What happens if you pray for God to show you your sins?

I remember distinctly my first Great and Holy Lent. I prayed, Lord, show me my sins, and I prayed it with such sincerity. Of all the years I've prayed, it was one of the times I feel God heard me and answered in a tremendous and powerful way. It was like he was shining a spotlight on my soul, showing me everything going on inside of myself. So many times people get wrapped up in behaviorism: I have this bad behavior, I just need to stop it.

There's a certain truth to that, but the deeper truth is that the things we do are a manifestation of the deeper passion lying within the soul, the recesses where pride and ego cling to us like a cancer. It shows up as road rage, irritation, judgment of others, but at the core are passions embedded in the depths of our being. It's like a person with a nagging cough who takes cough medicine: the symptom is helped, but the bacterial infection causing it is never touched.

If God asked me what one spiritual gift I wish were imparted to all people, it would be that they would see the sins in their soul and make an honest, heartfelt confession, laying their soul bare before God and the priest without self-justification, without blinders. Those cancers are not easily undone, and it is Christ, the real healer, who must remove them.