Some years ago, rumors spread that a certain Catholic woman was having visions of Jesus. Her archbishop was skeptical and said to her: ‘The next time you have a vision, I want you to ask Jesus to tell you the sins that I confessed in my last confession.’ Ten days later she told him Jesus had appeared to her again. ‘What did Jesus say?’ the archbishop asked. ‘Your Eminence,’ she said, ‘These are his exact words: he said ‘I don’t remember.’
Well, whether she was telling the truth about those visions or whether they were merely a figment of her imagination, the fact is the actual message she delivered was true; for the Bible records that God says: ‘I am he who blots out your transgressions, for my own sake, and remembers your sins no more.’ If we confess our sins to him in sincerity, God forgives and forgets.