We are the ones who need to reflect deeply on our lives and become aware of the ways in which we have gone astray. People ask me all the time: Why does God need a priest and Confession to forgive our sins? But of course, God doesn’t need a priest and Confession to forgive our sins. But that “death to self” is necessary if we are to “live in Christ.” And then have faith that I will be at work in your life, often in ways you won’t be able to see.” What God asks, and what the priest tells us in his name is: “Take a few simple steps. God isn’t demanding we become perfect in an instant. God’s grace works over time, and God works in His own time. Usually that change won’t come instantly or easily. I go to Confession not to change God, but to let God change me. I know from looking at the crucifix before I go into confession that He loves and has already forgiven me. No, we love, “because God has loved us first.” (1 Jn 4) It is only by accepting God’s love and forgiveness that I can be changed. Not because by doing these things I mistakenly imagine that I’m “earning” God’s love and forgiveness. So after Confession, I take those first few “baby steps” in a new direction by doing my penance, fully and faithfully. And if my heart is truly changed, then I need to begin to live differently as well. The grace of the sacrament works by changing my heart. God’s transforming love doesn’t leave me in my sin its goal is to transform me now. It’s about realizing that the Christ’s forgiveness isn’t just something out there, somewhere in the disembodied void – a chit I can trade in some day when I’m facing either heaven or hell. No one who truly loves you and forgives you wants to leave you in your sin, any more than people who love and forgive alcoholics want them to remain enslaved to alcohol.ĭoing penance after Confession is about making those first few steps in a new direction. The next step is for that love to change my heart and set me on a new course in life. But it would be a mistake for me to think that the forgiveness is the final step in the process when forgiveness is the first step. The question now is: Am I still going to be a thief? A priest (Padre Pio) hears a confessionįorgiveness opens the door to a changed relationship and a new life. Now let’s say that, because you love me, and because you want nothing more than to reconcile with me, make me your friend once again, and see me move forward and flourish, you forgive me. In stealing, I have made myself into a thief. “Forgiving” is something the other person does what do I do? Have we internalized that forgiveness? Has it changed us? Have we truly said “yes” to God’s transforming love? And that forgiveness is made present for us by the work of His Holy Spirit.īut if God has already forgiven us, and if Confession makes that forgiveness present to us in concrete, visible, audible ways, what’s the penance for?Įven if someone forgives you, this by itself doesn’t mean you are yet, in yourself, different. Christ has already won that forgiveness for us by means of His sacrifice on the cross. Doing penance isn’t a way of earning God’s forgiveness nor, for that matter, is going to Confession. Shouldn’t you have to do the penance first, and then get absolution? But from a voice inside that little room, you hear words of forgiveness even before you’ve done your penance. Not only do you go into a little room and say, out loud, all your deepest, darkest sins. But I was pretty sure he would say: “Now for your penance, go to the end of the line and say Hail Marys until everyone else is done.”Ĭonfession is an odd thing. Would he deny me absolution? Probably not. I just jumped in front of everyone else.” What if I jump the line, kneel down in the confessional and say: “Forgive me, Father, for I have sinned. I remember standing at the back of just such a long line waiting for confession once when I had this terrible thought. It’s Lent: a good time for Confession, although you have to be careful about the longer lines.
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