Confessions

The sacrament of confession is pretty close to my heart. When I start feeling lousy, my mood becomes sour; I become agitated easily, I know its time for confession.

In essence, I really do feel sin weighing me down.

In the past, I always assumed these feelings were part and parcel of life, and had no link to the sins I was committing. Only in recent times, as I started to rediscover my faith, I realized that those feelings were becoming more pronounced. I became more aware of both my emotions and my wrongdoings.

But still, I didn’t draw the link about sin and feeling shitty.

But as God would have it, I kind of stumbled onto the most incredible confession of my life. And let me tell you that since then, all the confessions have been great!

It had been sometime since my last confession, and I was feeling shitty. The time came for confession (probably because a day of obligation was drawing near), and so I went. As mentioned earlier, the nuances of my sinning were becoming more pronounced. During that confession, as I was being absolved of my sin, I could feel “power” coming over me. I could literally feel my shitty self actually turn happy. I tried to rationalize the process of my change of emotions. I couldn’t.

The only thing that I could conclude from that episode is that sin weighing the physical and emotional self is very real. Confession has become a remedy of sorts for me whenever I start to feel really shitty. A hundred percent of the time, the shittiness I feel results from the weight of sin.

So, when you feel troubled or weighed down, go for confession! I can certainly tell you that the feeling of absolution is truly incredible!

Raphael

Have faith, wheel you?

Have you ever changed a car tire? I never did, until a few days back…

My man points are gonna go through the roof after I’m done with this, I thought to myself in amusement.

After a 30 odd minutes of looking lost and mildly confused (we had to get our female friend to teach us how to change the tire), acquiring blackened hands and a sweat drenched face and ending up with wet toms with a tiny hole caused by all the jumping on the bolt loosener (don’t ask) – we were finally done.

I would liken the above experience to each of our faith journeys. We start off in a car, taking it for granted as it drives us through life – the faith passed down by parents, catechism classes, helping out in church ministry. Then one day when we least expect it, the wheel punctures, and the car stops. It could be a personal crisis, it could be an unanswered prayer, it could even be a sudden realization that everything that we were taught does not make sense anymore.

What do we do then?

Do we absolve ourselves of all responsibility and sit in the stationary car, finding fault with the car manufacturer without doing so much as to lift a finger ourselves? Or do we roll up our sleeves and check to find out what’s wrong, ask for help if we need to, and then actually get down to changing the tire?

Contrary to our belief at that point in time – the tire can be changed. Starting with our efforts. With discipline and hard work. Without excuses and compromise. Time passes, and we eventually emerge victorious – tired but happy. Strangely content even. Stronger. Convicted. Secure.

You are called to be a man of faith. How will you respond?

– Soo