Faith and Ritual Theme Analysis

In “First Confession,” Jackie struggles to acclimate to the beliefs and practices of the Catholic Church. In part, this is because there’s a lot to learn: the Bible is a huge book, and the Catholic Church is filled with detailed formal rituals that Catholics must learn. While participating in these rituals is supposed to bring Catholics closer to God, however, “First Confession” portrays religious rituals and the people in charge of conducting them as being alienated from the morality and spirituality at the core of Catholicism. The woman who prepares Jackie for his first Confession essentially just tells him ghost stories to stoke fear about the fires of hell, and Jackie’s priest endorses immoral behavior during a ritual that is supposed to make Catholics take stock of their shortcomings. By portraying Catholic rituals and religious authorities as being somewhat nonsensical and even damaging to moral behavior, O’Connor suggests that the formal trappings of religion often distance people from their faith and moral sense.

Jackie’s family, as well as the other adults he interacts with, have warped ideas about the church’s teachings. Despite being devout Catholics, they often fail to effectively explain even the most basic rituals of the church to the children. Mrs. Ryan, for example, who is supposed to prepare Jackie and his classmates for their first Confession teaches them nothing practical; instead, she focuses on dramatic, fear-mongering descriptions of Hell. One result of this is that Jackie doesn’t even know how to make his Confession: he ends up falling out of the Confessional because he thinks he needs to sit on the elbow-rest. But even worse than leaving him ill-prepared for Confession, Mrs. Ryan’s lectures terrify Jackie and alienate him from the spiritual purpose of the ritual. Jackie is, on some level, quite worried about his bad behavior, so he’s somebody who could really benefit from a ritual of admitting to and atoning for his sins—this might, in a different context, make him feel relieved of his guilt and resolved to behave better. However, Mrs. Ryan’s exclusive focus on instilling fear of hell makes Jackie unaware of any positive aspects to Confession, and unable to use this ritual to make his faith stronger or to make him a better person.

Even worse, the priest himself reinforces Jackie’s misguided view of right and wrong, using the ritual of Confession to encourage behavior that is in direct opposition to the Church’s teachings. At first, the priest shows the compassionate spirit of Christian teaching when he puts aside his anger at Jackie, who has fallen from the Confessional. When he sees that the boy needs sympathy rather than scolding, the priest is empathetic and kind. Yet once Jackie actually begins confessing, the priest shows that he has no more divine perspective than Jackie’s family or teachers. He encourages Jackie to think only of his own benefit, and essentially rewards Jackie for his violent feelings toward Gran and Nora by giving him candy after his Confession, while chastising Nora for much lesser sins. Instead of learning about moral behavior, both children learn that the ritual of Confession is based on arbitrary, subjective judgment, and that it is therefore pointless to be good. Ultimately, then, the ritual of Confession only leaves Jackie more alienated from the true spiritual meaning of Catholicism, rather than connecting him to God and the teachings of his faith.

In this story, none of the characters seem to know why, exactly, they are participating in the rituals of Catholicism, or what these rituals are supposed to mean. Jackie, and everyone else around him, believe that they’ll be punished if they don’t engage in these practices, and the priest uses his authority in the church to favor some people over others. By demonstrating how characters use religion and ritual in ways that deviate from their purported divine purpose, O’Connor is shows how these rituals can ultimately push people further away from God and convolute their understanding of moral behavior.