Life’s lesson teaches us that when we get dirty, we should take a bath or have a shower, as the case may be. Oh yes! Recall returning from a heavy day’s work in the office or from the farm, how you could not wait to clean yourself up? Or returning from a workout or from the field of soccer, tennis, baseball or basketball, or any sport of your choice! You were sweaty and smelly; your sporting gear or work clothes all wet with sweat; you could not wait to get home and into the bathtub for a thorough clean up. Now reflect on how you felt after your shower or after some minutes in the tub. You felt clean and fresh. Then you put on your lotion, some powder and colon or perfume. You really smelt good, looked beautiful and now you are ready to go for dinner. Your day is complete and you want to go to bed, fulfilled and contented. These are simple instructions from life. If we do not pay heed to these lessons, we remain dirty, unkempt, unclean and undesirable and soon enough, you begin to lose friends. Who wants to befriend a dirty, smelly and untidy person?
Now what lesson can we learn from the Church? Many you chimed in! And you are right. The Church has taught us many lessons. But in this blog post, my concern is the sacrament of reconciliation. As our bodies are dirty due to work, workout or sporting activities, so too are our souls. As we go about our daily duties and are concerned with life, we gather some dirt called sin and they cling to our souls. If these go unchecked, they begin to rob us of our peace, our joy and gradually our relationship with God and our brothers and sisters are affected. The sacrament is one of the channels of Grace that Christ gave to the Church after his resurrection. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “Through the sacraments of Christian initiation, man receives the new life of Christ. Now we carry this life “in earthen vessels,” and it remains “hidden with Christ in God.” We are still in our “earthly tent,” subject to suffering, illness, and death. This new life as a child of God can be weakened and even lost by sin.” The Catechism goes on to remind us: “The Lord Jesus Christ, physician of our souls and bodies, who forgave the sins of the paralytic and restored him to bodily health, has willed that his Church continue, in the power of the Holy Spirit, his work of healing and salvation, even among her own members. This is the purpose of the two sacraments of healing: the sacrament of Penance and the sacrament of Anointing of the Sick.”
Isn’t it sad that very few members of the Church use this sacrament? Many see it as old fashion, outdated or obsolete. Really? It baffles me that many of us would readily spend money to go for counseling but are slow to approach the throne of Grace freely given in the sacrament of reconciliation. Yet the Catechism teaches us that “Those who approach the sacrament of Penance obtain pardon from God’s mercy for the offense committed against him, and are at the same time, reconciled with the Church which they have wounded by their sins and which by charity, by example, and by prayer labors for their conversion.”
One of the best ways to celebrate the resurrection of Christ from the death is to purify ourselves of sins through the sacrament of reconciliation, so called, as the Catechism teaches “because it imparts to the sinner the love of God.” He who lives by God’s merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord’s call: “Go, first be reconciled to your brother.” Pope Benedict XVI links the sacrament of reconciliation to the work of evangelization. In his address to1300 priests and deacons who were participating in an annual course regarding confession and matters of conscience on March 9, 2012 in Vatican City, the Holy Father exhort:
“Thus sacramental confession is an important aspect of new evangelization. “True conversion of hearts, which means opening ourselves to the transforming and regenerative actions of God, is the ‘motor’ of all reform and turns into an authentic force for evangelization. During Confession, the repentant sinner, thanks to the gratuitous action of divine Mercy, is justified, forgiven and sanctified… Only those who allow themselves to be profoundly renewed by divine Grace can internalize and therefore announce the novelty of the Gospel”. All saints in history bear witness to this close relationship between sanctity and the Sacrament of Reconciliation. New evangelization itself “draws life blood from the sanctity of the sons and daughters of the Church, from the daily process of individual and community conversion, conforming itself ever more profoundly to Christ.”
The sacrament of reconciliation offers us the chance to humble ourselves before God our father, acknowledge our short comings, as the prodigal son in Luke’s Gospel 15, and hence receive forgiveness of our sins. It is the washing or the shower that we need for our souls. The penance that we receive will make us feel clean and refresh so that we may have the courage to face a new day with strength.
So if you have not yet done so, I exhort you to make use of this sacrament. Approach it with love and humility, fear not the priest, he is only a mediator between you and God, and he will bring down blessing and forgiveness from God to you. Listen again to the words of Christ in John’s Gospel 20:22-23: “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” The Church truly has the power to forgive sins and Christ gave that power in the sacrament of reconciliation.
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