On Tuesday I was invited down to the 2nd grade
classroom to meet with the 2nd graders who were preparing for their
first confessions, which they celebrated Wednesday evening. Some of the 2nd graders were a
little nervous, so we went over the steps of confession again: how you greet
the priest as you enter the confessional, then, already having examined your
conscience, you tell your sins to the priest; remembering how at that moment,
the priest is really standing in for Jesus, and it is like you are speaking your
sins into the ear of Jesus himself. So the priest doesn’t get mad at you if you
tell him really bad sins, and he won’t embarrass you, and he’ll never tell a
living soul what you confessed because Jesus doesn’t do those things when we
come to him, sorry for not being his disciples as we should. The priest might ask you some questions, and
you might discuss how you will try to avoid these sins in the future. He will then give you a penance, and then speak
the powerful words of absolution over you.
And when he offers the prayer of absolution, Jesus is using the priest
to truly wipe away your sins and give you grace to be faithful in the future.
We then had a chance to do a few practice runs. So the 2nd graders sat down next
to father and we practiced Confession a few times. Hopefully, that helped to calm their
nervousness and prepare them for encountering God’s forgiveness in the
Sacrament of Confession.
We talked about how Advent is a perfect time for Confession
because Advent is a time of preparation.
During Advent, we prepare for Christmas, and we prepare for the coming
of Christ at the end of time. And, part
of preparing for God’s coming always always always involves turning away from
sin.
St. Matthew tells in the Gospel today, John the Baptist was
out in the desert, preaching, helping people prepare for the coming of the
Messiah. And what were the words he used
to help them prepare? “Repent, for the
kingdom of heaven is at hand.” The Greek
word John the Baptist uses, you’ve probably heard before is Metanoia. “Meta
noia” means to change your life, change your thinking, change your heart, turn
away from one way of thinking and acting towards a new way.
Metanoia isn’t always easy, just like going to confession
doesn’t always feel easy. Metanoia,
repentence involves honesty, and sometimes honesty, especially honesty about
ourselves is hard. It’s sometimes hard
to admit that we’ve failed to love God as we should, or we’ve failed to love
others as we should, or it’s hard to admit that I’ve been selfish or greedy or
acted in a way unbecoming of a Christian disciple.
John the Baptist and Jesus himself were often critical of
the Pharisees precicely because of their failure to acknowledge their
sinfulness. Often times, the person
going from one mortal sin to another fails in the same way. He fails to be honest that skipping Mass is
wrong. Fornication is wrong. Hurting others with our words and actions to
get back at them is wrong.
But, we as Christians take John the Baptist very seriously,
that we are to repent that Jesus might come more deeply into our life. This is why the Penitential Rite is at the
very beginning of Mass. We begin Mass by
calling to mind our sins, so that we can be open to God who comes to us in Word
and Sacrament.
If we’ve committed a mortal sin, we are to prepare ourselves
for Jesus by going to confession. For in
the Sacrament of Confession, God does for us, what we cannot do ourselves. Sure, any time and any where we can
acknowledge our sins, and express our sorrow for our sins and failures. But in the Sacrament of Confession, we
really, truly receive God’s forgiveness. Just like in the Eucharist we really, truly
receive the body and blood of Jesus Christ, it’s not just a symbol, but in the
sacraments something really real is received.
Jesus gave us the Sacrament of Confession because that is the
way he chooses to forgive repentant Christians.
If we are not in a state of grace, if we have committed
mortal sin and have not gone to confession, we are not ready for Christmas, we
are not ready for Christ’s coming, and we are not ready to receive Jesus in
Holy Communion.
When I met with the 2nd graders this week, I gave
them one extra piece of homework, which I hope they completed. I said, 2nd graders, you are
preparing for your first confession, but not your last. We are to go to Confession often as
Catholics. Pope Francis said that he
goes to confession every two weeks. I
heard that Pope John Paul II went every week.
Personally, I go about once a month.
Not because I am going out and committing all these mortal sins. But the habit of going to confession, the act
of examining your life and turning away from sin and selfishness should be a
regular one.
So, I have a piece of homework for you 2nd
graders. I want you to go home today,
and tell your parents how you are ready and excited to make your first
confession, and then I want you to ask your parents, “when was the last time
that you went to confession?” And the
entire class went, “oooooooooh”. That
spoke volumes.
I then told them a story from my first confession. That after I made my first confession back in
2nd grade, I remember my mom also went to confession that day. And I remember her being in there a
while. But I remember when she came out,
she was beaming. That was the first time
I saw her go to confession, and it had probably been a while since her last one. But she emerged from the confessional
radiant.
That’s what God wants to do for us when we go to confession. He loves us so much and he wants us to be
radiant. But we so often not radiant
with God’s life because we carry around all this guilt and all of these
justifications for our sins, that the life of God is hindered in us. God is
ready and willing and waiting to set us free and to make us radiant.
Repentance prepares us to encounter God in a deeper
way. And that encounter changes us, and
makes us more like God, radiant with love, truth, and glory.
During this Advent season may we prepare well by turning
away from our sins, and encountering the Lord’s mercy, that by preparing our
hearts, we may receive him with joy, for the glory of God and salvation of
souls.
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