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JUNE 17
CONFESSION AND BELONGING
”Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may
be healed.” (James 5:16)
At times, all sorts of things can make ”confession” an unpleasant prospect:
fear, denial, shame, self-isolation, or simply indifference.
But when I do bring myself to reveal, first to myself and then to God and
another, the burden I’ve been carrying around, hiding, denying, insisting
upon and yet resenting – the burden of the misdirection of my will, called
“sin,” – when I bring this out and “con-fess,” I literally “say together with”
God, and the fellowship of my Church, the truth about myself. This truth
sets me free from self-isolation and brings back my sense of belonging.
That is, belonging to God and the rest of humanity. My burden is shared,
when I share it in confession. It is no longer carried on my shoulders
alone. I come home to humility and light and peace.
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