I was watching a scene from an old movie where a priest came to have a conversation with someone in distress. The priest slowly pulled a wooden chair forward, sat down and said:

“Offer me your confession. And I can offer you God’s forgiveness.”

Instantly, memories flooded back of all the times I was forced to confess as a child. I say “forced” because I never wanted to do it. Yet, I had no choice; that's what my parents made me do. As a child, I was simply afraid of revealing my secrets or being vulnerable with a stranger who was an adult.

It felt intuitively weird to me back then. And then, this movie scene. A priest, which is a human being, saying that he has the power to offer God’s forgiveness. Nonsense.