WRITE YOUR CONFESSIONS

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for is, “Write Your Confessions.”

Today - August 28^th,  is the feast of St. Augustine. When his name is mentioned the word “confessions” pops up by association - that being the name of his famous book.

Confession meaning statements of religious belief - how one sees God in the details of one’s life - how one sees God walking with us in the unfolding or unraveling or the weaving or quilting party of one’s life.

Confessions could be announcing where I see God in the pages and stages of my life.

We’ve all heard the cliché that the devil is in the details - meaning making plans and making general statements - they are easy - compared to the struggle and the work to get the details and the specifics done.

Well confessions fit the opposite cliché: “God is in the details” and spelling them out is one of the meanings of making a confession of faith - or writing it out.

SURPRISE - A DISCOVERY IN A DESK OR A BOTTOM DRAWER

Wouldn’t it be interesting if your kids in rummaging through your stuff after you die, someone finds in a desk or a bottom drawer, our  Memoirs or Diary or Confessions?

Wouldn’t that be interesting? What would be their reaction to it - reading our take on life - our take on family - our take on religion - God - the ups and downs, the ins and outs of our experiences - doubts - difficulties - and expressions of great joy and wonder and celebration.

Augustine left us a lot of sermons and  three books: The City of God, On the Trinity and the Confessions. His book, his Confessions, is his book - his comments about life and how God finally overwhelmed him after a lot of meandering in sin and various religions and philosophies - and  he finally discovers how God has been leading him forward.

Every time I’ve read Augustine’s Confessions,  I’ve been moved by it - so too - so many people.

LISTEN AND READ AND WRITE

Read any good confessions lately, any good autobiographies, any good stories. Have you listened to anyone tell you their life stories lately? How about that of your parents if they are still around?

I always like to push from the pulpit for folks to write their autobiography, their memoirs, the value of jotting down the details of one’s life. Genealogy could be the first step - which can lead to confessions of faith.

I was able to sit down with my dad before he died - and write down about 40 pages of notes - on a yellow legal pad. I was able to tape my mom before she died. And way back in 1996 - while in Ireland -  I sat down with my father’s brother,  Coleman. They told me if I went over to see him - just the two of us - he would speak in English. He was in his late 80’s and I was able to get a few hours notes on my father’s life. The questions I asked back then were detail questions. The questions I have now - well it’s too late - except I like to talk to my sister Mary about what was going on in my mom and dad’s minds - Mary having been with them much of their lives.

In a way my feelings of “too late” are sort of the very words of Augustine in his Confessions about loving God, “Too late I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new! Too late I loved you! And, behold, you were within me, and I out of myself, and there I searched for you.”

So there are questions I have of my parents - and it’s too late. If yours are alive and you can talk with them, talk with them.

CONCLUSION: PUSH, PUSH!

Back to the main point of this homily, Write Your Confessions.

I have made this suggestion  to various people down through the years. This is one more push. My dream is that someone took me up on it and after they die, their kids find in their stuff, their memoirs or confessions or autobiography.

And when someone has said to me, “I wouldn’t know where to start” or “I wouldn’t know how to do it,” I say, “Take someone else’s autobiography and see how they lay out their life.”

Take Augustine’s Confessions or The Seven Storey Mountain of Merton or Surprised by Joy by C.S. Lewis or any of the many autobiographies in any library or bookstore.

Augustine heard the words in the garden, “Take up, read. Take up, read.”  And he read the great text of St. Paul in Romans 13:11 - it was time to wake up - to put off the works of darkness - and to put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

I’m saying:  take up a ballpoint pen and get a good pad. Jot down the details of your life. Or do it on a computer. Then reflect deeper on the details and see God behind your story. Write them out and you’ll have your Confessions - like that of St. Augustine.

And surprise, after you die, maybe someone will discover them deep in a bottom drawer or deep inside a computer.