From the Bishops Confession is the best way to prepare for the grace of baptism at Easter

Apr 7, 2011

The Lenten practices of prayer, fasting and almsgiving are not ends in themselves. The less we are full of ourselves, the more room there is to welcome Jesus into the circumstances of our lives. During these weeks, we imitate the 40 days Jesus spent in the desert. We think more clearly about God's purpose for our lives, and we face our temptations more honestly.

Unlike Jesus, we find that we have fallen for temptations and substituted, at least in part, our own plans for God's life giving design. We have sinned. As we face our weakness and sin, we keep in mind the mystery of the Lord's cross and resurrection that we will soon celebrate. And we have hope we will not be left alone in the desert to die in our sins. Jesus Himself provides opportunities for refreshment on our Lenten journey to Easter. In particular, He invites us to experience healing and reconciliation in the sacrament of penance.

Once we have recognized the fact of sin in our lives, we should take advantage of the sacrament of penance, where, in the person of the priest, we meet the Lord. He has already demonstrated His love for sinners by dying on the cross. He wants to apply the power of the cross to you and me in particular in this sacramental encounter.

Why would we avoid this opportunity to meet the Lord who desires to communicate forgiveness and life? I think we avoid confessing our sins and receiving absolution by giving in to a temptation that comes in two parts. The first part of the temptation leads me to think that my sins don't matter, that they are really unimportant in the great scheme of things. Even after committing a serious or mortal sin, I can wake up the next day, go on with life and convince myself that nothing much has changed. A guilty conscience, which is a blessing that helps me judge the truth about myself, can be dulled by avoiding sincere prayer and sound teaching. I can convince myself that sin is simply a violation of another's standards, rather than a violation of God's will and my human dignity or the dignity of another.

The second part of the temptation leads me to accept an exaggerated sense of the reality of sin. Having acknowledged a serious sin, or a pattern of sinful behavior that may have gone on for years, I can think of myself as defeated, hopeless. I doubt that a change of heart is possible. I doubt the power of God's grace and love. Perhaps God forgives others, but He couldn't possibly want life for me.

I say these are really two parts of the same temptation. It is the temptation to keep Jesus out of our lives, or at least to keep Him on the fringe. That is always the work of the devil, isn't it, to get us to reason ourselves into a world without Jesus? His mission from the Father is to save us from sin, from ourselves, even at the cost of His own life. The prayer, fasting and almsgiving of Lent have only one purpose, to help us be more open to the presence and action of Jesus for our salvation.

I encourage you to plan to celebrate the sacrament of penance and reconciliation before Easter. Your sins and mine have hurt us, they have hurt the Body of Christ, the Church, and they have offended God. That is the truth that cannot be reasoned away. We can face that truth because we know that what has been broken can be restored in and through Jesus Christ. There will be many opportunities in all of our parishes in the coming weeks for this sacramental encounter with Jesus, our Savior and brother.

There are a number of published guides to help Catholics make a good confession. The priest is always ready to assist the penitent, especially one who has been away from the sacrament for a long time. Try to picture how Jesus always welcomed weak and sinful people. He is waiting to welcome you in just the same way.

Our appreciation for this sacrament, as well as our desire for its benefits, can be deepened by a reflection on the elements that make up this meeting with the merciful Lord. It begins with our contrition, a heartfelt sorrow for sin and the intention of sinning no more. We will express this formally in a prayer of contrition during the sacrament, but it is really contrition that gets us in the door.

The sacrament of penance includes the confession of particular sins and their frequency. They flow from knowledge of self before God and from contrition for our sins. We face this self knowledge and make a confession of sins always in the light of God's mercy. The penitent opens his or her heart to the priest, who acts in the person of Christ who gave the Church the authority to forgive sins.

The priest gives a penance that helps us in two ways. We offer a prayer or a good act to God as a way of making up in some small way for the damage - the injustice - done by our sins. By performing the penance we also take a step away from sin and in the direction of Christ.

Finally the priest speaks the words of absolution, the sign that God is granting pardon to the penitent. God wants us to hear these powerful words with our own ears. They refute the lie that sin is either trivial or unforgivable. This is the welcome home to our Father's house, the restoration of our inheritance of grace.

The Rite of Penance states: "In the sacrament of penance the Father receives the repentant children who come back to Him, Christ places the lost sheep on His shoulders and brings them back to the sheepfold, and the Holy Spirit resanctifies those who are the temple of God or dwells more fully in them."

There is no better way to prepare to be renewed in the grace of baptism at Easter.


Reprinted with permission from the The Catholic Voice Online.

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