Today's Scripture Reading (August 17, 2025): Psalm 32
Recently, a
colleague phoned me, and during the conversation about a completely different
situation, he confessed to a sin that he had committed during the week. In this
case, it was a case of road rage, some possible sign language that might have
been used, and words that may or may not have been yelled out of the window of
his car. Inside, as I received the confession, I smiled. I don't know of many
of us who are immune to this kind of reaction, especially when we are under
stress. I remember cutting someone off in traffic many years ago, and the guy
in the car I cut off looked like he might be ready to put a new sunroof in his
car (in other words, he was furious). I pulled over, rolled my window down, and
apologized for my actions in traffic. The poor guy in the other car had no idea
what to do with my apology. You could almost visibly see his confusion. He
finally mumbled something, smiled at me, and drove off.
I gave my
friend his penance, three Hail Marys, an Our Father, and a Glory Be, and then
sent him on his way. Actually, I don't come from a tradition that stresses
confession as portrayed in the movies, even though the Bible emphasizes the
benefits of confession in several places. The author of Proverbs writes, "Whoever
conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and
renounces them finds mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). It is good to confess our
sins to someone we can trust, and it is strengthening for the Christian
Community in general. We are not perfect; we all do things that we wish we hadn't
done. Road rage is not just a problem for some of us, but for the majority of
us. We have all been tempted to act in a way that is expedient rather than
true. We all carry a weight of guilt because of the things that we have done.
Some of this guilt is based on our sin, and some is based on our expectations,
which are much higher than God's. However, if we never confess our sin, we will
never know which is which.
David comments
that when he was silent, his bones wasted away as he groaned all day long. It
is an admission that, for a time, David had refrained from his practice of
confession. The result of his lack of confession was that guilt built and began
to have a real effect on his life. As we read this, and if we are honest with
ourselves, I think we can all respond that we know exactly what that feels
like. We have all gone through times when the guilt has built up on us until we
were ready to explode.
David knows
that the solution to all of this weight is easy. And he has given us a gift. David
not only admits his sin, but he writes it down so we can all read about his
sin. David confessed to God and the High Priest, but in a very real way, he
also confessed his sin to all of us through the Psalms that he wrote and have been
passed down through the generations. I am not advocating that we follow David's
example of confession, or even that we need to confess to a priest. But we need
to find someone to whom we can confess our sins before the weight of the sin ends
up crushing us as well.
Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Psalm 33
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