I did some bonsai maintenance last week. Bonsai, translated from Japanese, means "planted in a container", and it's the art of growing miniature trees. The trees can be very mature in age but remain miniature as they remain confined to the pot. Getting this right requires treating it like any tree except that you also prune and maintain the root system to not grow out of control as a tree in the ground would do and sometimes become destructive. The art of creating beautiful designs and shapes comes from trimming the roots, which allows new growth in the tree that would not have otherwise been possible.
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| Trimming the roots of a young bonsai, February 2023 |
Many people may find the art of growing bonsai unorthodox and far removed from reality. Still, it has been around for thousands of years. Catholics' practice of confession is very much the same. Many Christians think confessing your sins to a priest is something made up and frankly quite strange. The most common question on this topic is, "Why do you confess your sins to a priest when you could simply confess your sins directly to God?"
So let's begin firstly by indicating what precisely the sacrament is all about. The sacrament goes under a few names, including:
a. The sacrament of conversion - the parable of the prodigal son is told by Our Lord to help us realise the lengths He is willing to go to save us from our sins. The parable is a story of conversion. The son who took his father's inheritance squandered it, lost it all, and then hit rock bottom before reaching a conversion point. He then came running home, willing to be his father's least employee and in that act of coming home, he found his father waiting to forgive and love him. God waits for us in the sacrament of conversion to touch our hearts with love. This sacrament makes Our Lord's call to conversion alive for all of us who repeatedly stray away by even the most minor sin.
b. The sacrament of penance - the word penance is derived from the Latin verb "paenitere" which means to "be sorry". When we offend or hurt someone, and we are aware of it, a natural reaction of our conscience is to say I am genuinely sorry. The healing part of the process begins before we have even said sorry because our conscience starts to recognise that our actions have offended someone close to us. In the sacrament of penance, the decision to humble yourself before God in the confessional is the foundation on which God can make our intention holy and forgive us for our wrongdoing. He loves us by enabling us to get up and begin again.
c. The sacrament of confession - recalling the story of King David, a man very close to God. One day looking over the city saw a beautiful woman bathing in the distance, which sparked a desire to be with her. She was married to a man who served in his army called Uriah, and he committed adultery with her, and she told him she had conceived a child. He then thought of a devious plan to ensure her husband Uriah was killed in battle by placing him on the battlefield where he would surely die. King David then took Uriah's wife as his own, and she bore him a son. God was not pleased with what he did and sent Nathan a messenger to help David recognise his wrongdoing. When he realised it, he fell to the ground, fasting, praying and asking for forgiveness, and Nathan said God would take his son's life. It took a righteous man close to God to help David see right from wrong and help bring David back to God.
An essential element of the sacrament of confession is to disclose our sin to a priest, and in confessing, we declare the holiness of God. David only truly repented when he acknowledged his wrong before a man close to God. If he were to admit in the quiet of his soul, his lust might have gotten the better of him, and he could have continued to take other men's wives as his own. The disclosure of his sin with Nathan broke the sinful silence of his conscience, and confessing directly to God is not enough for our sins to be forgiven. You may rightly ask why? We are weak because of sin, and the temptation is far too high to think that telling God makes it all perfect. However, inside, where no one else sees, we secretly convince ourselves that our sins are minor and not harmful. The danger is the devil will attack us and trap us there if we reject shedding the light of truth on our darkness. We will never truly experience the healing of confession. We need to grow in humility to recognise the healing power of confession.
d. The sacrament of forgiveness - growing bonsais require constant uprooting of the tree to avoid the roots becoming pot-bound. The roots need to be cut back to allow new growth, and new soil needs to be added to stimulate growth in the confines of a restricted pot. Over time, if you never care for the bonsai, the tree will grow, while the roots will become twisted and intertwined, fighting for every ounce of nutrients they can find in what remains of the good soil. Eventually, the years of twisting roots can starve the tree of life, and it will slowly fade. Removing the priest out of confession is like never caring for a bonsai.
The priest is like us in that he is also a sinner. However, he is different in that he is God's instrument and receives the grace from God to do the pruning of the spiritual roots helping us let go of excess baggage and gently finding the rotting roots that need trimming. As an instrument, God gives him the sacramental power to absolve us from sin and restore peace in our souls. It is the Holy Spirit at work and soon fills us with new soil packed with rich nutrients to grow new branches we would have never been able to attain without pruning those deep-seated roots of sin.
e. The sacrament of reconciliation - recalling the story of the blind man brought to Jesus to be healed. Jesus spat on his eyes and laid his hands on him. At first, the man could see only people that looked like trees in the distance. Jesus again laid his hands upon his eyes, and he regained his full sight. This account is an act of true love. For those of us with weak eyesight, glasses are magic to help us see the finest details we would otherwise have missed. Now for the blind man, not even glasses would let him see the world clearly. At first, when he encountered Jesus, he could not even see his face, be touched by his gentle smile, meet the gaze of his eyes, or see the colour of his hair. All he had was the ability to hear his tender words and feel the spit penetrate his eyes and his hands pour forth its healing power. In the sacrament of reconciliation, the sinner is imparted with the love of God.
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| After root trimming, February 2023 |
God chose a human instrument to heal the blind man. Our Lord could have spoken words of forgiveness in the silence of his heart to heal the blind man. However, he chose to heal him visibly and outwardly using something very human, spit. God desires a human instrument called a priest to be the spit that penetrates our eyes. He uses the priest's hands to touch us spiritually through the action of the Holy Spirit and make us spiritually clean. The fact that the man never regained his sight immediately is not because Our Lord's miracle was somehow faulty but because the sacrament of reconciliation is lifelong. We often go to confession because to help us regain our sight, it is an act of beginning again and again.
A bonsai is confined to a small pot and requires regular pruning of the roots to help it grow into a beautiful work of art. Confession trims us from within our hearts, mind and soul to illuminate the darkness of our own blindness casting light on our souls so we can see more clearly.
Some will argue that this explanation doesn't cut it, and they want biblical proof? Well, first, we must remember the Bible is not a manual that gives us a blueprint for how everything is done. For more than 2,000 years and through the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the bishops of the Church have interpreted the Word as per its historical context. Many references could be quoted, but here is one for some food for thought: "Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects." (James 5:16)
"The bonsai is not you working on the tree; you have to have the tree work on you" (John Naka)
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