Buried sin ruins our conscience. Confession is always a liberation.
① 1Blessed is the one whose sin is forgiven,
whose iniquity is wiped away.
2Blessed are those in whom the Lord sees no guilt
and in whose spirit is found no deceit.
3When I kept my sin secret,
my body wasted away,
I was moaning all day long.
4Your hand day and night lay heavy upon me;
draining my strength, parching my heart
as in the heat of a summer drought.
5Then I made known to you my sin
and uncovered before you my fault,
saying to myself,
“To the Lord I will now confess my wrong.”
And you, you forgave my sin,
you removed my guilt.
6So let the faithful ones pray
to you in time of distress;
the overflowing waters will not reach them.
7You are my refuge;
you protect me from distress
and surround me with songs of deliverance.
8I will teach you,
I will show you the way to follow.
I will watch over you and give you counsel.
9Do not be like the horse or the mule –
senseless and led by bit and bridle.
10Many woes befall the wicked,
but the Lord’s mercy enfolds those who trust in him.
11Rejoice in the Lord, and be glad,
you who are upright;
sing and shout for joy,
you who are clean of heart.
- It is good to clarify what was not really sin but caused guilt. On the other hand, nothing is gained in denying a fault and still less a sin. In Christian language, sin signifies that we committed a wrong not with a law but towards someone we love.
Our well-being, in the truest meaning of the word, depends on the quality of our relationship with God: what sin has destroyed will only be restored by trust in God who pardons the humble and the repentant. When we ask God to heal someone, we do not separate health of body from health of soul. It is what the following prayer for the anointing of the sick expresses:
Jesus, our Savior, we ask you, through the power of the Holy Spirit to cure the illness from which this person suffers, heal his wounds, pardon his sins, rid him of all that torments his body and soul; give him again spiritual and physical health so that, healed through your goodness, he may return to his work.
