Imagine that you go see a doctor. He runs some tests and at the end he tells you that you have cancer. Many of our family members, friends and maybe even you had to go through this situation.
So you have received the cancer diagnosis. Then the doctor will tell you how sorry he or she is and that they will do everything to cheer you up. He will play for you a nice song, will tell you some stories to make you feel better, will give you a hug etc. After this wonderful compassionate experience you will go back home. I believe your spirit will be very much uplifted; it is not too bad. You feel good about yourself. But there is one problem--you didn't get treatment for your cancer. Of course my text above is metaphorical.
I would like to use it in relation to our spiritual life. None of us is perfect and we commit a lot of sins. Some of the saints went to confession every few days because they had seen how many sins they committed every day. Our sin is a spiritual cancer and especially when it becomes habitual sin. Slowly day by day it eats our soul and takes us away from God.
The only way to help you is to go to confession. But a priest in confession will tell you not to be worried because you are just fine. Sin happens but God is full of mercy and you shouldn't be hysterical about your sins. So you go back home and just continue to be the same way as before confession. After a while you will not see this sin any more, even more, if somebody points it out you will get mad at that person because we shouldn't be judgmental. Life goes on and it is time to go away from this world. In the last second you will notice that everything that happened was attached to a sin and now life is not going anymore.
What will happen next I do not know. It belongs to God but this entire problem would never happen if in confession you would hear the truth about sin.
This spiritual cancer is eating our families and society - I am generalizing right now. Our sin slowly eats the relationships between people and between us and God. We can create all sorts of nice talks to cheer ourselves up, but at the end of life they will not matter. The only thing we can show to God would be what we really did. Maybe one of the reasons that we are lost is our belief in mercy without repentance. I am a priest and every day I have to repent from everything that keeps me away from God. The holiness I am talking about is not a theory, it is life that leads to deep relationship with God. I encourage each of you to do the same. Take your cross and follow Christ.