And we need to have a renewal and a revitalization of this sacrament in the Church. And quite honestly this is something Pope Francis really asked for in the year of mercy that we just finished. You know there was such a great focus on the spiritual and the corporal works of mercy during the year of mercy, which is true and good in and of itself But I think part of the message was lost. Part of Pope Francis' message was lost.
First was for us to receive mercy You know we are the recipients of God's mercy. The forgiveness of our sins and freedom from sin and death. This is God's great gift to us who otherwise would be lost for all eternity. He in his mercy reached out to save us.
And so we need to receive His mercy first And then we become the agents of His mercy to others both in forgiveness and reconciliation, but also in those spiritual and corporal works of mercy. And he called for a renewal in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. And this is a Sacrament that sadly has fallen on hard times. Not in all places.
I can tell you there are parishes in my archdiocese that hear confessions regularly and people are lined up to go to confession. And that's one of the keys. I think that from the priests' side of things I need to challenge priests really to do three things First is go to confession yourselves. Priests need to be good penitents first.
The best confessors are those that are good penitents and who use the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation regularly. Regularly. Have a spiritual director, we hope. And celebrate the Sacrament on a regular basis.
You know, no less than once a month. And more often if necessary and if possible. So priests themselves need to first of all become penitents and to appreciate the gift of the Sacrament themselves for their own sins. Secondly, they need to preach about it.
They need to teach more about the importance of this Sacrament. The more we preach about it, the more we encourage our people the more we talk about the necessity of this Sacrament especially for mortal sin, but even for the growing in the spiritual life and the slow overcoming of our venial sins We need to be clear in our teaching and preaching about it So that encourages our people. I keeps us before our people. And then thirdly, priests need to make themselves available in the Sacrament.
Make themselves available. You know and it's slow going at first. I experienced this in my last parish before I become bishop. When I came into the parish the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance was practically nonexistent.
And I just began preaching about it and sharing my own experience I would tell the people that I go to confession as Archbishop. I may be an archbishop, but I go to confession probably at least twice a month. And people are kinda surprised to hear that but we share our own experience and make ourselves available I began preaching about it and I began just hanging out in the confessional. And yeah, I got a lot of reading done at first in the confessional.
But then people began to know I was there and they knew that if they came, I would be there. And it began to grow and grow and I kept having to expand the confession time. And this is the experience in many parishes. If you make yourself available and as soon as people become aware that at a given time they can count on the fact that if I go over to the church at this time, there will be the opportunity for confession.
I heard a priest once say to a group of priests Fathers, he said. I'm sorry, but Tuesday evening from 7 to 7:30 and any time by appointment is not making yourself available in the Sacrament of Penance So the priests can do those three things. Become penitents. Good penitents.
Go to confession themselves regularly. Preach about it, teach about it, and make themselves available. The faithful, hopefully being catechized, will begin to understand the importance of that. And the faithful need to recognize that it is still in the Catechism of the Catholic Church especially for mortal sin.
Sin that is a grave matter and is done with full knowledge and full consent of the will. Mortal sin cuts us off from the life of God and the only way to be reconciled, the only ordinary way, is through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. So the people also need to respond and realize their responsibility to be recipients of that Sacrament as well. I'm hoping for a great renaissance in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation myself..
No comments:
Post a Comment