The Grace of Forgiveness
No one enjoys admitting they’ve messed up. It’s a feature, not a bug, of humanity to run away from coming clean. Remember what Adam and Eve did after they had eaten the forbidden fruit? “the man and his wife hid themselves from the Lord God among the trees of the garden” (Gen. 3:8). Not that hiding from God is really even possible. “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in the netherworld, you are there!” (Ps. 139:7-8). But it doesn’t mean we won’t make the attempt. When shame overwhelms us, we fear the anger, rejection, and abandonment that might result if we tell the truth to those we love. We aren’t acting rationally and so bury what we’ve done with a web of lies that only makes us more miserable. What if we had a way to bring what we’ve done out into the light? What if we had a way to make things right again?
Jesus Christ, who comes to set captives free, exercises the power to forgive sins throughout his ministry. To the Pharisees who thought he claimed divine authority, he responds, “But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— ‘I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.’” (Mk. 2:10) After his Passion, Death, and Resurrection, he appears to the frightened disciples and breathes on them, saying “Receive the Holy Spirit.If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them” (Jn. 20:23). In doing so, he gives his disciples his own power to forgive sins. Though the practice of the Sacrament of Reconciliation developed over the centuries, this power to free spiritual captives has never changed.
Jesus through his Church commands us to confess our sins to a priest at least once per year. Now we know that only mortal sins (those against the 10 Commandments, with full knowledge and free will) need to be confessed before receiving Holy Communion. So why the minimum of once per year? I would respond with a parable: though the owner of a motor vehicle may not see the sand and salt beneath the car during the winter, he or she still takes it in for an underbody flush on occasion. The grime you can’t detect is often the deadliest since it corrodes the car slowly from the bottom up. In the same way, the Church in her wisdom knows that enough small sins built up over time can corrode the soul from the inside out. Something more than the general confession of sins at Mass is required, and so the Sacrament of Reconciliation flushes out the big and the small in one purifying move. It restores us to communion with God and his Church, gives peace and serenity, and the strength to combat future temptation. Let’s take advantage of this great Sacrament on a regular basis! (Available Tuesdays at 5pm, Fridays after 8am Mass, and Saturdays at 3:30pm)
Summary of Precept 2:
To confess one's sins, receiving the sacrament of Reconciliation at least once each year.