LITURGY CORNER


The Sacrament of Reconciliation, Part II
Jesus calls to conversion. This call is an essential part of the proclamation of the Kingdom: “The time is fulfilled, and the Kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the Gospel.” (CCC, #1427)
The heart of this wonderful sacrament is about conversion; it is about turning more deeply to the person of Jesus Christ so that He may forgive our sins and give us the power that we need in order to truly live for Him. We recognize, as we cooperate with the grace given to us through the power of His Holy Spirit, that the Lord Jesus wants to truly be Lord over every aspect of our life, no matter how apparently inconsequential it might strike us. We also come to realize, as we examine His Lordship over us, that sin is all to often our response to His call. We make ourselves Lord, placing ourselves on the throne of our lives, instead of allowing the only One Who has the right to be the center, to actually reign there. As we plead with Him to purify us, and to draw us more deeply into His Sacred Heart, we can only progress if we are willing to confess our sins to Him, bringing them to Him not only for His forgiveness, but also for His power to change.
The Lord Jesus, always mindful of the needs of His People, caused this sacrament to be created (by Himself) at the very dawn of the Church’s life, so that the people of God would always have the opportunity to avail themselves of His wondrous capacity to forgive sins. As He leads us deeper into His Kingdom, we recognize that there is much that we have to leave behind; we come to echo St. John the Baptist’s words: “He must grow greater, I must grow less.” This healing, reconciling sacrament is the practical response to that need we have for a vehicle by which we can come to the Lord, and leave our sins and our failings behind. In this sacrament, we are perfectly reconciled to God and also to one another, for the sins that we commit not only offend God, but damage or even shatter our relationships within His Body, the Church. Here is seen a glimpse of the broader aspect of this wonderful sacrament. Reconciliation not only restores our relationship with God, it heals the breach we have created with our brothers and sisters. Of course, it is frequently the case that we may also have a need to personally go and reconcile with our brothers and sisters whom we may have directly offended. But even the grace for that is marvelously received when we repent in Confession itself. In this sacrament, we meet the Lord Jesus Christ in a miraculous way and He shares with us His grace and His forgiveness and His amazing restoration. Like the Prodigal Son, we are once again embraced by the arms of our loving Father, and welcomed home. Let us rejoice in the great gift of this sacrament, and use it to draw closer to the One Who loved us first.