By Brian Cook
One of the tripping hazards of the conversion to Roman Catholicism from Reformed Baptist doctrine was the Doctrine of Purgatory, which was foreign to me. It seemed strange until my first Sacrament of Confession. It finally registered with me that what the Baptists call Judgement Day, or other Christians call the Particular Judgement. The Apostle Paul calls it “The Day, which is the same thing that Catholics refer to as Purgatory.
All Christians teach that after death comes the judgement (Hebrews 9:27). Also, St. Paul teaches about our works being tested by fire in 1 Corinthians 3:12-15. So, after death and preceding Heaven, the final step is to be brought into the presence of Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, for that wonderful and terrible moment of truth.
In Catholicism, we bring our children to the Sacrament of Baptism for spiritual rebirth (Acts 16:33) and seek to raise said children in “the training and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4) as “newborn babes in the Lord” (1 Peter 2:2).
Following the natural order of things, as children reach what many call the age of accountability, we start to prepare them for the Sacrament of First Communion. This is preceded by the Sacrament of First Confession, when, for the first time, one formally confesses one’s sins to Jesus with a priest as witness. This occurs usually around the age of eight.
When I was eight years old, I stole a piece of candy from TG&Y, and for the first time, I felt the weight of my sin. In response, I publicly “walked down the aisle” one Sunday night and “got saved.” It was the Baptist version of a First Confession, and it was a tremendous moment that forever altered the course of my life.
As Catholic children continue growing in the faith, around the age of 14 we start helping them prepare for their Confirmation, which is preceded by a Full Confession. As a teenager on the precipice of adulthood, we want our youth to be brought to maturity in Christ, and a big part of this discipleship process is the preparation their Full Confession. Tools are utilized to help the youth understand the gravity of their sin, including a breakdown of serious sins that possess the power to upend their spiritual lives.
As a convert prepares to join the Catholic Church, they too prepare for a Full Confession, which serves as one of the marvelous pinnacle moments during the conversion process. It is called a Full Confession because penitents must confess all their sins, including every sin they can remember and the number of times that sin was committed, as best they can, so that a good and true confession can be made. This process is so important, because for many of us, it is the first time we have ever taken the opportunity to do a full inventory of our sin.
What happens when we do this? Quite honestly, it’s painful. To think through, catalog and categorize the wretchedness of your own heart is so hard, but it is also very helpful. Jeremiah 17:9 comes into full view during this process: “The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse – who can understand it?” For many, it is the first time we have meditated upon the sins of “my thoughts, my words, what I have done, and what I have failed to do, through my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault” (as we say in every Mass as we say the Penitential Act).
For those brave souls that catalog their sins well and confess them out loud to a priest (James 5:16), they receive the gift of absolution, or healing, from sin. The Sacrament of Confession is available throughout one’s life, even included during the “last rites” at the point of death. After death comes judgement – “I the Lord test….to give to all according to their ways.” (Jeremiah 17:10).
Michael Card has an amazing lyric in his song Jubilee. He sings, “To be so completely guilty and given over to despair, to look into our Judge’s face and see a Savior there!”
Can you imagine that moment? We die, we see Jesus, we are seen and examined, our faith and works tested thor-oughly. To be fully and completely known, a full and final accounting before our Great High Priest. Willing or unwilling, our Final Confession.
Brian Cook is a Cropwell native and a graduate of Pell City High School and Gadsden State Community Col-lege and studied music and history at Jacksonville State. He and his wife Hope have five children. A self-described “on-again-off-again bi-vocational part-time” Protestant minister for almost 20 years, Brian converted to Catholi-cism in April 2021. They attend Saint James Catholic Church in Gadsden. With no formal training (Acts 4:13), Brian is active in the Catechetical training of children and adults. His book “The Devotion to Christ” can be found on Amazon. He is available for speaking and teaching engagements in any parish, church, or group setting. He may be contacted at thedtc@protonmail.com or thedevotiontochrist@gmail.com.
