The story of Jackie’s first confession bears signature touches of a Frank O’Connor story: a young first-person narrator whose innocence and naivete exposes the moral corruption and hypocrisy of the adults around him, who are so concerned with the condition of his soul that they do not glimpse the flaws in theirs. For all its breezy and gentle humor, the story touches on the heart of Catholic spiritual life. Confession is the most intimate and dramatic of the Church’s sacraments, a moment of self-examination and public admission of sin to a priest who, acting as God’s representative, absolves the sinner of the burden of those transgressions. The intention of the sacrament is not to create terror or to cajole cooperation through threats or even to shame a person into admitting their sins. Rather, it helps them understand God’s mercy and, with their soul now relieved of its burden, resolve to sin no more.

That the sacrament is an adult ritual shapes the story’s fundamental irony: a boy faces his first confession certain that his tantrum involving a grandmother he dislikes and a sister who loves to make his life miserable rises to the level of profound sin.