PREPARING FOR THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION

Reflection 2

Two thousand years ago, it was the unique role of John the Baptist to prepare the hearts of the people of Israel to receive the long awaited Messiah. In his work of preparation, John called the people to repent of sin, to repent of anything that would hinder them from opening their hearts fully to the Messiah. Some responded to the call to repentance and were baptized, others didn’t. They either saw no need for change or they didn’t want to change.

Today, the call to turn away from sin and to choose Christ continues to go out to each of us. Sometimes we hear that call and turn from our sin and sometimes we may ignore the call because we may become attached to a particular sinful pattern of behavior.

For us as Catholics, the Sacrament of Reconciliation has been the normal way for us to deal with sin. Of course, today many Catholics follow the Protestant practice of going directly to God.

Why Confession to a Priest? Why not go directly to God?

For most Christians sin has always been a ‘God-and-me’ experience. Many believe their sin offends God alone and he is to the one they need to reconcile with. The Catholic Church has never looked upon sin as just a ‘God-and-me’ experience. In Catholic Tradition sin has always been regarded as a ‘God-community-and-me’ experience. In other words our sin impacts not only our relationship with God but also our relationship with the whole Body of Christ. While sin may be personal it is never private. Our church teaches that every sin, no matter how private, has a community or social dimension. For example, if a church full of people held a lighted candle to symbolize their baptismal call to ‘walk as a child of the light’ and a few people in the church hid their candle there would be less light in the church. The decision of a few people or even one person to hide his/her light would diminish the light in the whole church. So it is with us and our sin and its impact on the entire Body of Christ. Our sin, no matter how private means that the light of Christ has been diminished in our community and world. When we are selfish or unkind or slanderous, love in the world has been diminished. When we lie there is less truth in our world. When we are greedy there is less generosity in our world. When I am less than my best self, the world is in some small but real way less than it could be.

So our sin always has social or communal implications. If this is so, then reconciliation of sin should occur within the context of community. The best outward expression of this reconciliation occurs within a Communal Penance Service. On such an occasion we gather as community to confess that our sin has weakened the community. We come together to do what the Confiteor states:

I confess to almighty God,
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you, my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

During a Communal Penance Service we confess not only to God but also to each other for what we have done wrong and for the good we have failed to do (sins of omission). Our Christian vocation doesn’t just call us to avoid sin, but it also calls us to do good. As someone once said: “all that is needed for evil to succeed is for good people to do nothing.” A simple example of this is being silent when someone’s name is being slandered or when some act of injustice is occurring. So during a Communal Penance Service, we confess to God and to the community. Then the priest-confessor who represents the whole Christ - Head and members, proclaims words of absolution. At that moment, it is as if Christ and the whole community are saying to us: “We forgive you, go now and begin anew your vocation to walk as a child of the light.” Of course, when confessions are heard in a non-communal setting, the same reconciliation occurs, but in a less visible way. But even in that setting hopefully our intention is to say we are sorry to not only God but also the community. The priest represents Christ and the community and forgives us in the name of both. I think most of us tend to forget the social or communal dimension of sin. We tend to think of is as something private between God and us. Hopefully, this column will help all of us to be more aware of the social and communal dimension of sin.

Some Questions to Reflect on Prior to Receiving the Sacrament of Reconciliation

I think for some Catholics their examination of conscience is a bit narrow and superficial. Some may think their Christian call simply consists of avoiding sin, “ not doing any harm to anyone” and taking care of their family. They have little or no sense of sins of omission or their responsibility to help the lesser well off members of our society. Their sense of stewardship may rarely reach beyond their own families. The following questions should help us to broaden our examination of conscience.

Do I take time to nurture my relationship with God in prayer or does God usually get my leftovers—a few quick prayers as I go to bed?

Do I speak to God honestly from my heart or do I tend to just ‘say prayers’ without ever sharing with God what is going on inside of me? Is my relationship real or is it superficial?

To what extent do I try to seek God’s will when it comes to decisions? Or is it my tendency to rarely, if ever, take the time to search what might be God’s will in a particular situation?

Is my Catholic faith something I am very private about or is it something I am happy to share with others when the right opportunity presents itself?

To what extent do my Christian beliefs impact the way I live my everyday life—the way I relate to others, deal with hurts, work and finances?

To what extent am I a positive presence in my family, extended family, work place and church family? Do my words and actions build up or tear down, foster unity or division?

Do I tend to be judgmental of others, ever ready like the Pharisees to expose the sins of another while forgetting to face and confess my own sins?

Do I tend to abuse food, alcohol or drugs? Do I look at or read pornographic materials thinking, “It hurts nobody?”

Have I abused the gift of speech by using vulgar language and by being verbally abusive of others?

Do I remain silent when the good name of another is being attacked, forgetting that “all that is needed for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing?"

Do I tend to be proud, vain, egotistical, lie, steal or cheat?

Whether married or single, do I seek to be chaste in mind word and deed?

To what extent am I a prayerful and engaged presence at church? Or do I tend to be a spectator frequently criticizing the way the liturgy is being conducted?

To what extent am I a wise and generous steward of the Lord’s gifts of time, treasure and talent? Or do I tend to be stingy with the Lord’s blessings in my life? Do I share a portion of my time and treasure or talent with the larger community to which I belong, remembering those to whom much has been given and much is to be expected?

Where am I when it comes to the great issues of our time: protection of human life, born and unborn, poverty, war and the environment? While I cannot be actively involved in all of these, I am supportive of those who are involved and do I try to be personally supportive insofar as my time, talent and treasure allow me?

Some of you reading this column may not have gone to the Sacrament of Reconciliation for years. You may have lost a sense of sin, you may have a lot of fear about the Sacrament due to past bad experiences or you may believe you can deal with you sin directly with God. Most of the time most, if not all of us, do deal with sin directly with God. But sometimes it is good and important for us to gather with our parish community to acknowledge our common sinfulness, to acknowledge that our sin does in fact have social ramifications. It is good for us to confess that our selfishness has diminished the light of Christ in our midst even if we have a difficult time seeing this. It is good medicine for our pride to humbly admit our sins to another. Naming and confessing our sins especially the more serious ones is an excellent way for us to ‘doctor our soul’.

Without confession we allow sin to take hold in our hearts. The presence of unconfessed sin is like a cancer eating up our sense of God, our sense of right and wrong. We should have absolutely no doubt that ‘confession is excellent medicine for our soul’. It is good for us psychologically and spiritually. The sacrament properly prepared for and received also gives us the grace to fight future temptation to sin and helps us to make choices that will strengthen and not weaken our commitment to Christ. So if you have not received the grace of this sacrament in years, I am especially hoping and praying that God will give you the courage to ‘bite the bullet’ and come to one of the opportunities available for confessions throughout the year. If you are not sure what to say to the priest, just say: “It’s been a long time since my last confession, and I am not sure how to proceed.” The priest will help you.

Finally, all of us need to remember that the primary focus of the sacrament is not me and my sin, but God and his mercy. The primary focus of the parable of the Prodigal son is not the son and his sin but the awesome mercy that God was willing to offer a son who may have been only half sorry for his sins.