Feeling guilty after Confession

In the Act of Contrition, we confess all of our sins.

When Jesus absolves us in Confession, He washes away all of our sins.

No mother fails to wash her baby clean when she is changing the baby's diaper--and she never puts the dirty diaper back on again after cleansing the child.

Jesus is at least as loving and attentive as a mother. He washes us completely clean. We are in Heaven with Him afterward, with nothing between us.

And yet Confession is not magic.

It does not provide a personality transplant.

It does not instantly build up good habits nor does it immediately uproot bad habits. We remain subject to concupiscence, confusion, ignorance, temptation, weakness, and disorder. We know that we will surely fall again in the moments, days, and weeks ahead.

Neither our contrition nor our purpose of amendment have to be perfect. God's love for us is perfect, and He is willing to work with whatever we give Him. We do not have to hold each one of our sins in mind in the act of contrition nor in our purpose of amendment. "The readiness is all."

Links

• Good guilt vs. bad guilt.