e God,
unless he has greater respect for the priest than he has for the
Almighty God--an absurdity we cannot believe. Moreover, the shame you
experience in telling your sins is a kind of penance for them. Do you
not suppose Our Lord knew, when He instituted the Sacrament of Penance,
that people would be ashamed to confess? Certainly He did; and that act
of humility is pleasing to God, and is a kind of punishment for your
sins, and probably takes away some of the punishment you would have to
suffer for them. Often, too, the thought of having to confess will keep
you from committing the sin. There is another thought that should
encourage us to gladly make a full confession of all our sins, and it is
this: it is easier to tell them to the priest alone than to have them
exposed, unforgiven, before the whole world on the Day of Judgment. Do
not imagine that your confessor will think less of you on account of
your sins. The confessor does not think of your sins after he leaves the
confessional. How could he remember all the confessions he hears--often
hundreds in a single month? And what is more--he does not even wish to
recall the sinful things heard in the confessional, because he wishes to
keep his own mind pure, and his soul free from every stain. The priest
is always better pleased to hear the confession of a great sinner or of
one who has been a long time from the Sacraments, than of one who goes
frequently or who has little to tell. He is not glad, of course, that
the sinner has committed great sins, but he is glad that since he has
had the misfortune to sin so much, he has now the grace and courage to
seek forgiveness. Our Lord once said (Luke 15:7) while preaching, that
the angels and saints in Heaven rejoice more at seeing one sinner doing
penance than they do over ninety-nine good persons who did not need to
do penance. The greater the danger to which a person has been exposed,
the more thankful he and his friends are for escape or recovery from it.
If your brother fell into the ocean and was rescued just as he was going
down for the last time, you would feel more grateful than if he was
rescued from some little pond into which he had slipped, and in which
there was scarcely any danger of his being drowned. So, also, the nearer
we are to losing our, souls and going to Hell, the more delighted the
angels and saints are when we are saved. One who has escaped great
danger will more carefully avoid similar accidents in t