The Sacrament of Reconciliation

Sisters and brothers, as we completed the three Sacraments of Initiation, Baptism, Confirmation, and Eucharist. It’s human nature that we realize that shortly after being fully initiated into the Church, life happens, we fall, and sin comes to be a part of our life once again. And so there's a need for us to be renewed and restored to that wonderful state of Baptism.

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation, we would hear these words: 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 is the forgiveness of sins.

This is the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace.

And I, the priest, absolve you from your sins. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

I say I, the priest, sisters, and brothers, because I, as a deacon, can't absolve sins, but a priest can, and a priest does so because he is in the person of Christ, extending God's forgiveness to each of us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

We think about the Sacrament of Reconciliation and that moment when sins are forgiven when the burdens of our wrongdoing are lifted from us. What an opportunity for joy. What an opportunity to experience afresh the wonder of Baptism. For that is what the Sacrament of Reconciliation promises. Christ and we meet so that Christ is enabling us to be freed from the burden of our own sinfulness and ill will toward one another, towards God, towards ourselves, and towards creation.

And we are indeed brought back to a state of original grace through His love and tenderness.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is there for us for healing.

Healing, most importantly, for mortal sin or deadly sin. Grave sin, we might say. As we've talked about sin in the past, this sin can only be healed because it breaks our bond with God.

Sin can only be healed through God's grace, which acts in us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. So, God calls us to be reconciled.

It also can help us with those lesser sins, those foibles, and compromises we make in which we take advantage for our own good of others. Those smaller sins can be forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As we age, we often develop habits. Our best habits are virtues, and our worst habits are vices.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation can be a place where we take our vices and ask God for the grace to strengthen us, to fight and defeat those vices, and to turn them into virtues, to let anger be turned into tenderness.

That is the work of the grace of Confession that is always given to us, is that we will be reconciled with God, and that our sins indeed will be forgiven. The fact of our sins continues to exist in the world. What we have done, we can’t get back at the same time. What we have done can be healed and made whole and put to good use.

That is the power of God working through the sacrament and through His providential plan for the world. That God can take the things that we have done and turn them to good purpose. Sisters and brothers, one of the great joys of the Church is for us to have the occasion to go to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

But it’s hard. It’s hard to talk and to name our sins and name the evil that we have done. That’s why the Church has within it a rule that we celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation once a year, and it forces us to come back and to take that effort to be healed so that we can know and experience what that joy feels like. Perhaps we'll return more frequently in the following year because more frequently, we will be renewed.

Reflection Questions:

1. How has the Sacrament of Reconciliation helped you experience the mercy of God in your life?

2. What obstacles prevent you from seeking Confession regularly, and how can you overcome them?

3. In what ways can you turn your vices into virtues with the grace of Reconciliation?