Eating My Spiritual Vegetables - New Evangelizers

This week, I had an encounter with Jesus I wasn’t expecting, but that I should have seen coming.

I made an appointment for confession and spiritual direction, and I arranged to have it at my house. It shouldn’t have surprised me, therefore, that Jesus showed up. (Not that he wasn’t there all along, mind you.)

I knew it was time for confession: all the signs were there. I was getting irritable about people and events that were silly, I was slipping with a few of my habits, and I was walking around in an increasing fog of spiritual ick.

As I sat there, across from a man who’s been with me since the beginning of my Catholic journey, I suddenly saw a smile in his eyes that hadn’t been there before. Suddenly, it was Jesus himself who had picked around the maze of toys, found a clean spot on the table for his arm, offered a word of encouragement as I bungled through the sacrament.

There was a wave of…was that love?…as I failed (yet again) at confession. I felt the same patient love I show my kids (on a good day) when they’re trying to do something well (and maybe not succeeding).

And then, that night, I found myself in a small group at my parish’s parent meeting for First Reconciliation. As I listened to all the reasons why people hate confession (oh yes, I do too!), I realized something.

Confession is spiritual vegetables.

Some people like vegetables, others coat them in butter, and still others (me) avoid them most of the time. Why would you eat vegetables when you can have chocolate?

And yet, we need vegetables. We weren’t made to eat only chocolate, sad though that is. We need more than just coffee, crushing though I find that. We have to eat more than steak and potatoes, though I’ll never admit it out loud.

There’s a lot to hate about confession. Makes sense, though, doesn’t it? Naming your sins isn’t going to be easy, even if you are chomping on chocolate while you do it. Facing down your failures and forcing yourself to be humble enough to accept correction: that takes courage. And no small amount of love.

My penance, once again, was ridiculously small in relation to the size of my sin. It always is.

It always will be.

There’s nothing I can do to make up for that sin. And with every penance, I learn that lesson a little better.

I got a little passionate with the small group of parents I was a part of that night. I was still coasting a bit from the good of confession, and I couldn’t help but encourage them to GO!

Because our goal is heaven. And to get there…well, I’m probably not the only one who needs to work on my spiritual diet and add some more vegetables, am I?

Sarah Reinhard

Sarah Reinhard continues to be shocked and delighted that her life as a grown-up involve horses, writing, and sparkly dress shoes. In her work in the New Evangelization as a Catholic wife, mom, writer, parish employee, and catechist, she’s learned a lot of lessons, had a lot of laughs, and consumed mass amounts of coffee. She’s online at SnoringScholar.com and CatholicMom.com, and is the author of a number of books.