Were you too tired to resist temptation?  That’s not an excuse.  Was everyone else around you committing the same sin?  That does not matter.  Blaming other people or circumstances for our own failures keeps us from taking full responsibility for our transgressions.  This is why we repeat 'through my fault' three times: we need it drilled into us that it is, indeed, our fault and no one else’s.  Total self-accountability and repentance is the only response to sin that God will accept, so it is the only response that we should make.  

‘Therefore, I ask the Blessed Mary, Ever-Virgin, All the Angels and Saints,’

We must ask those that are most perfectly united to Christ's Body for their intercessory prayers.  We are told this often enough throughout our Catholic catechesis, but how often do we actually turn to our Blessed Mother?  Do we even remember we have a Guardian Angel?  Have we taken the time to find at least one or two Saints that inspire us to live virtuously and righteously?  There are legions of Saints who love us and want us to join them in the Church Triumphant.  So ask them to pray for you to seek God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Besides Christ, it is their witness that we are called to emulate most, and they will always help us to do that.  

‘And you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord, our God.’

The people that we just admitted we harmed and sinned against are the very same people we now ask for help.  That is how the Body of Christ works: even when one hurts the body, the rest of the body is called to forgive them and help them in Sanctification, as God wills.  There is no room for any other reaction.  We must pray for each other because we must love each other.  

So the next time you pray the Confiteor, do not gloss over it.  Reflect and meditate on each line, so that you may grow at least a little bit more in your love of God and love of neighbor.