I went to confession on Saturday. The priest who took my confession was very good. I valued his advice and I wanted to make note of them here and maybe reflect on them more later.
I mentioned how I intellectually understood that my sins were wrong, but I couldn’t understand it in my heart. The priest said that we do things that are good, and there is something deceptively good in sin that attracts us to commit it. This deception is what keeps us going back to sin, even though we know the sin is wrong. It reminded me of the deception the serpent committed to get Adam and Eve to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
I also confessed how I didn’t want to make my blog and YouTube channel public to my friends and colleagues because I did not want to be persecuted. I wasn’t afraid of losing friends, but I was afraid of people not liking me. The priest advised that there are great blessings in being persecuted when it is united with Christ. At that moment, I felt that I needed to make KeenforGod public as soon as possible. I was reminded of something Peter Kreeft once wrote about living the Christian life, “If you’re not being persecuted, then you’re not doing it right.”
My penance was to reflect on the Passion of Christ and the persecution he suffered.