{"id":94182,"date":"2019-10-21T15:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-21T22:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=94182"},"modified":"2019-10-21T15:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-21T22:04:00","slug":"the-confession","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/10\/21\/the-confession\/","title":{"rendered":"The Confession"},"content":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n

Rev. MP (I opted for\nthe initials to keep anonymity) was feared by even the tough fisherfolk. He was\nshort and stocky with a complexion, which was quite fair by any standard and\nmade his roundish chubby face turn red when he was angry. My uncles said that\nhe was a Monsignor and was probably left in charge of a medium-sized church in\na small parish by the bishop of the Diocese, knowing his reputation of being a\nno-nonsense cleric with no small temperament. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now on my way to the \u2018Confessional\u2019,\nwhere Rev. MP sat, waiting to hear his parishioners\u2019 confessions and then\nabsolve them of their sins, which he could do as he became a temporal\nrepresentative of God after his ordination as a priest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nWith a pounding heart and a giddying head, I finally make it to face Rev. MP.\nHe sat inside the \u2018Confessional\u2019 with his head bent as if he was in prayer.\n He blesses me as I kneel down on the pedestal that ran along on the side\nof the \u2019Confessional\u2019. His face was only inches away from mine with a partition\nin between that had an intricate design of lattice work. I could see his face,\nonly as a collection of pale patches separated by wooden strips on the lattice\nwith little gaps in between and I am sure he could see mine too as a vague\nlittle roundish shape speckled with alternating little shades of dark brown and\nlight brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nI launch into the feared recital cautiously starting off with minor sins or\n\u2018sulu pau\u2019 (in my opinion, of course) such as hitting Frank that robust for his\nage troublemaker in my class across his face stopping him straight away as he\nmenacingly advanced towards me with clenched fists. Or pinching Didi so hard\nthat it must have hurt him so much that he couldn\u2019t even scream and instead\nmade him empty his bladder right in the middle of the church floor as our flock\nof little boys squatted and listened to the sermon. The news finally reached\nthe principal or \u2018Loku iskola mahaththaya\u2019 and the reward for hurting Didi came\nin the form of caning by him as I stood on the little stage facing a crowd of\nmy school mates, who seemed very amused and thrilled by the whole spectacle. By\nthe way I must give it to Didi that he didn\u2019t report it to any one and it was\nonly few others, who witnessed the scuffle and reported it to the teachers with\nno malicious intent though, I am sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now moving further away from \u2018sulu pau\u2019\nand towards not so \u2018sulu pau\u2019 (in my opinion, once again) such as picking few\ncoins that my grandfather left on his table and then forgot all about them,\nthanks to his failing memory. And, I, on the other hand, couldn\u2019t forget the\nsight of those oil cakes (konda kewum) that were tantalisingly sitting in a\nglass cupboard at Peter ayiyas\u2019 little boutique and my grandfathers\u2019 forgotten\nlittle change was indeed very helpful to me in securing a couple of those sweet\ndelights. <\/p>\n\n\n\n


\nAround fifteen or twenty minutes later, including few minutes of a probing-\ninterrogation as to why I skipped that particular Sunday mass,  I am\nback kneeling down in front of the altar saying the prayers, usually ten \u2018Hail\nMarys\u2019 and five \u2018Our Fathers\u2019 or so as penance for my sins. Rev. MP probably\nthought that it was good enough as penance this time, for this lot of\nsins of a child, whom he knew was still lying to him even when he was in\nthe middle of the \u2018Confession\u2019, for fear of admonition and now was stammering\nrather excitedly as he tried to explain why he couldn\u2019t attend that Sunday\nmass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am sure he took the above fact into\nconsideration too, when he ordered the number of prayers to say in penance. You\ncouldn\u2019t fool Rev. MP. He could recognise a lie from miles away, even when it\nwas still in infancy, a tiny nucleus of an idea in your mind just beginning to\ntake shape. And when the liar was a ten year old child, well, you can guess!\nFinally, it\u2019s over and having finished my prayers and I run back to the\nplayground to join my friends.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lastly I must make myself absolutely\nclear here as far as the objective of this article is concerned. It is written\nwith a slightly amusing slant and a modicum of humour and is only a reflection\non those long-gone years of my childhood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All my folks have been Catholics for a\nfew generations and as someone, who has been brought up amongst them, I know\nthat the \u2018Confession\u2019 is a sacred religious rite (Sacrament of Penance and\nReconciliation) and is one of the seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. So to\nall, who might see this in a different light, please accept my sincerest\napologies. Poking fun at this religious rite sacred to all Catholics was the\nfurthest thing from my mind, when I wrote this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incidents and the people mentioned\nhere are not fictional but were very real once upon a time, which was many\nyears ago. And some of them are certainly not amongst the living now. Though\nthey all come and visit me now and then, regardless: vague shapes emerging from\na misty past that keep losing clarity and contour as years go by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Laksiri Warnakula<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Laksiri Warnakula Rev. MP (I opted for the initials to keep anonymity) was feared by even the tough fisherfolk. He was short and stocky with a complexion, which was quite fair by any standard and made his roundish chubby face turn red when he was angry. My uncles said that he was a Monsignor and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[157],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-94182","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-laksiri-warnakula"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94182","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94182"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94182\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94182"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94182"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94182"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}