Knowing the mind and hearts of your people. . .

Though we all know that the confessional was designed to be a place for private confession and absolution, it also yielded another benefit.  The priest sitting on the other side listened to the concerns of the hearts and minds of his people.  It was not quite about gathering information but knowing that which occupied the worries, fears, desires, and wants of his people.  I think we all know that.  I do not think we all know exactly how effective it was as a vehicle for the priest to know the spiritual condition of his people.

For Lutherans the box may not have survived but private confession did.  In the days of Bach it took many deacons (then ordained assisting pastors) to hear all the confessions of the overwhelming number of people who presented themselves for examination, confession, and absolution.  Of course, those days are largely gone and merely a memory, even an unpleasant one to some.  Private confession is talked about more than it has been in many generations -- even centuries -- but it is not typical and more often exceptional.  This is certainly true of the folks in the pew but it is also true of those on the other side of the chancel.

The revival of private confession is certainly no panacea to fix all the problems we face but it is key to knowing what is on the hearts and minds of God's people and even, perhaps, to improved preaching and teaching.  I will admit that when I was in seminary, the pastoral practice course and even some of the homiletics classes were hopelessly out of date.  The professors had not been in a parish for a very long time and so the things that they recalled were in the forefront of God's people had changed.  I was, for example, told that the lodge was a key issue.  In 43 years of being a pastor, the lodge has seldom come up except occasionally at funerals when someone who had not been active for many, many years suddenly showed up in a coffin with a little apron.  But no one at the seminary prepared me for such things as how to deal with those who have same sex desires.  Clearly, this issue has become a huge issue not simply for those in the pews but for their families and friends and how Christians respond to such things.  I wonder if we would not see such things arise on the horizon of church life more clearly if our people were prone to more frequent private confession.  I wonder if problems faced by burn out, disillusionment, conflict, etc., among the clergy would not be proactively handled in part by our pastors exercising the opportunity to have and meet frequently with a father confessor.

The boxes that once inhabited the narthex or nave of many congregations may be gone or seldom used but it is to our detriment both as a people who confess and are absolved and those who hear our confession and absolve us.  This is an essential means of pastoral care that ought to be revived.  If you are a pastor who does not practice it, start now.  Preach and teach about it in your parish.  Encourage your people to avail themselves of the gift and blessing of private confession.  It will also, as a side benefit, help you to know what is going on in their hearts and minds and help you better to bring God's Word to bear upon those concerns.