For me, the most depressing thing about the recent Tiger Woods infidelity debacle is the fact that it’s simply a microcosm of an all-too-familiar phenomenon that’s torn apart millions of families, including some that I know personally.
A family that on the outside seems united and happy is all of a sudden shattered when it’s discovered that one of the spouses has been unfaithful (and it’s not always the husband). The effects on children can be devastating.
When we witness something like this first hand, it’s easy to succumb to a sense of hopelessness. I’ve sometimes heard people talk about the tragic effects of infidelity in the same way they talk about a house fire or a tornado. “It can happen to anybody,” they say.
In one sense that’s true. No one’s marriage is impervious to original sin. But does infidelity really strike randomly like lightning? Is our only defense to live day to day hoping that we don’t get hit?
Our Catholic faith answers with a resounding “no!”. There are concrete steps that we can take to protect our marriages, and one of the biggest ones is to frequent the sacrament of reconciliation.
We’re all faced with various types of temptations, especially in today’s sex-obsessed world. But, in the words of modern technology, regular confession acts like a “firewall” that prevents impure thoughts and images from infecting our hearts and souls to the point that they can no longer distinguish good from evil.
In receiving this sacrament, we can ask God’s forgiveness for all the times we haven’t done a good job of guarding our senses (especially our sense of sight) and have opened ourselves up to temptation, whether it be through television, movies, magazines, the internet, or even friendships with other men and women that go beyond the limits of prudence and common sense. As one spiritual writer succinctly put it, “a spark is easier to put out than a blaze.”
We leave the confessional not only absolved of our sins but fortified by the graces we receive. Therefore, far from being a way for the church to make people guilty, confession is actually one of the most liberating experiences we can have.
If you’d like to learn more about confession, or want to know when it’s being offered by your parish during this Advent season, see pages 10-13 in the Dec. 18 issue of the Herald. – VA