Reconciliation is the seed of Christian life.  Personal sanctification begins by coming to terms with our weaknesses and proclivities toward sin.  None of us escapes this deadening net, but thanks be to God, we are not destined to remain caught by sin or its destructive consequences.  This is the good news that Jesus preached and for which he offered his life. 

I am just as anxious about going to confession as the next person.  Contemplating going to Reconciliation makes me face my “lesser self.”  It is not as if I have blocked out my sins from my memory, but I struggle to admit them, and to admit them to another human being.  Hence, Reconciliation (Confession, Penance) is a stretch…but a salvific stretch.  Here are some tips in preparing for and going to Reconciliation:

1- It is not begging for God’s forgiveness.  That already happened.  God’s love far exceeds my conscience and willingness to ask for forgiveness.  Like the father in the parable, He has always been looking for my return (the sign of my coming to my senses) in order to bring me back into the good graces and hope of life with Him.

2- Although I have to speak to another person, in the sacramental occasion a priest, it is precisely speaking out loud my sin that I enter into the healing of my personal betrayal.  Psalm 32 says, “As long as I kept silent my bones wasted away with my groaning all the day…then I acknowledged my sin to you, my guilt I did not cover, I said, ‘I confess my faults to the Lord,’ and you took away the guilt of my sin.”  Something does happen when I admit my fault.  It does clear my conscience and begins the process of correcting and healing.  There is no shortcut to this.  Oh, yes, there is proper reconciliation by making amends with the one I have injured; the sacrament does not substitute for this good and proper act.  Finally, remember this: all priest confessors take seriously the “Seal of Confession.”  The content of my reconciliation will not ever go outside of this confession…unless the confessing individual shares it. 

3- A good penance is the initial step(s) to help point me in the right direction away from my sin.  Many sins are not a single event, but a cluster/pattern of habits (vices) that lead me through temptation to sinning.  Penance seeks to short-circuit my toying with temptation that hooks me to sin.  Therefore, I am cooperating with grace to establish new boundaries and strategies to get “un-hooked” to the seduction of temptation.  Granted, I am working against a personal weakness, but, with grace, I can overcome this.  This is the hope of the sacrament.   Never underestimate its capacity to achieve, over time, this saving goal.  Never give up, even if I return time and time again with the same sin. With the support of the confessor, we are chipping away at this boulder of personal failing, and it will crumble!

4- How well it is for us to hear: “God is the Father of mercy and through the death and resurrection of his Son he has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.  Through the ministry of the church, may God grant you pardon and peace.  Therefore I absolve you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.  Go in the peace of Christ.”
Indeed, “Thanks be to God!”

St. Paul’s Lenten Reconciliation Service is this Tuesday, Mar 23 at 7:00 pm