During forty-nine years of hearing confessions I have heard mostly from people who neglected to go to Church on Sunday, who did some kind of sexual transgression or who said something nasty about their neighbor. The point of confession is summed up well by the prophet Isaiah: Cease doing evil; learn to do good. What is surprising to a modern believer is how Isaiah describes of what “doing good” consists. Nothing about church-going or sexuality. No, instead the prophet says that we do good when we: Make justice your aim: redress the wronged, hear the orphan’s plea, defend the widow. Instead of looking at our personal faults and failings Isaiah thinks that good actions are found in how we treat one another, and in particular in how we treat those who have no one else to look after them (the widows and orphans of the saying.) Maybe we need to re-think what an examination of conscience looks like!
