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ABOUT CONFESSION
What Is Necessary for a Saving Confession?
by Metropolitan Innocent of Moscow
What is Confession? Confession is the oral avowal of one's sins which lie heavy upon the
conscience. Repentance cleanses the soul and makes it ready to receive the Holy Spirit,
but confession, so to speak, only empties the soul of sins.
Let us present a simple analogy and comparison to confession. For example, suppose you
had only one vessel of some kind, which you through negligence or laziness let reach a
stage where little by little it accumulated all sorts of dirt so that your vessel became not
only unusable but even unbearable to look at without repugnance.
But what if a king wanted to give you as a gift some sort of fragrant and precious balm,
one drop of which could heal all infirmities and protect - what then? Would you refuse
such a valuable gift only because you had no other clean vessel in which to put it? No! It
would be very natural for you to accept such a gift and you would try to clean your
vessel. How would you begin to clean your vessel? No doubt, before anything else, you
would rid it of all uncleanness; you would begin by washing it with water and, perhaps
would even burn it out so that it no longer retained any of its former odors. Isn't that so?
Now let the vessel represent the soul given to you by God, which you have brought to
such a state that it has been filled with all kinds of transgression and iniquities; let the
sweet-smelling balm, given by the king, signify the Holy Spirit, Who heals all infirmities
and afflictions, Whom the King of heaven and earth, Jesus Christ, freely bestows upon
us.
To examine your vessel signifies feeling your guilt before God and recalling all sins,
which have stolen into your heart.
To clean out the vessel typifies the confession of your sins before your spiritual father,
and washing with water and burning with fire signifies a sincere and even tearful
repentance and a voluntary resolve to endure all unpleasantness, needs, afflictions,
misfortunes, and even calamities that befall us.
Now tell me: Is Confession profitable or needful? Certainly it is profitable and even
essential; because, just as it is impossible to cleanse a vessel without ridding it of all
uncleanness, so it is impossible to purge your soul of sins without confession.
But tell me, is confession alone enough for the reception of the Holy Spirit? Certainly
not, because in order to receive the sweet-smelling and precious balm into a defiled
vessel it is not enough to just empty it, but it is necessary to wash it with water and refine
it with fire. Just so, in order to receive the Holy Spirit, it is not enough just to confess or