Perseverance

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation Jesus gives us strength to resist temptation in the future.  That does not mean, of course, that when we have made our Confession, we shall not sin again.  We make up our minds to turn over a new leaf, but the time will come when we give way to temptation.  But we must not get depressed and think, “There!  I might just as well not have gone to Confession at all for all the good it has done me”.  Our first purpose in going to Confession is to have our past sins cleared away and to get forgiveness for them.

The garden of the soul

We must remember that it takes much time and patience and perseverance to master those sins which we seem to commit so easily.  We can compare the soul to a garden which grows both flowers and weeds, virtues and sins.  Going to Confession is like hoeing out all the weeds.  We know they will come up again, but we also know that if we keep on hoeing regularly they will gradually become weaker and weaker and fewer and fewer.  We are not surprised or depressed if the same weeds keep coming up.  What would be depressing would be if new and different weeds appeared every time!  We just keep the hoe going, and are careful not to allow the weeds to get too many or too thick before dealing with them, otherwise the flowers will not have a chance.

So with our souls.  We go regularly to Confession so that Our Lord can hoe out our sins and give the virtues a chance to grow – virtues like truthfulness, honesty, purity, kindness, patience, generosity, good temper and a readiness to forgive.  And gradually we find that the flowers will be overtaking the weeds, and those sins which we once committed so easily and which were so hard to fight against, will hardly appear.