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Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness

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Jim Forest opens his new book with the following tale. It seems that a young priest in the feel-good 1970s was so taken with the latest bestseller *I'm Okay, You're Okay* that he gave it a rave review in one of his sermons. Afterwards, an old parishioner acknowledged that the book was probably a good one, but added this: "I kept thinking of Christ on the Cross saying to those who were watching him die, 'If everybody's okay, what in blazes am I doing up here?'"

This wonderful story sets the stage for Forest's wide-ranging reflections on confession. He isn't content merely to examine confession as a sacrament. Instead, he correctly sees confession as a magnet that pulls together such topics as human nature, sin, individual integrity, community, and spiritual wholeness. Confession is more than just whispering a few faults into a priest's ear. It's an opportunity for renewal and rebirth, because one can only begin to heal if one first acknowledges that something's broken. Defiant refusal to acknowledge individual guilt is bad enough; psycho-babbled insousiance is worse. Jim Forest does an especially good job of persuading us of the importance of honestly facing ourselves and God.

Along the way, he gives a short history of confession, reflects on several scriptural stories in which confession is illuminated (my favorite is his discussion of Mark's account of the paralytic who was healed), includes a discussion of Dostoevsky on the need for reconciliation (to my mind, a gem-like essay in its own right), discusses some concrete tips for preparing for confession or self-examen and selecting a confessor, and closes with an interesting chapter of reflections on confession from clergy and laypeople. All in all, a remarkable book. It deserves to be read with Martin Smith's classic *Reconciliation*.

Jim Forest has given us much to think about in his previous books on icons, the beatitudes, and Dorothy Day and Thomas Merton (one of the best short biographies of Merton I've ever read). We're once again in his debt for this little book on confession.

This book is an easy read and gives one good thought guidelines for living your life.