It seems that many people today either ignore or reject the
sacrament of Reconciliation. In my day,
growing up, it was called the sacrament of Penance, or Confession. It is that sacrament in which a Catholic
confesses his/her sins to a priest in a confessional in the church or some
other private setting. While in grade
school and high school, I received this sacrament monthly. The precept of the Church that relates to Confession states that we must receive this sacrament at least once a year if
we have committed serious sin. It is
somewhat intimidating to enter a confessional and kneel before a priest (behind
a screen) and confess serious sin.
People today seem to dismiss serious sin as not being so serious, and so
they never receive this sacrament. They
feel that they are then in compliance with the precept. Examples of serious sins that are seemingly
rationalized as being not so serious are:
missing Mass on Sunday, use of artificial methods of birth control,
cohabitating and having sex outside of marriage, aborting a baby … it is really
a pretty long list. I believe that the
need for repentance today is tremendous. Many people today seem to have a poorly formed conscience.
John the Baptist preached the importance of repentance for salvation, and so did Jesus. Three parables of Jesus come to my mind when
thinking about repentance: The Parable
of the Lost Sheep, the Parable of the Lost Coin, and the Parable of the
Prodigal Son. In the case of the lost
sheep, a shepherd (God) has lost one sheep (a sinner) out of a hundred sheep in
his flock. The shepherd ultimately finds
the sheep (the sinner repents) and the entire community (heaven) rejoices. In the case of the lost coin, a woman (God)
has lost a coin (a sinner). The woman “seeks
diligently until she finds it” (the sinner repents) and she then rejoices with
her friends and neighbors (heaven). In
the case of the prodigal son, a father (God) loses his son (a sinner) when the
son squanders his property (commits sin) and winds up hungry and destitute (experiences
the effects of sin) and subsequently returns home and asks forgiveness
(repents). The father then hugs and
kisses him, dresses him in the finest robe, kills the fatted calf, and puts on
a feast (admits him into heaven).
Jesus instituted the sacrament of Reconciliation as the repentance
tool to be used so that we may return to God after committing serious sin. Sometime after the resurrection, Jesus said to
His apostles: “Receive the Holy Spirit, whose sins you shall forgive they are
forgiven them and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” This is the scriptural basis for the private confession
to a priest. The priest is a successor
of the apostles and so has this power to forgive and retain.
The reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation is liberating,
even exhilarating. Patrick Madrid, in
his book Why Be Catholic puts it this
way: “To actually verbalize one’s sins
to another human being, a fellow sinner himself, to own up and take
responsibility for the evil acts one has committed, to speak them out loud, is
tremendously liberating. Even more
liberating is hearing the words of absolution from the priest and knowing you
have been forgiven by God.” These words
of absolution include this statement: “…
through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace, and I
absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit.” I know what Madrid is
talking about. There have been times
when I have walked out of the confessional with tears in my eyes.
My prayer for today: Lord,
please give your people the strength to recognize serious sin and the courage
to seek repentance through the sacrament of Reconciliation. Amen
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