Confession 11
July 14, 2009
Here is the presence of Almighty God, I kneel in silence, and with penitent and obedient heart confess my sins, so that I may obtain forgiveness by your infinite goodness and mercy. The Book of Common Prayer.
The ever-ready-to-be vulnerable, Henri Nouwen, has this incidence to tell to help us reflect on confession:
This morning I had a pleasant discussion with David Molineau, the new director of Noticias Aliadas (Latin American Press). I mentioned to David how impressed I had been with the way the Peruvian people express their faith, their gratitude, their care, their hopes, and their love. I told him that it might be a special task for me to give words to much of the spiritual richness that I say, but of which the people themselves are hardly aware. David agreed, but added: “Living with the poor not only makes you see the good more clearly, but the evil as well.” He told me some stories from his own experience in a Peruvian parish, and illustrated the truth that in a world of poverty, the lines between darkness and light, good and evil, destructiveness and creativity, are much more distinct than in a world of wealth. [Do you agree with Nouwen's assessment?]
One of the temptations of the upper-middle-class [I might also add that this is true today for all classes of people] is to create large gray areas between good and evil. Wealth takes away the sharp edges of our moral sensitivities and allows a comfortable confusion about sin and virtue. The difference between rich and poor is not that the rich sin more than the poor, but that the rich find it easier to call sin a virtue [For example, destructive ambition to get to the top no matter who gets hurt in the process]. When the poor sin, they call it a sin; when they see holiness, they identify it as such. This intuitive clarity is often absent from the wealthy, and that absence easily leads to the atrophy of the moral sense [Note the connection between the lack of moral sense and wealth Nouwen makes].
David helped me see that living with the poor does not keep me away from evil, but it does allow me to see evil in the sharper, clearer ways. It does not lead me automatically to the good either, but will help me see good in a brighter light, less hidden and more convincing. Once I can see sin, and virtue with this clarity, I will also see sadness and joy, hatred and forgiveness, resentment and gratitude in less nebulous ways. From Gracias.
Could it be, just could it be, that the total absence of confession and moral sensitivity and sense) in our churches today is tied to our affluence? I have a suspicion that it is. What do you think?
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