The Power of the Sacrament of Confession
As a priest, one thing I fight against is the idea of Catholicism as nothing more than a set of rules or just a moral code. If you see anything I post in the Catholicism subreddit on Reddit as (RJC02134), for example, you will often read my words “God is not a computer.”
Most computers work using a simple yes and no binary logic code. So, it is a strict set of rules a computer cannot work around.
Many Catholics turn God into the same type of computer. They understand our faith as nothing more than a set of rules as if they were written in the same binary code represented by ones and zeros.
For example, the rule is if one commits a mortal sin, he or she must go to confession in order to receive communion. You will also hear people say if you die in the state of mortal sin, you go to Hell. Both of these are true, but they are almost computer language and, therefore, they are incomplete teachings. Others teach one must confess in order to be forgiven of such sins or they go to Hell. So what is confession in these teachings? A process we go through so that God can forgive our sins and we can go to Heaven. Notice the black and white thinking in it.
All of that is true but like the other examples, these are grossly incomplete teachings.
