Admitting wrongdoing leads to healing

Visitation hours are flexible at the large teaching hospital in our community.  Late night calls requesting a visit are not a problem; the hospital won’t kick you out and parking spaces are available.  Secrets seem safer to share in the dark.  I do not personally know the person I am visiting.  I will never see her again; this is an attractive option for her because she is dying and has something to confess.

Before she tells me her deep, dark secret she wants to know:

●       Am I able to hear her story without judgment?  Am I able to sit with compassion and empathy without imposing my own values and beliefs on her story?

●       Am I trustworthy?  Am I willing to hold confidentiality unless to do so would harm the person or others? (This involves future harming, not righting past wrongs.)

For whatever reason, God has decided that he wants to share his divine creative work with mere mortals.  He trusts us to act as his hands and feet.  Witnessing a confession is part of the work we are asked to share with God. It is not a therapy session nor is it intended as a pep talk.  It is a sacred time when the confessor holds back absolutely nothing in recounting the exact nature of his or her wrongs.  Not everyone can handle this sort of experience.  Usually it requires that the listener has their own experience with making confessions and receiving grace and mercy from their own listener. 

When we hesitate to confess, we may be missing an opportunity to become a vault for other’s confessions.  Now THAT would be a shame, because sharing our suffering is sacred and deeply healing.

Tempted to shortchange the work of admitting your wrongs?  Please reconsider.  It may be a pathway to your own healing, and your capacity to join God in the work of healing for others.