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St Peter’s Church, Padungan, Kuching, in the Archdiocese of Kuching.

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Reconciliation

Encountering the Mercy of God

By Fr. George Kosicki, CSB

 

What is most important about “going to confession?”  Is it examining our conscience and preparing a list of our sins since our last confession?  Is it telling our sins to the priest and saying our act of contrition?  Or is it receiving the absolution of the Church through the priest and doing our penance?

            Certainly all  these are important, but I like to think of confession as a four-step movement toward a deeper encounter with Christ – an encounter in which our misery meets His mercy.

            What are the four steps?  To reflect on our lives, to repent of our sins, to receive mercy, and to respond by being merciful to others.

 

Reflect

                In preparing for this encounter with Christ we need to call upon the Holy Spirit, asking Him to show us our sins to “convict” us of our sins (see John 16:8).  Pope John Paul II says that this is one of the chief works of the Holy Spirit.

            Why does the Holy Spirit convict us of sin?  To make us feel guilty?  No.  The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so that we can see ourselves as we really are, recognizing the depth of our sinfulness, our weakness, and our need for God’s mercy.

            As we allow the Holy Spirit to do this, we discover what sin is.  Sin is simply a turning away from God.  It doesn’t change God or diminish His love for us.  It separated us from Him.

            If I turn away from the light of the sun and enter a cave, I place myself in darkness.  The sun hasn’t changed, and its light is still available to me.   All I have to do is come out of the cave.

            In the same way, when I turn away from God and enter the cave of my self-oriented concerns and desires, I place myself in sin.  God hasn’t changed, and His love and forgiveness are always available.  I simply need to come back into His presence.

            Before going to confession, then, we need to do more than simply come up with a quick “grocery list” of sins.  We need to spend time in prayer and reflection, asking (and allowing ) the Holy Spirit to walk us through the various types of sin, so that we can clearly see all the ways in which we have turned away from God – not so that we will become depressed, but so that, in the confessional, we can come before God as we really are, convinced of our need for His mercy and longing to receive it.

            Our confession becomes especially fruitful if we can first recognize and then verbalise to the priest the area of our lives where we need mercy the most.

            The following list may prove helpful in examining, under the light of the Holy Spirit, the possible types of sin in your life.              

 

Sins of Commission

 

                The sins against The Ten Commandments:

1.     I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no false gods before Me.

2.     You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3.     Keep Holy the Sabbath Day.

4.     Honour your father and mother.

5.     You shall not kill.

6.     You shall not commit adultery.

7.     You shall not steal.

8.     You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9.     You shall not covet your neighbour’s wife.

10.                        You shall not covet your neighbour’s goods.

 

Sins of Omission

·        Omitting to love one another as Jesus loves us (John 15:12).

·        Omitting to be merciful as the Father is merciful (Luke 6:36).

·        Omitting to forgive another as we are forgiven (Matthew 6:14-15).

 

Sins of Waste

 

·        Waste of graces

·        Waste of talents.

·        Waste of suffering.

 

The Father chose the way of suffering for His Son Jesus to bring forgiveness and mercy to all mankind.  He has asked us to make use of our suffering, uniting it with Christ’s (see Philippians 1:29; Colossians 1:24; Luke 9:23)

 

Sins of Idolatry

·        Making idols of possessions.

·        Making idols of success.

·        Making idols of reputation (and the list goes on and on).

 

Sins of Self-Salvation

·        Trying to save ourselves by our own efforts.

·        Trying to save ourselves, without considering others.

·        Trying to live without God.

 

Repent

                Having revealed to us the ways in which we have turned away from God, the Holy Spirit now invites us to turn back.  This turning back is called “repentance.”

            In the confessional, aware of our sinfulness, we turn back to God through His representative, the priest, as we really are.  Nothing hidden, no excuses, fully exposed to the view of God.

            In our sinfulness, we ask for forgiveness.  In our sickness, we ask for healing.  In our weakness, we ask for strength.  In our misery, we ask for mercy.  We stand before God empty, humble, and repentant, determined to amend our lives and resolved to make reparation and do penance.

            But we don’t do this in a spirit of sadness.  We do it with joy!  Confession is not a tribunal of judgment where we have others accusing as and a judge to condemn us.  As Saint Maria Faustina explains (Diary 1448), confession is a “Tribunal of Mercy,” where we accuse ourselves under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who stands by our side as our defense lawyer so that we may receive, not judgment, but MERCY.

 

Receive

                This is the heart of the Sacrament of Reconcilaition.  We come to the “Tribunal of Mercy,” not to be judged, but to receive mercy.  Realising how much we have allowed ourselves to become filled with thoughts, concerns, anxieties, and values that are not of God, we consciously try to empty ourselves of all these things so that God can fill us with His mercy.  The more we empty ourselves, the more we can be filled.

            It all comes down to trust.  Trust is the key to receiving God’s mercy.  The more we trutst that God really loves us, really cares about us in a personal way – no matter how bad our sins have been – the more we can let go of all the things that prevent us from being filled with His love.  He told Saint Faustina:  Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet, (Diary 699).  The more a soul trusts, the more it will receive (Diary 1578).

            The very words of absolution that the Church places on the lips of the lips of the priest speak of this great gift of mercy that we receive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation:

 

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.

 

Respond  

 

                We don’t receive this gift of mercy just for ourselves.  Having received it, we’re supposed to give it away.  God wants to fill us with so much mercy that it will overflow from us to others.

            He makes this very clear in His words to Saint Faustina:  When a soul approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls (Diary 1074).

This outpouring of God’s mercy to others is not an optional response.  It’s a requirement.

            “Give freely what you have received as a gift. “(Matthew 10:8), Our Lord tells us …”Love one another as I have loved you.” (John 13:34)…”Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.” (Luke 6:36).

            In His revelations to Saint Faustina, Our Lord strongly reaffirms these Gospel commans.  He told her:  I demand from you deeds of mercy…. You are to show mercy to your neighbours always and everywhere (Diary 742).  If a soul does not exercise mercy in some way, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. (Diary 1317).

            How are we to exercise mercy?  By our actions, our words, and our prayers, by performing the Corporal and Spiritual Works of Mercy, and by developing an attitude of mercy in our daily lives.  We thus become “ambassadors of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:20), instruments  in the hands of God to bring His reconciliation, His forgiveness, His mercy to all those we meet in our daily lives.

            And so, we come full circle.  How should we approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation?  Not as mere recitation of sins, but as a way to encounter the mercy of God.  We call upon the Holy Spirit, who shows us our sins, invites us to repent, and enables us to bring our sins to the source of mercy – the cross of Jesus Christ.  There, at the foot of the cross, we receive mercy and forgiveness and are sent forth as channels of mercy for others.

 

 

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