The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-23

con1ue. nave myself known several
instances III which the sense of sin
made life SO intolerable as to lead to an
attempt to commit suicile. Our lunatic
asylums contain patients not a few
who have lost their reason from the
same cause. All OF these, or most of
them, would certainly have been saved
If they could have had recourse to the
Catholic confessional and poured out
their tale Of misery and sin into the
sympathetic ears of the confessor. /
have myself often heard from the lips
OF those who had told some sad tale
of Wilful and long-continued sin the
! joyful oXclama ton, Nov, father, be-
! gin to feel better" The ineXpressible
relief was due, in great measure, to
! the mere outpouring of their sad story.
| They We're employing what was the
natural, as well as the supernatural,
means of escaping from the crushing
and intolerable burden.
THE STRUGGLE WITH OURSELVES
| But there is a further provision for
the needs of human nature that con-
] fession, and confession only, can sup
| ply. Every one who goes aStray had
IAN underlined and vague intention of be-
ginning, at some time or other, new
and better life. He wants to give up
the evil which in his heart he hates,
ana lie lDed1lS5 10 90 So Wn6n d COLI
Yenient season comes. But the diff
Guilty is to determine the time when
that happy moment shall arrive. We
are ell procrastinators, especially
where immediate action means a Strug-
gle with ourselves and the. relinQuish-
ment of that to which we are at
tached. So we put off and put off, un-
It'll the chain that binds us down be-
comes so strong that it is q moral i'm
Men sometimes fix for themselves a
special day which is to be the begin
ming of a new life-their next birth
day, for instance, or the first day of
the coming year. But, in point of
fact, the promised reformation very
rarely takes place when the appointed
day arrives, or if. for a short time,
there is a change for the better, the
improvement, unsupported as it is by
any fresh influences for good apper-
tanning to the new era, soon fades
away and disappears.
Now, this need of a, turning point for
good, of a special date and limit from
which the old things shall have
passed away, and all things shall have
become new, is supplied by the con-
fessional as nothing else in the world
can supply it. The Catholic who is
DESTROYS of turning over a new leaf
anu VI ONGlOOllllllss Ills past IoullS anu
frailties, but who at the same time is
conscious of his own weakness, turns
instinctively to that wholesome tri-
bunal, where he knows that he will
find a kind and attentive listener, a
man who has had long experience of
the various snares and pitfalls that
beset our path through life, and who
can, therefore, sympathize with all the
difficulties that have to be encountered
nv -tr.y1cr 10
with evil, and on the serious pursuit
of what is good.
THE SINNER WHO HATES HIM
SELF.
The sinner who has learned to hate
himself, and who feels himself unable,
by his own unaided efforts, to free
himself from the yoke of sin, will
there find prudent, patient and skill
full counsellor, who will have hum
bred devices to suggest for meeting the
force of temptation, and hundred
means by which he may strengthen
himself in the practice of virtue. The
confessor will make for him the
crooked ways straight, and the rough
places plain He will encourage him
where encoura cement is needed, and
warn him where there are dangers TO
be avoided So he betakes himself
perhaps IN rear anu II6lnDllnS, Dul SILL
with hope long unknown to him and
a confidence to which he has long
been a stranger-to that fountain. pro-
vided for the washing away of sin
and uncleanlineSS, and for the
strengthening of good resolutions and
aspirations after new and better life,
which is to be found in every Catholic
Church. In the Priest in the confess
sional he knows that he will have a
father, a friend and a guide. In him
he sees Gods own representative, and
there rise to his lips, instinctively and,
naturally, the words of the prodigal in
the Gospel, Il will arise and go to my
father, and Will say to him, Father, [
have sinned' In this way the tri-
bunal of penance, quite apart from the
grace of the sacrament, With which I
am not now concerned, is simply an
invaluable instrument of reformation.
How valuable and how effective it is,
is of course better known to Priests
than to any other class; and it is one
of the greatest consultations of their
sacred ministry to think of the hun
dreds whom they have thus helped
over the rough places that beset the
first struggle after virtue, and who
will one day tender them their CRATE
full thanks for the help that they have
received from them in their sore time
of need.
A RELIEF TO THE DISTRESSED.
In close connection with this min
istry of reconciliation" is a further and
a scarcely less important advantage
attaching to the confessional, that it
affords a sure and a safe resort to all
who are in any kind of moral or in
teilectual perpleXity or distress. ]
imagine that very few of my readers
Of NJ mr. nj in
their lives, found themselves in some
harassing doubt or difficulty from
which they knew not how to eXtricate
themselves. Their trouble may have
arisen from their own fault or it may
have been entirely independent of any
action Of their own. 1t may have
arisen from within. or it may have
stances which have hedged them in
with embarrassment that for the time
made their lives a misery, or, at all
events, very seriously interfered with
their happiness and peace of mind.
Those who have delicate consciences.
men with a naturally high sense of
honor or justice, are especially liable
10 these storms of mental Suffering
Their very anxiety to do what is right
aggraTates their trouble; they are torn
asunder by q number of opposing mo-
tives and influences, and sometimes do
not know which way to turn. Let me
take one or two instances such as
often occur in modern life. man in
4. position Of responsibility has, under
stress Of some pressing need, borrowed
COR enbezzled) some of his employers
money. He has tided over the diff
crlty by some dishonest Justification of
hie accounts. There is every chance
of his escaping undetected for he is a
man whose character stands high, and
in whom his employer placed the most
in,plicit confidence. But his conscience
L. i r-;..- IL