We recognize the fact that the promise of life summed up in Christmas and Easter is the only thing that gives life meaning. We live because Christ lives. We need not worry about end times because Christ has overcome the world and made the totality of time holy. This should bring us to our knees as we confess our times of lack of faith and as we confess that we really have done that which we ought not to have done, and we have not done that which we ought to have done. This is one of the reasons the color for advent is purple, reminding us that this is a time for reconciliation.
Confession is an amazing healer.
Confession acts to clean out the conduits of communication, both between people and between people and their God. Confession is the beginning or reconciliation. That is what John the Baptist was preaching at the river Jordan, and people were so caught up in his message of repentance and reconciliation they crowded about him and were baptized by him. Believing and confession open up the doorway for a turning about. The Greek word is metanoia and this carries the meaning of repentance and confession out in the world so that we are changed our lives are redirected.