Of all the things I’ve done in this life, I feel most like a Priest when I hear confessions. The cellula is dim, I sit behind the grate. No longer am I ‘Your Holiness’ I am ‘Father’. Lithmore trickles in, the rich and the poor, the humble and proud, strong and weak. It helps us to see, I think, that despite what we may think , we truly are not that different. Each of us has a face, each of us has a soul, and each of us sins. I listen to their whispers, their tears, in the dark. And I speak softly, not with mine own words, but as God’s mouthpiece.
Beyond that confessional, who I am is flawed. I am the Cardinal and try as I might, I am but a man. Yet behind that grate, I’m able to be what God wills me to be. I am a Priest, a holy Priest, and despite any of my human weakness, I am there, stripped of my sin, to be a guide. A light in the darkness moving forward to say ‘Come! Follow me and when you do, be not afraid!” Its that moment when all the mistakes of this life fall away to its successes, that my weakness, which is so evident to me, fades away.
In the confessional, I find the path to Heaven. Beyond it, I follow along faithfully.
