Confession liberates our soul

Confession liberates our soul 
Marie Brousseau 
May 30, 2026 
 
Many years ago, my father, who was not a believer despite being a baptized Catholic, was talking about how people feel better after going to the sacrament of confession. He compared it to having a weight lifted off their shoulders. I was rather impressed by his analogy, given that he had always proclaimed disdain for kneeling to “another man” (a priest) and disclosing one’s imperfections. Apparently, he had come to appreciate that confession was indeed good for one’s soul.  
 
There are people who view confession negatively. They either regard a priest as just a regular person rather than as the alter Christus (other Christ) that they are, or they are unaware of their own faults and shortcomings, and rather blind to their own sinful actions and have “nothing” to confess. When I was much younger, I was very uncomfortable with the sacrament of reconciliation (confession). While I understood that the priest possessed the indelible seal of ordination and stood in for Christ (in persona Christi), and that he was able to forgive sins in Jesus’ name, I lacked the maturity to leave my ego at the door when I entered the confessional. It was only in my forties that I finally fully embraced the wondrous grace that the sacrament of reconciliation bestows on the penitent.  
 
As Catholics, we reconcile ourselves with God through the action of repenting of our transgressions and asking Him for forgiveness sacramentally; this sacrament of penance restores the bond which was damaged when we turned away from God’s commandments. Now, given that we all fall short of perfection, the Catholic Church recommends confessing our sins at least once a year. Sins are to be confessed to a priest, which is based on the words of Jesus which he imparted after the resurrection, when he told his disciples to “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld” (John 20: 22-23). The seal of confession to a priest is absolute. We can rest assured that the priest is standing in for Christ and will never betray us. 
 
For those who are perhaps hesitating to approach the confessional, or who are unaware of how to begin the journey to reconciling oneself to God, here are a few steps which may help.  
 
To begin, we must be aware of our imperfections and transgressions to be able to confess them. A good start is to ponder on the Ten Commandments of God, which can be found in the Bible, in the Old Testament (Exodus and Deuteronomy). Nowadays, one can find just about any information online, so finding comprehensive descriptions of the Ten Commandments is relatively easy.  
 
To make a good confession, we must examine our conscience based on each of the commandments: 
 
Thou shalt have no other Gods before me. 
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images. ... 
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. ... 
Remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy. ... 
Honor thy father and mother. ... 
Thou shalt not kill. ... 
Thou shalt not commit adultery. ... 
Thou shalt not steal… 
Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor 
Thou shalt not covet…. 
 
In its most rudimentary form, we are commanded to not kill, steal, lie, swear or commit adultery. Most of us already follow these rules in a broad sense. However, each commandment covers many situations of related actions. For example, while a person may not explicitly kill someone, unjustified physical assault is a sinful behavior. In fact, the commandment of not killing anyone includes a rather wide range of sins. We are called to love one another, not to hurt one another. 
 
We are all guilty on some level of selfishness, petty jealousies, so-called little white lies, gossip, uncharitable thoughts, unchaste actions or thoughts, impatience, unjustified anger, etc. No one is perfect. Yet, many Catholics hardly ever go to confession; they attend Sunday Mass and receive communion every week, year in and year out, thinking they are fine since they did not kill or steal. If we claim that we are sinless and do not need to confess our sins, we are effectively denying the veracity of Jesus’ mandate to “Be perfect, as your heavenly father is perfect” (Mathew 5:48). 
 
Sins vary in degrees of gravity. Grave sin, also known as mortal sin, are very serious transgressions, such as sacrilege, blasphemy, murder, adultery, and the like. These sins must be confessed to a priest as soon as possible for fear of jeopardizing our immortal soul, and until it is confessed, we should not receive communion under such circumstances. This is because mortal sin turns us away from God. We must repair this brokenness as soon as possible. But what about the other kind of sin? The ones that are named “venial sins,” meaning those of a less serious matter. Should we dismiss them as being unimportant? If we do, we will not grow in perfection. We will become complacent and less aware of the pitfalls of sin as the years go by. 
 
There exist many well-written guides on Catholic websites on preparing oneself for confession. They help us to examine our conscience by taking us step-by-step through each of the commandments in a spirit of truth and of fostering a real intention of living our lives in communion with God. A certain amount of self-awareness and honesty is needed to admit to ourselves that we are not perfect and that we are in need of preparing our soul for eventual union with our Creator. 
 
In closing, there is no need to fear admitting our failings; we can all take a few minutes every night, before falling asleep, to think about the day that has ended and ask God’s forgiveness for any wrong we may have done. No one is perfect. There is always something we could have done better. God is omniscient; he knows everything anyway. So why bother lying to ourselves? Much better to accept and admit our shortcomings and try to grow in perfection. I would thus encourage everyone to consider making an examination of conscience, confess their sins, and always be prepared to receive communion in a state of grace.         

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