Lovely painting, really.
To be honest, I go to confession a lot. Because, believe it or not, I screw up a lot. When I hear from some priests that they only suggest their penitents go once a month, it baffles me. It’s silly, really. What they should be saying? Come as often as you need.
After all, wasn’t that what our Holy Father’s Jubilee Year of Mercy was all about? Not being bound by our sins, but rather, giving them to God in this wonderful Sacrament of the Church. Naming those things that separate us from God so that we may be reunited with Him. Without the confession of our sins, we are dead in those sins. God desires to give us all the free Grace won from the cross that is sanctifying unto eternal life. Closed fists and denying the reality of our sinfulness will keep our souls stinky and stagnant. It behooves every Catholic to frequent the Sacrament of Penance. We must always have open hands when it comes to reconciling with the Lord.
A month or so ago, my Bishop said mass at my parish. His homily was on point. Basically, he was talking about how the Catholic Church is not about individuals. No one is saved by their own efforts and on their lonesome. One does not even go to church just to reaffirm what they believe personally as individuals. Instead, one goes to church to receive what God has for them. In the case of the Catholic? He goes to receive the Word Incarnate. This primarily done in the Liturgy of the Word by hearing and expounding upon the divine richness of Sacred Scripture, but most fully realized in the Holy Eucharist. Yet none of that Grace found in the Sacrament will do any good if the priest is not there to consecrate bread for a congregation. Indeed, without the Church assembling in a church, there is no Church. One cannot be a Church of One. That is, the preaching of the Word of God and His infusion into the souls of sinners through the Sacraments will not happen unless we show up on Sunday. Because if we cannot be bothered by showing up then, how can we expect to be God’s Presence to others in the world? Fact is, we won’t be.
As a Catholic, I believe that Jesus died for every man so that all men might be saved and come to a saving knowledge of the truth. Yet I cannot do that on my own. I cannot just open up a Bible and by reading, hope to save myself. I cannot cobble up a Sinner’s Prayer and disown the Sacraments. I cannot stay at home and dally in the garden and say that did my soul better than being a church with a bunch of noisy screaming babies. I must acknowledge that God uses people to impart the Saving Faith of the Gospel.
When it comes to the forgiveness of sins, it might be fruitful to examine quickly the formula of Absolution encountered in a confessional. That prayer goes:
God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins; 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.
Notice that in this prayer, the forgiveness starts with God. He alone, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit has the power to forgive sins. Yet is precisely through “the ministry of the Church” that God decides to give “pardon and peace” to the sinner. Without the Church, we do not know God. Indeed, in the twentieth chapter of St. John, Jesus confers upon His Apostles the power to bind and to loose sins. It’s an interesting choice concerning how God decides to give His salvation through sinful men. But I’m not God so I cannot argue methinks.
There is something frightfully personal about being reconciled to Him and the Church. Because whatsoever we do to the least of His brethren, we have done unto Him. Likewise we ought to confess our sins to one another. This confrontation is awkward. It isn’t pretty. But that’s chiefly because of the ugliness of sin. Thankfully, this Sacrament isn’t in public like in the Early Church, and it is done one on one with a priest, but it’s still mandatory. And I’m thankful it’s a tenant of Holy Mother Church to go to confession at least a once a year (preferably during the Lenten season). While God is not bound to the Sacraments and we are, it is vital to the life of the Christian to know his sins. And to know what he does affects the whole Body of Christ.
May God the Holy Spirit always illumine and convict our hearts, giving us the courage to present ourselves before the Father through His Son, and so obtain forgiveness of our sins.
Amen.
The Rowdy Hobbit 