FOREWORD

1. INTRODUCTION: WHY CONSIDER CONFESSION?

Sometimes it is a relief to get things 'off our chests'. Things we have done lie like a burden. Memory often makes us ashamed. We are glad to confess. Others do not see it this way. They feel that confession is a weakness. They find it childish and humiliating. Some have a theology that confession is 'crawling to God and man'. They have their reasons, no doubt, for thinking this way.

Others see grace as so magnificent that man never needs to confess anything. 'God has forgiven all,' they say. 'Why then recycle your sins?' Of course there is truth in this statement. God has forgiven our sins. Even so we are often stuffed up with them in practice, and we want to have the comfort of confession. It will not be denied us.

However there are those who 'crawl to God'. Having confessed - almost as a ritual - they are, nevertheless, not free. Confession has done them no good. No matter how much they seem to repent or confess they are little, if any better off. There must be something wrong in their understanding or practice (or both) of confession.

The fact is that there is more to confession than simply acknowledging our sins. Some seek to give respect to confession by making it part of penance. Others are more easy. It is as though confession clears the current accounts they have with God. It is almost an accounting transaction! Obviously these are defective views of confession. There must be more to it than that......