John 6:53-56 and James 5:16
"O Lord, the depths of man's conscience lie bare before your eyes. Could anything of mine remain hidden from you, even if I refused to confess it? I should only be shielding my eyes from seeing you, not hiding myself from you. But now that I have the evidence of my own misery to prove to me how displeasing I am to myself, you are my light and my joy. It is you whom I love and desire, so that I am ashamed of myself and cast myself aside and choose you instead, and I please neither you nor myself except in you.
So, O Lord, all that I am is laid bare before you. I have declared how it profits me to confess to you. And I make my confession, not in words and sounds made by the tongue alone, but with the voice of my soul and in my thoughts which cry aloud to you. Your ear can hear them. For when I am sinful, if I am displeased with myself, this is a confession that I make to you and when I am good, if I do not claim the merit for myself, this too is confession. For you, O Lord, give your benediction to the just, but first you make a just man of the sinner. And so my confession is made both silently in your sight, my God, and aloud as well, because even though my tongue utters no sound, my heart cries to you. For whatever good I may speak to men you have heard it before in my heart, and whatever good you hear in my heart, you have first spoken to me yourself." [ St. Augustine, Book X, 2.]
I'm sure that by now, you've heard lots of misunderstandings that the Catholic Church approves of the iPhone Confession app. Now, firstly I must state that I do not own an iPhone... so I have not seen or tried the app on the iPhone myself. My engagement with it is redundant. The first I'd heard about the app was on twitter, but didn't really investigate... until I overheard something on TV that immediately caught my attention.
My grandmother watches a lot of rubbish on TV. One of these things is the Loose Women chat show on ITV. I mostly ignore what is on the show, except one day last week, I could not ignore what was going on in the show because these 'loose women' (whatever that is meant to mean) were talking about confessions. This is a kind of summary of their discussions:
1. "With this app you can confess directly to God without the need of going through a priest."
2. "Offloading your own guilt onto someone else (a friend) is selfish!"
3. "If you had an affair with someone and got away with it, why would you want to upset your partner by confessing?"
4. "You should take responsibility of your own actions and live with it (I guess with this they meant the guilt)."
Wow. And I mean... wow. The thoughts of these women sadden me, and the women themselves are in need of intercessory prayer. They spoke with very wordly minds, and no traceable attempt to understand what this special sacrament of confession is all about. Remember that I watched this conversation on TV before I investigated this app. So they lead me to believe that this app gives you absolution for your sins. I was shocked, because they lead me to believe that using this app, one would no longer need to go through a priest to be forgiven, or even to confess in the first place, and that you pretty much just key it into the phone for everyone to see.
It is not my place to judge, so I will only say a couple of things about points 2-4 that the loose women made. Jesus didn't sacrifice himself on a cross so that we could feel that offloading our guilt onto Him would be selfish! He became Incarnate to SAVE us from that guilt! I don't think that loving and trusting in our Lord Jesus is selfish... in fact, it is a self-less thing to do as St. Augustine does; 'cast ourselves aside and choose God instead'.
That same day, @KoreUK messaged me a link to someone's argument which claims that the Catholic Church approves of the 'confession app', which he/she even fails to prove. Follow the link, and you will read that the Catholic Church neither approves or disapproves, but says it is a good tool for examining the conscience before a confession is made. It also refers back to Pope Benedict XVI's World Day of Communication message last month where PBXVI says that although we should embrace the digital world in order to communicate the Gospel message, he does also say that this medium cannot replace personal and human relationships. In this BBC report on the confession app, a radio interview with the developer explains that the app was created to help Catholics PREPARE for the sacrament of Reconciliation. So for example, the examination of conscience (which I always need help with, and use a sheet of printed paper for this) would help people to reflect on many sins since their last confession. The app also takes the user through the sacrament that they will receive when they are in the confessional, for example what to say when you enter, the act of contrition, and maybe some points that happen in between. It is not intended to become a substitute for the sacrament according to the interview! I do not believe that the app would claim or pretend to absolve you from sin, but there is a great danger that someone with little faith (like a lapsed Catholic) who perhaps does not fully understand or grasp the sanctity of this sacrament may think that the app is good enough at helping them confess directly to God, therefore bypassing the need to confess to a priest.
May I just bring you back to James 5:16. "The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective". At the last talk, Sudhir emphasised the need to sustain ourselves in prayer. We are made up of body, soul and spirit. So where we might be so used to thinking our spirit might be the only part of us that needs sustenance in prayer, that is indeed not true. Our sinful souls are also in need of prayer, meaning everyone else is also in need of prayer for their sinful souls. 'For the sake of His sorrowful passion, have mercy on us and on the whole world'. We must love one another as we love ourselves. So we do unto others as we do unto ourselves too... including praying for each others' sins. Replace the word 'me' with 'us', 'my' with 'our', 'I' with 'we', and pray with me...
Psalm 51:1-17
Have mercy on me, O God, according to thy steadfast love;
according to thy abundant mercy blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only, have I sinned,
and done that which is evil in thy sight,
so that thou art justified in thy sentence
and blameless in thy judgment.
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward being;
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me,
and I shall be whiter than snow.
Fill me with joy and gladness;
let the bones which thou hast broken rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and put a new and right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of thy salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Then I will teach transgressors thy ways,
and sinners will return to thee.
Deliver me from bloodguiltiness,
O God, thou God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of thy deliverance.
O Lord, open thou my lips,
and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.
For thou hast no delight in sacrifice;
were I to give a burnt offering, thou wouldst not be pleased.
The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.
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