Confirmation

Understanding the Sacrament of Reconciliation

The prospect of telling another human being things we  don’t even like to admit to ourselves is not very exciting.  It can feel awkward, difficult, and humiliating!

But let us ponder, Why tell our sins to a priest? 

The Sacrament of Reconciliation  is   about healing,  re-establishing  the  unity  and  intimacy that sin disrupts in our relationships with God and other people, it is not about punishment.

Sin isn’t just about behavior; it is about relationship!  

We exist because God is a Father who wanted children – children whom He created “in his own image and likeness” so they could receive His love and ultimately come to share in His divine life in the Trinity.  

“Each of us is willed, each of us is loved.”  Pope Benedict XVI

God’s love for each of us is personal and forever.  His focus is not on our behavior but on our relationship with Him.  

How does the father’s love relate to sin?   Sin is when we refuse to let God father us.  

“The essence of sin is our refusal of divine sonship.”  Scott Hahn 

So the real problem is our refusal to accept and respond to the Father’s love. 

Do sinful behaviors change the Father’s love for us?   No.

Our behavior, no matter how bad it may be, can never undo the reality of our relationship with God as His children, and nothing can ever change His love for us.  For God is unchangeable.  

You can’t earn God’s love , and you can’t lose it; you already have it, forever.  

So if sin doesn’t change God, what does it do? 

It separates us from His love.  Sin is turning your face away from God.  God doesn’t turn away from us, he allows us to turn away.  So what is the remedy?  Turn around towards God.  
Sometimes shame and regret make us feel unworthy of God’s love, but this is not true! There is no sin that God will not forgive if we come before him truly repentant. God doesn’t love us because we’re good; God wants us to be good because it is good for us.

Father Mike Schmitz reviews how to make a good confession.

Reconciliation times at St. Therese of Lisieux

Every Thursday from 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM or by appointment

Jesus  gave us the Sacrament of Reconciliation (or “Confession”) for four important reasons:

It gives us a direct encounter with God.  When we go to Confession, we are going

straight to God in a deeper way than we could by praying in private.  The priest acts “in persona christi.”

It gives us power to stop sinning.  Jesus  understands  it’s  hard for  us  to  break  sinful  habits,  and  so  he  gives  us sacramental help.

It  reconciles  us  with  God  and  the  Church.   In  Confession,  the  priest  has  the authority  by  virtue  of  the  Sacrament  of  Holy  Orders to  forgive  sins.  So  it  makes  sense  to  go  to  God’s  representative  in  the  Church (the priest) for the reconciliation we seek.

It   eliminates   any   confusion   about   whether   we’re   forgiven.  Perfect  contrition  (repenting  not  out  of  fear of hell but out of love for God) sets us right with God.   The Church teaches that  we  must  go  to  Confession  at  least  once  a  year during Lent. 

To experience  spiritual and personal growth one must take the time to think about our “problem areas”. An examination of conscience is when we think about our life—our attitudes and actions—to determine whether we have sinned – disobeyed God’s commandments. 

We all tend to do things that are hurtful out of anger or fear, things that are selfish, denigrating, undignifying, hurtful, exclusive.  

St. Paul writes in the Ltr. Romans 7:15- 21

What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.

For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want.  

Now if [I] do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.  

So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand.

What is sin?  Sin is missing the mark, moving away from God’s love, away from his light and truth.  

Sin is choosing whatever I want and rejecting the guidelines, boundaries, limits that God has placed before us for our benefit.   For steps towards confession click HERE:  How to Make a Good confession (Lifeteen)

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