A joyful Lent iii: confession

In Roland Joffé’s 1986 film The Mission, a mercenary and slaver is converted, and experiences a moment of forgiveness that changes him forever. During his conversion, Rodrigo Mendoza (played by Robert de Niro) asks Jesuit priest Father Gabriel to pronounce his forgiveness. But instead, Gabriel asks him to do a penance. Mendoza packs up all his weapons into a large net, piles them on his back, and sets out to climb a huge cliff face, at the top of which is a Mission, inhabited by Spanish Jesuits and Guaraní who converted to Christianity. Accompanied by a group of Jesuits, Mendoza climbs slowly and painfully, falling several times, after which the younger monks beg Gabriel to end the penance. Gabriel, though, insists that Mendoza completes the penance. As Mendoza reaches the top of the cliff face, hundreds of feet above a deep river, he comes face to face with the Guaraní, who stand there with knives and axes raised. They recognize him as their enemy and slave trader, and for a split second it seems that the Guaraní are poised to take their revenge. Then, one by one, they cut the ropes from his arms, letting the great weight of all his armor and weapons fall away, and pull him up to safety, where amid tears and laughter Mendoza not only discovers his forgiveness by God; he is also forgiven by his former captives, and – at last – able to forgive himself.

The name “Shrove Tuesday” comes from the old English verb “to shrive”; its precise meaning is lost, but it is something like “hear a confession”, and perhaps also “assurance of forgiveness”. We are highly sensitized to the word “sin”; it’s a word that has been abused and over-used, and often carries overtones of judgmental or over-strict religious practices. Yet when we take the time to come face to face with ourselves, we all find places in our own souls where we carry guilt, shame or regret. It is right that we challenge the misuse of words and concepts like “sin” – but that should not keep us from discovering for ourselves the deeply liberating experience of knowing ourselves forgiven by God and by others, and in the process forgiving ourselves.

Making confession is still a practice that many keep – some denominations have a formalized ritual, while others simply listen to, and pray for one another informally. To know, conceptually, that we are forgiven is a good start. But naming our own failings, and then hearing our forgiveness pronounced by a fellow Christian who also knows what it is to fail, can have a profoundly liberating psychological effect. Taking time during Lent to do some spiritual spring-cleaning in this way is a gift we shouldn’t miss; a great weight can roll off our shoulders as we discover joy and laughter in the deep peace of reconciliation.