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December 10, 2023: God's Forgiveness Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation
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A short treatise on the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Let’s begin with 2nd-graders receiving an A+ on their first reception of this saving Sacrament. As they say, if 2nd-graders can do it, then so can adults. Maybe Jesus is using these children to show us adults the way to eternal life absent the stain of sin, so we don’t have to spend any “time” in Purgatory. Anyway, their performance was splendid last Saturday morning, from what I could gather. They came, they confessed, they conquered the devil on their own level. May they continue to come to the Sacrament when needed, praying that their parents will make certain their children do not forget the process and necessity of how to receive God’s forgiveness through the Sacrament, conquering the wiles of the devil in their precious lives.
After 2nd-graders, maybe we can turn to our youth, especially our fantastic high school students here at St. Anne’s. High schoolers are past their childish ways (for the most part) and have entered a land of more serious choices and relationships. I’m not so old (yet) where I’ve forgotten what my teenage years were like. Wanting to be liked by the entire world was important to me. That idea has gone out the window, never to return. Whenever I go out in public nowadays, I always expect someone to come up to me and say something like, “Father, do you really believe all that religion stuff? How about the real world? The world of sense and time? Don’t you feel like you’re missing out on life being a party all the time? That’s the real world, Father. You should give it a try.” I suppose my held-back, tethered response would be something along the lines of, “My friend, I’ve tried and lived in your real world for many years. I found it, at least on my part, rather unsatisfactory. It has no capacity to satisfy the deepest yearnings of my heart, which is to be in intimate relation with my God and Savior. You should give my real world a try, rather than living in your real world with the fake news that “eating, drinking, and being merry” all the time is somehow the highpoint of this very quick life.” This is about as soft as I could get.
Back to the high-schoolers. Their “real world” is academics, sports, relationships, and, at times, the feeling of trying to get through each day. Whether they realize it or not, they are at a beautiful age in life. A hard age in some ways, surrounded by so much turmoil and the dangers of technology in our world. Regarding the turmoil, maybe they ask, ‘Why can’t these older adults just get along?” Good question. What would be very nice to see them add to the above list of their “real world” is a relationship with God that binds them to God’s Church each and every week. Where it’s not a chore, but an encounter with the living God. As adults who embrace our faith, this is our hope for teenagers living in a complex world, trying to figure out where their next step will take them. We pray their lives will be guided by the hand of God, rather than by the hand of the present age. Only God can lead them to where they are called in life, and only in God will they ever find true happiness.
Personally, I love any teenager who is brave and wise enough to look at the culture in which they are maturing, recognize certain parts of it as detrimental to their personal well-being and authentic happiness, and say to themselves, “I want nothing to do with that way of thinking and living. Instead, I want Jesus as my guide, and my Catholic faith as my source of love.” And, that they possess the further wisdom to apply the many advantages of their Catholic faith, such as using the Sacrament of Reconciliation to clean up any hardness in their hearts, to do away with their sins and start anew with the Lord. Or even something as simple as saying a short prayer to the Holy Spirit, asking for assistance before an exam in school, praying for guidance and a clear mind to think well in the taking of their exam. In other words, think of God often, and consider the countless ways God’s presence in their lives will assist them rather than thinking God holds them back in any way. With the Lord, we advance forward as a person, especially in difficulties. Without the Lord…well, I think you know the answer.
Now, from teenagers to full-fledged adults regarding the Sacrament of Reconciliation. This is the tough group. Children and teenagers are a great joy compared to adults and the Sacrament of Penance. Us adults come up with too many excuses, and no good reasons, for not taking advantage of God’s free forgiveness. How can I say this? Because their exists in the real world no good reason for not seeking God’s mercy that comes with no cost. Usually, most everything has a cost to it. When’s the last time you walked into TJ Maxx, found a sweater or pants you love, and it didn’t have a price tag on it? If you brought this item to the counter, and the cashier saw there was no price tag attached to the item, they would immediately call a manager who would either find a price on a similar item, or, they would remove the item altogether from the possibility of you purchasing something you would look soooooo good in. Do you know what else adults look soooo good in? The confessional! Some adults think they do not look so good in a confessional, but the angels who are warming up their voices to sing and rejoice when you finish your confession, they think you “look marvelous,” as Billy Crystal used to say so eloquently. In fact, you look like a million bucks, like the cleanest, newest Cadillac coming off the assembly line, when you finish the project of closing the gap with God. And this gap-closing is a concern for many of us adults. Are we wise enough and brave enough as 2nd-graders to know when the gap we’ve created by our sins has become much too wide with our loving, merciful, and just God? Do we possess the self-awareness to look at ourselves and say, “This space between myself and my Lord is just too big. I must muster up the courage to close this gap in short order, and not procrastinate any longer.”
As adults, the need for God’s mercy is supreme in our lives. I’ve heard one too many stories of people who have had a bad experience in their desire to receive God’s forgiveness in the Sacrament of Penance. With this sad reality for a few too many good folks in seeking what’s good for their bodies and souls, I have two thoughts. First, most every priest does not fall into the category of “supreme judgment” on a penitent. This is my personal experience as a penitent who has sought out the Sacrament of Reconciliation for years on end. Most every priest seeks to extend, in persona Christi, the same mercy with whom Jesus touched so many in his ministry, finishing with the words, “Go and sin no more.” Granted, there are those priests, few in number, for whatever their not-so-good reasons may be, who hear confessions with a disposition of bringing the hammer down on the one seeking God’s mercy. I pray that such a sad spectacle, if and when this happens to someone genuinely seeking God’s forgiveness, will not keep a person away from the need to confess our sins to a priest. Second, if this sad spectacle has happened, keep in mind the need for God’s mercy must rise above the faults of other humans, even priests, and be sought for the good of our souls, the good of our faith, and the good of our relationship with God.
In the second reading this week at Mass, St. Peter’s 2nd Letter offers us words to ponder on the subject of confession. God “is patient with you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah asks elsewhere, “Who can know the mind of God?” Answer? No human can fully know the mind of God, but we can know certain things about how God thinks, if you will. One of the ways God thinks, which makes perfect sense why Jesus was “obedient even unto death, even death on a cross,” is the Divine thought that God wishes no one to perish. This is a pretty amazing thought if we consider it closely. God who created us, the Potter creating, forming and shaping us through his personal clay, wants all of us to make it home one day. This is God’s thought on the matter of salvation. Every person is on an even playing field concerning God’s desire for us to know forever his complete joy. And, as St. Peter wrote back then, the Lord is patient with erring souls, sinful souls, souls perpetrating evil in word and deed, calling us to his mercy, living in holiness through our chasing after his mercy. Which is much, much better for us than chasing after the wind of this world.
Advent is a season for watching, as Jesus taught us in last week’s Gospel from Mark. Watching, not for the Patriots to win, which they will again at some point. But watching for when the door to the confessional is open for business. Stepping in softly with the desire for Divine Mercy. And leaving, we pray, with a new sense of who we are called to be before our Lord and Savior; a person who seeks to live in holiness, and letting the ultimate judgment of other people reside with God alone, where it belongs. If only one person returns this year to the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and closes the gap between themselves and the Lord Jesus, then this article was worth the effort. In the meantime, keep an eye on the prize arriving in Bethlehem. An 8-pound Jewish baby boy wrapped in swaddling clothes with two adults named Mary and Joseph.