Quick Thinking

Sam recently celebrated his first reconciliation. I proudly took him to the church and participated in the opening rites of what was essentially a penance service for him and his classmates.

Sam and I were sitting toward the back of the church, watching as his friends went to the confessional and then returned to their seats one by one. I was thinking to myself that when Sam's turn came he was going to be VERY quick, as both Joey and Lindsey were in for barely a minute or two for their first confessions. I remember thinking at the time that they couldn't possibly have mentioned even a small fraction of the items I would have put on their list of confession-worthy transgressions, and that Sam was sure to have an even shorter list, knowing him.

At any rate, there I am, sitting with Sam who is now only a few students away from being called, when I am suddenly struck by the fact that this is SAM I am dealing with. I look over at him and see him happily playing with his program, alternately making a telescope with it and folding it back into a vehicle of some sort. It occurs to me that I had better inquire as to how prepared he is for this significant event.

"Sam," I ask, "you DO know what you are going to say in there, don't you?"

"Oh yeah," he replies confidently. "I say 'Bless me father for I have sinned' and then I say it is my first confession."

"No," I say. "I mean AFTER all of that. Did you think about what sins you are going to confess?"

He looks at me like a deer in headlights. "Uh, not really."

"You know, Sam, you might want to give it some thought before you get in there."

"Yeah, OK." He looks serious for about 10 seconds and then goes back to his program art.

Before much time has passed, Sam is called to the confessional and he hops right up and trots in. By this time I am SURE it will be less than a minute, since he hadn't even thought of the sins in advance, but what do you know? He was in for six whole minutes. Longer, by far, than anyone else in his class! I was about to send in a rescue party!

He bounced right back to his seat, loudly announced his penance, completed it and gave me a big grin.

I sure would give a lot to be a fly on the wall of that confessional. Ah, well. Some things are just as fun to imagine.