We said earlier that blessing ourselves with holy water reminds us of our need to cleanse our soul before we approach the altar and, most especially, before we go forward to receive the Most Holy Body and Blood of Jesus in Communion. If we look to the right of the holy water font,we can see the place where we can receive the first Easter gift that Jesus gave His Church (that means us!) after He rose from the dead. On Easter Sunday evening, He appeared to the Apostles, breathed on them, and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven: if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." With these words He instituted the Sacrament of Penance and gave His priests the special authority to forgive sins.
Some non-Catholics ask why we don't just confess our sins to God, why go to a priest a mere man? Bishop Fulton J. Sheen once said that when we go to Confession, we should "look a the priest behind the priest" and remember that Jesus is working through the priest to help us examine our lives and recognize areas where we are falling short in our efforts to follow Jesus. Sin separates us from God. God always loves us, but when we sin, we put a barrier between ourselves and Him. We push Him away when we say-- in a sense-- that we prefer to do what pleases us rather than what we know would be pleasing to God.
Through His precious gift of the Sacrament of Penance (also called Reconciliation), God calls to us and give us the merciful opportunity to have our minds-- no matter how small or how terrible-- forgiven. Thus, the relationships between ourselves and God and between ourselves and the Mystical Body (the Church) are restored. We are reconciled.
Another awesome aspect of this Sacrament? We are given sanctifying grace that will give us the strength to battle future temptations.
Knowing all of this, some Catholics still do not accept Jesus' gift of this Sacrament. Once when Saint John Vianney, a holy priest who live in France years ago, was about to enter his confessional, he was granted a special vision by God. He saw that surrounding his parishioners were evil spirits who were tempting his people with thoughts like the following.
- I am so terrible that God could never forgive me.
- Father will think less of me if I tell him my sins.
- That priest is just a man. I will just tell Jesus I am sorry.
- I sinned, but it wasn't really my fault.
- I am not going to confess my sins to that man.
- I'll wait and go before I die.
- God love us. He would never let anyone go to Hell, so I don't need to worry about how I am living.
One other temptation the devil also sends. "My sins aren't that bad. I don't need to go to Confession." Did you know that Pope John Paul II and Mother Teresa both went to Confession at least once a week? If they felt called by God to seek graces of Confession, then surely the rest of us need to open that door and humble ourselves before our Saviour, who gave us this awesome gift.
to be continued...
