From Ignorance to Innocence - Osho - Oshorajneesh.com

CHAPTER 25. JESUS – THE ONLY SAVIOR WHO NEARLY SAVED HIMSELF
Confession is a strategy of power politics.
Hence the Catholic is the most imprisoned religious man in the world, because the priest knows
every wrong thing that you have done.
The court does not know, the police do not know, your wife has not any knowledge of it, but the
priest knows everything. That is his power over the flock: he can expose you any moment in front of
the society. The police will be after you, the government will be after you, your wife will be after you,
your father will be after you – you will be crushed.
He knows all the sins that you have committed; but you have not been caught, so they are not
crimes. And you yourself had gone to confess. In fact, that is his only joy in life. The Catholic
priest... what else has he got? There is no need for him to go to the movies or to see the television:
just sitting in his confession box and listening to all the groovy things is such a joy. And he goes on
giving the punishment also. He says, ”You go out in the church and do this prayer ten times.”
One day it happened: a rabbi who was a friend of a Catholic priest was visiting the priest; it was a
confession day. Suddenly a man came running. The Catholic priest had just finished one confession
and given the man a punishment of ten prayers because he had raped a woman. The rabbi was
also sitting in the confessional box. They were friends so he was just listening to what was going on.
The man came running and said, ”Somebody is very sick, almost dying and you are needed to bless
him for the journey.”
So the priest said to the rabbi, ”I will have to go. I will come back as quickly as possible. But
meanwhile somebody may come to confess, so you just sit here.”
The rabbi said, ”But what am I to do?”
The priest said, ”You just have to listen to so many confessions; just give them some punishment.
And you can’t see them face to face – there is a curtain – so nobody feels awkward.” Otherwise
confessing one’s sins feels awkward. And the priest, enquiring more about it and going more and
more into your sin – how you committed the rape, and what happened; what you did and what she
did – would feel awkward asking these things.... ”So the curtain is there so nobody will know who is
inside – a rabbi or a Catholic priest.”
So the rabbi said, ”Okay, go, but come back quickly because I am not accustomed to this business
– we do things differently.”
A man came, and by chance he had also committed a rape. The rabbi felt at ease, he said, ”Don’t
be worried, son.” Exactly in the tone of the minister: ”Don’t be worried, son. You just go and do ten
prayers.
But the man said, ”The last time I committed a rape you asked only for five prayers.”
The rabbi said to himself, ”This is a difficult problem.” So he said, ”Don’t be worried; you can commit
one more, but do ten prayers.” What else to do? ”For the future, you have five in advance.”
From Ignorance to Innocence 364 Osho