U2 devotions #7:Bono: "it's been three years since my last confession"

Sign at Lourdes

He has often joked  (?) about "Catholic guilt" as motivation for  much that he does.
He even provided confessional booths for fans in the 90s.
That same decade Bono even confessed in song that  "talks shows [are] confession."

Confessional boxes are inevitable,

Confession is not only good for the soul, but is hardwired into our pysche.
So even in moments when we are not consciously thinking about sin, or confession,
we are in fact consumed with how to deal with both.

So no wonder comedians often use confessional booth stories in their act.
It's not an act.

And no surprise that the mere sight of a fence at the airport  hyperlinks in Bono's mind to the barred confessional windows of his youth...and he immediately seeks absolution.
He's always joking, which means he's never joking.
See  the 3-40 second mark in this video:





Confession is not just for Catholics.  We are all catholic.
The small 'c" word means 'universal," and it encompasses all believers in the universe.

Pronouncing confession is not just for priests.
Or is it?  We are all priests.  I have chapter and verse for that.
And another.

In confessing our sins, we often find ourselves healed.
This was of course predicted long ago, and we shouldn't be surprised.
Maybe Bono was freed up at that airport encounter.  I wonder how long till his next confession.

Most likely in stage in Edmonton that night.
Short accounts are good.

Find something to confess to someone.
Practice random acts of confession.
I once confessed my grievous sins to the local newspaper.


Of course I was too  long-winded as I did so, but I had to get a lot of my chest.
Which reminds me of yet another U2 lyric  on the topic:
 "The worst of us  are a long drawn out confession" the jourmalist in Lebanon (ironically) confessed.:


So just do it.
Whether you do it in front of a priest (with barbed wire between you),
about what you did behind  a priest 's back,
in public, and on record(s),
to a fence,
to a sister or brother,
or to the least of these,
just maybe...

 you are doing it unto  God.