Five reasons we should bring Mary with us into the Confessional

One of my favorite scenes from The Chosen is when Mary Magdalene, after having a moral relapse and falling back into sin, is led by Mary the mother of Jesus into Jesus' tent for 'confession'. Mary Magdalene had to come to terms with the feeling of guilt and shame of the sinner who already knows Jesus and who has once again let him down.  "He already fixed me once, and I broke again. I can't face Him". In an act of surrender, she goes on to say, “I do have faith in Him, but not in me". 

She decides to go to Jesus to ask forgiveness. When she returns to the Apostles' camp, Mary the Mother of Jesus is the first to greet her with a hug. Mother Mary then reaches out to cover Mary Magdalene's head with her veil as if to gently encourage her to be modest. In a very Catholic scene, it is Mother Mary who takes the sinner back to Jesus for what turns out to be a kind of Sacrament of Confession scene. Mary stays with her in the tent (Confessional) keeping her hand on her shoulder like a Confirmation sponsor. After Jesus hears her confession he forgives and embraces Mary Magdalene. To which Mother Mary smiles and gives an approving nod. 

Some people find it hard to establish a spiritual bond with Mary because they figure that she is so holy and so pure that she could not relate to them in their sin and in their guilt. Though we may feel shame, we must remember that Mary loves with a mother’s heart and she loves what we might consider the 'unloveable ‘ Sometimes we feel as though we are the type of sinners’ only a mother can love’. Here are five reasons we should bring Mary with us into the confessional. 

1. Mary Lost Jesus Too

Mary has great empathy for those who have lost sanctifying grace through mortal sin and consequently have lost their connection to Jesus. Mary, though sinless, understands what it is like to lose contact with Jesus. She was the one who suffered through the loss of Jesus when he was a child. When we say ‘Jesus was lost for three days’ we don’t mean that Jesus didn’t know where he was. What we mean is that the mother and father of Jesus were in a state of panic and disillusionment. The one thing Jesus's parents had in common with the prodigal son and all sinners in this fallen world, it was they who were lost. How they must have been tempted to think that 'he was lost forever' which is every parent’s worst nightmare. If Mary felt that way then, out of sheer empathy, she must also feel obligated to help those who have lost Jesus and who are themselves lost in sin.  

2. She's Our Advocate Before Accusations of Guilt

In the Hail Mary we implore Mary to intercede on our behalf, to be our advocate before the judgment of God ‘now and at the hour of our death’. When we confess our sins aloud before the priest in the confessional, we are robbing the Accuser, the devil, to convict us of our guilt before God at our particular judgment. He cannot accuse us of sins which we have accused ourselves of in the sacrament because those sins are absolved and forgotten by God. Mary, is there at our judgment to be our advocate, our attorney if you will. She carries out the role opposite of Satan, as she pleads for mercy from the Just Judge on our behalf. She does this in both our judgement at the hour of our death and in the confessional now in this life before death. 

3. The Annunciation and the 'Yes' in Confession

Mary is the model of saying yes to God and saying no to sin. In her great ‘Yes’ to God at the annunciation event, Mary not only shows her own virtue and immaculate grace but she also opens the door to our salvation. Unlike Eve who rejected God’s commands and did her own thing, Mary, the New Eve unties the knot of Eve’s disobedience. In her humility, Mary was happy to be behind the scenes and loved to be obedient to God. Many times when we sin it is due to the pride in our hearts and the need to assert our own will over everything else. Like all Saints, Mary provides the antidote to sin in her example. When tempted to sins of pride Mary showed humility. She resisted sins for power in her meekness,sins of pleasure in her sorrowfulness and sins of greed in her embrace of detachment and poverty. In Confession we are saying no to sin but more importantly, we are saying 'Yes' to Divine Life, aka 'sanctifying grace'.

4. The Wedding at Cana and Mary's Vigilance at our Confession

Mary is our good mother and the woman at Cana who knows our problems and understands our shortcomings often before we do. At Cana, Mary in her maternal vigilance, noticed the details and foresaw the obstacle. She sought out to thwart any evil attack on the wedding party and the newlyweds in order to cut it off before it had a chance to bring about shame and embarrassment. Similarly, when we are tempted to sin she flies to our aid and eagerly awaits our request for her help. For, she already knows our weaknesses and where we are likely to run out of virtue. Even after we fall, she simply takes our sin problem to Jesus and through grace we are led back to Confession. Once in the confessional, Mary’s admonition echoes in our hearts as we hear her say to us,  ‘Do whatever he tells you”. Listen to your conscience and make a good confession. Then do what the priest tells you to do for penance and for advice on resolving to sin no more.

5. Marian Apparitions, the Message of Peace and the Sacrament of Confession

Mary, in her many apparitions, constantly calls for conversion, penance, peace, and reparation for sins. On the first Easter night when Jesus appeared to the apostles he greeted them, ‘Peace be with you’. He then breathed on them and said, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you forgive are forgiven and whose sins you retain are retained’. Some describe this as a mini-Pentecost. We know that this is where Jesus instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession). He gave the priesthood the power to forgive sins and to pass on his peace into their hearts. Mary, who was at the Pentecost event and was filled with the Holy Spirit, also echoes the message of peace. Her message at Fatima and Lourdes and other apparitions follows the pattern of a call to conversion and repentance for the sake of peace in the individual and in the world as a whole. She often reminds us of the gravity of sin by saying that it offends Jesus very much. She offers a way to make reparation (to repair the damage of sin) through devotions such as the rosary. Her mission mirrors the sacrament of Reconciliation which is to get us to have a mindset of the gravity of sin, the need for reparation for sins (our own and those of others) and the hope of peace.

Prayer before Confession to the Blessed Virgin Mary

O most gracious Virgin Mary, beloved Mother of Jesus Christ my Redeemer, intercede for me with Him. Sinless advocate, accompany me to the fount of Mercy and obtain for me the full remission of my sins, and perfect amendment of life, for the salvation of my soul, and the glory of His Name. Amen.