This book is subtitled ‘The healing power of Confession’ and might be useful reading for Advent, in preparation for the great feast of Christmas. Its author, one of an influential group of former Protestant pastors in the US who have now ‘come home’, brings all the zeal and enthusiasm of his Bible-reading early life to the cause of Catholic theology. This is the latest in a long list of books and tapes which he has produced as a wake-up call to Catholics, particularly those who have a deep-rooted objection to rocking their faith by actively incorporating it into their daily lives.

Commentators of the last 40 years often remark that ‘sin’ vanished after Vatican II, to be replaced by programmes of self-affirmation and the enneagram. Dr Hahn, who does not carry the baggage of a Catholic childhood, with all the unnecessary ‘guilt’ that accompanies it, is full of wonder and eloquence at this sacrament of God’s mercy. Naturally, he begins by exploring Confession from an Old Testament standpoint; for those readers who were discouraged from reading the Bible in youth his methods are like watching Hercule Poirot on the scent of a crime, as he carefully illuminates all those occasions when God helped his chosen people to return to repentance and their true destiny.

From the Old Testament Dr Hahn moves to the New with similar forensic skill, notably in his meditation on the implications of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Other texts are brought into this masterly synthesis: St Thomas Aquinas, St Augustine (why does he spend so long analysing filching a few pears, aged 16, in The Confessions?) and GK Chesterton who, when asked what was wrong with the world, stoutly replied, ‘I am.’

The author is disarming in his personal honesty. He begins this book with the story of his own youthful transgressions – mainly stealing record albums over a period of time – and ends with the statement, ‘When I speak of the continual need for Confession, I speak with authority. I am an inveterate sinner, though one who has found his way, again and again, to kneel and be healed at the throne of God’s mercy.’ Such honesty, coupled with passionate conviction, cannot fail to persuade the attentive reader.

For those Catholics who find that even the annual obligation to confess serious sin is a struggle, Hahn writes, ‘If you study the lives of the saints, you’ll see that more frequent confession is the norm…I am one of a growing number of Catholics who try to get to the Sacrament once a week.’ He makes a good case for finding a regular confessor, who knows our weaknesses and temptations, and he cautions against shopping around: ‘There are people who go from confessional to confessional until they find a priest who will tell them their sins aren’t really sins.’

There is a touching account of the conversion of the critic, Wallace Fowlie, which took place as he wandered into a poor French-American parish and saw the rows of penitents: ‘This penitence in a church I had never known’, he recorded. ‘I had never waited in line for Him and I had never heard Him speak in a little half-minute…’ I only disagree with the author’s statement to the reader, ‘You and I need to have a spiritual director.’ Need? In my view, regular confession is as essential as regular bodily exercise to keep healthy; but spiritual direction is for those who want to go jogging as well. That’s fine if you like jogging (but isn’t running up and down stairs several times a day just as effective?).

Further, the author is not only an inveterate sinner, like the rest of us; he also has a relentless weakness for poor puns with every single subtitle e.g. ‘clearing the heir’, ‘a sinthesis’, ‘Pact House’ and so on. I confess that when I stopped being irritated by this quirk I began to warm to such a corny sense of humour. But don’t be beguiled.

This is a serious book about the high and holy drama involved in confessing to all our high (and usually low) jinks. There is a detailed examination of conscience at the end which might be helpful for shirkers of this most consoling sacrament.

© 2004 Francis Phillips

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