333 South Davis St, Maryville, MO 64468
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12/11/2022
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This Monday at 8 AM we celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. We will have a Mass in Spanish at 8 AM for those who speak Spanish, then the normal Mass at noon in English. Fr. Tobin will come to say the Mass in Spanish.On the 19th of December from 5:30 7 PM we will have a communal penance service. There will be six priests present, including me, and “soup supper” afterwards. It is a great way to prepare to celebrate Christmas, so bring your children/grandchildren as well. Naturally, I will hear confessions Fridays after Mass, Saturdays before 5 PM Mass, and after 8 AM Mass on the First Saturday of the month, as well as by appointment.I have been asked to write about the sacrament of Reconciliation (commonly called “Confession”). A sacrament is an outwards sign which communicates spiritually what it symbolizes physico heal physical wounds) brings about spiritual healing and forgiveness. So the signs for those two sacraments are water and oil, and the spiritual realities are washing away sins and healing/forgiveness. For the sacrament of Reconciliation, the signs are:Confessing of sins and expressing sorrow (e.g. Act of Contrition) => Sorrow or contrition
Words of absolution by the priest => ForgivenessOne could also say that the performance of penance is a sign of the earnestness of one’s contrition.Of course, it is also possible that we could receive advice on overcoming our faults and learn humility from confession of sins. One of the things which Jesus did when he was on earth was forgive people their sins, and that part of his ministry is continued in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. It is a good way of growing closer to God and experiencing God’s forgiveness, even of learning how to forgive by being forgiven. What a gift!
Signs are important for people since we are both soul and body, spiritual and physical. We have interior or spiritual dispositions which cannot be communicated to another except through physical signs. So we need signs to fully communicate as humans. In my own experience, one of the things I noticed from hearing confessions is that some people have trouble believing that God will forgive them. As a priest representing Jesus, I try to convince them that they are forgiven, that God’s mercy is greater than their sins. It is not my job to judge, but to allow for a human expression of sorrow by the penitent AND to express God’s forgiveness. Another common problem is that some people think that they are bad people because of their sins. They confuse guilt with shame. Shame says, “I am a bad person because of what I have done.” Guilt says, “I have made some bad decisions, have missed the mark, have fallen short of what I should have done.” Guilt allows for us to resolve to do better, to change, to make better decisions in the future. Shame says, “This is just who I am a failure and I will always be like that.” Guilt allows for change, while shame does not. In this sense, Catholic guilt is to be preferred to shame.
So the essential parts of confession are: saying your sins, saying you are sorry, and receiving absolution (forgiveness) from Christ through the priest. It is human in that it mirrors what we do when we apologize to one another: we say what we did, we express our sorrow by apologizing, and hopefully we are given some assurance of forgiveness from the offended party. In granting us forgiveness, God hopes that we learn how to forgive by being forgiven. It is a difficult process because we have to admit that we have failed, but a healing and redemptive one a great gift.Why does the priest have this power? It is given to him by the Church, which received it from Christ. There are a number of passages (Mt 16:19, 18:18; *Jn 20:1923, Mt 9:118, Mk 2:512) where Christ gives the Church this power. The most significant is John 20:2223 where Jesus breathes on the disciples and says, “For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained.” So do come and experience the Lord’s forgiveness a week from Monday on December 19th at 5:30 PM, then celebrate the Mercy of God over some soup or chili. Come, prepare for Christmas!It is a joy to await Christ’s coming with you.Father Albert, O.S.B.