Confession Face to Face

I was in line at the confessional last week or so. I was towards the end of the line, and the priest had already begun hearing confessions. Another priest then came and directed some of us to another room where he would also be hearing confessions. So I go, and so do a few others. We realize that his confessions will be face to face, and not behind a veil. This isn't a problem for me, and never has been. It seemed to be a problem for the lady behind me. Now, it's usually bad manners to chit chat while in line for confession, since that's a time to prepare and meditate upon our sins, but apparently she didn't get the memo. "Oh dear," she says to me, "he's doing face to face. That makes me nervous."

"It shouldn't." I tell her. 

"But he will know who I am." 

"That's right. And when you die, and you see God in the face, God will know who you are and what all your sins were, and you will have nothing to hide your face with. If you cannot see God's representative in the face, you probably won't do well on the day of your judgment. It's a good exercise in humility." 

"Oh...that makes sense." 

I can see why she might like the anonymity of a veil within the confessional. It discourages repentance, as anonymity on the internet entices us to be vile without accountability, so can anonymity in the confessional make us feel free to continue in our sins. In the confessional, whom are we accountable to? Certainly not the the priest, as he cannot work upon the knowledge he gained during confession. But it is to who the priest represents, in persona Christi, which is Christ Himself. And to Him, the all knowing God, are we ultimately held accountable. I tend to hear the "He might know who I am" reason often given to not going to the face to face confessions. This is only something to fear if you probably intend on persevering in your sins or if you are afraid the priest will betray the seal of confession. Both are irrational. 

If you prefer the veil because you think it makes you more humble or something, by all means, go for it. But don't reject face to face confessions for these bad reasons. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Milo

Image
So I decided to go see Milo Yiannopoulos at UCSB yesterday. I was really hesitant to do so, and decided not to go, but a few of my friends wanted to go, and they're all losers who don't drive, so, I had to take everyone. I didn't know much about Milo, and I still don't, but I did learn some things. In some of the more, ahem, colorfully conservative pages of facebook that I follow, Milo has been something of an iconoclast, destroying the feminist narratives left and right. But I also know that he is an active homosexual and he is a rabid Trump supporter (even calling him "Daddy"). So, for those reasons, I was never interested in what he had to say. He was, to take a phrase from Lenin, a useful idiot. That was my impression. But I was wrong. A few days before the event, I had read somewhere on these pages I follow but wont name, that Milo believed himself to be a Christian, and a Catholic at that. I dismissed this immediately, and my opinion of him stoppe...
Read more

What Does The Bible Say About Birth Control?

From the early church up to 1930, virtually every church believed contraception was a sin. That fact alone should have us induce that contraception is in fact a sin. Yet, there are many Christians today, even in my own congregation, that will never entertain the possibility of contraception being a sin.
Read more

Is Canon 28 Binding?

In my previous post , I discussed Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon (you'll find the full text of the canon there). But I should have put an asterisk on the conversation because Canon 28 isn't properly part of the council. You'll remember from an earlier post , that what makes a council ecumenical is ratification from the Roman Pontiff. Canons are part of councils. And naturally, canons also have to be ratified. However, Canon 28 was not ratified by Pope Leo (Roman Pontiff at the time). So Canon 28 isn't part of the council and thus isn't binding.  If you are Orthodox, this may sound too convenient. I've already suggested why Roman Ratification is the correct theory in the previous link. However, I want to add two things. First, even Saints in the East agree with the Roman position, and second, a case can be made for Canon 28 not being problematic for Catholicism.  First, there are the sayings of Pope St. Gelasius (about 490 AD), and Pope St. Gelasius is...
Read more