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This past season of Lent, every parish in the Archdiocese of
Philadelphia offered the Sacrament of Penance on Wednesday evenings
from 7:30 until 8:30. Quite likely, many good pastoral reasons
motivated Cardinal Rigali to schedule confessions across the
Archdiocese, including to make sure every Catholic had the
opportunity to go to confession during the season on Lent to
“tweaking” Catholics to remember their obligation to go to
confession in preparation for the celebration of Easter Sunday (what
used to be called “Easter duty”).
In conversations with several pastors since the last Wednesday of
Lent, it seems the Cardinal’s pastoral desire that every
Catholic have the opportunity to experience God’s mercy and
forgiveness didn’t “sell” very well with many, if not most Catholics. Some
pastors reported having one or two penitents; others reported a mere
handful. None reported having to stay beyond 8:30 p.m. to deal with
throngs of penitents. Perhaps my survey doesn’t
adequately represent what transpired in most parishes across the
Archdiocese but it does reflect the reality of at least several
parishes.
I do think it safe to say that the results of this pastoral
initiative should not be surprising. The simple fact is that in the
United States, Roman Catholics are very much like Protestants. In
poll after poll, very little difference in attitudes concerning
matters of faith and morals evidence themselves. For example:
artificial birth control (many Catholics wonder: Why shouldn’t
couples limit the number of children they have?); abortion (many
Catholics ask: It’s a woman’s right, no?); married and/or female
clergy (many Catholics demand: Why not?); and, confession (many
Catholics wonder: Who needs a priest to forgive me anyway?).
One of the problems with these polls is that they have a what I
consider a rather sinister way of convincing Roman Catholics that
the Church is wrong-headed about these and so many other matters of
faith and morals. Taking refuge in the safety of poll numbers, many
Catholics ask themselves: “After all, with so many intelligent and
sincere people agreeing with each other across confessional lines
(pardon the pun), how can I possibly be wrong?”
With regard to the Sacrament of Penance, in particular, my purpose
today is not to defend the Church in the face of widespread
opposition to this sacrament which, if current trends continue, the
majority of U.S. Catholics will
have rendered meaningless—if that hasn’t already happened—in their lives. No, my purpose is to remind all of
us—that includes you and me—about why the Church is so adamant that
we need to go to confession. I’d venture to opine that those who do
not avail themselves regularly of this sacrament—although they
believe themselves to be good people and may indeed be good
people—may not be particularly good Christians or Catholics…and
they know it.
Now, before you get ready to “boo” and “hiss” at me, feeling angry
because you’re thinking “Who’s he to judge me?”, consider these
questions:
·
In all honesty, how long has it been since you’ve partaken of the
Sacrament of Penance?
Now, during that interval of time between then and now, specify
those ways you have grown spiritually:
·
Prayer:
How has your prayer life grown? Do you pray more fervently each day when you get
up in the morning and before you go to bed in the evening? Do you
offer a heartfelt prayer of thanksgiving before every meal? Do you pray for
divine guidance and inspiration before important events in your day?
·
Reading Scripture:
Have you read the Bible with greater frequency? Have particular
scripture verses “pricked your mind” so that you have reflected more
honestly upon your life? How often have you discussed bible stories with your
spouse, children, grandchildren, or friends so that you might grow
in holiness?
·
Spiritual Reading:
Do you enjoy reading the Catholic Standard and Times each week?
How many the saints have you read, particularly those whose struggles
in life parallel your own struggles, and whose model of
Christian virtue can assist you to overcome your struggles against
vice?
·
Worship:
In what ways has the Sunday liturgy taken on new meaning for you? Do you prepare for the
Sunday liturgy by reading the scriptures during the preceding week?
Do you regularly come to church before the start of Mass to quiet
and center yourself in preparation for the celebration of the
Eucharist? Are you increasingly relating what’s going on outside of church to what’s
being said inside
of church?
Enough of the questions. I think it’s pretty safe to say there’s a
correlation. That is, the less we partake of the Sacrament of
Penance, the less likely it is that we will grow spiritually. Or,
conversely, the more we partake of the Sacrament of Penance, the
more likely it is that we will grow spiritually.
The most frequently stated reason Catholics serve up to explain why
they don’t avail themselves of the Sacrament of Penance is feelings of
embarrassment. Many of us simply feel ashamed to admit out loud
(first, to ourselves, and especially, to another human being) that we have
sinned. While those feelings of shame are quite understandable (and
a clear sign that we know we have sinned), those feelings of shame
can actually become an insidious form of evil at work in our souls.
How is this so?
It’s not just that shame keeps us from going to confession; no,
that’s something all of us experience beginning first when we bow
our heads in shame when, as kids, our parents “found us out” and
held us accountable. All of us, I am sure, can remember doing
something we weren’t supposed to do—from sneaking cookies from the
cookie jar to lying to our parents about where we went because we
weren’t supposed to go where we did go—and, when we were found out,
one or both of our parents said something like “Stop staring at your
shoes and look me in the eye.” Undoubtedly, none of us enjoys
being “found out” but, worse yet, none of us relishes naming our
sins out loud and before someone else.
Yet, that is precisely where we start digging ourselves into bigger
spiritual problems that require the assistance of another human
being. That is, if we are to get out of those problems.
One of those bigger spiritual problems has to do with what I call
our “spiritual self-image,” that is, how we view ourselves in
relationship to God. As we “stare at our shoes and don’t look God
in the eye,” we gradually develop a distorted spiritual self-image,
believing ourselves to be better and holier than we really are.
It’s not that we’re “bad,” we tell ourselves. No, it’s just that
we’re not quite as good as we believe we are. Then, as we
continually put off examining our spiritual lives and considering
what we need to do if we are to grow spiritually, we develop an
inflated spiritual self-image, thinking ourselves better than other
people. And, as we allow that inflated spiritual self-image to
balloon into one of those cartoon characters in the Macy’s
Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, we allow ourselves to
stand as judges of other people’s behavior and character, all the
while fearful of anyone who might sit as judge of our behavior and
character.
That’s the proof of how far we’ve grown from God! We’ve made
ourselves into little gods whose infallible judgments about other
people reveal a soul filled with pride not humility. But, even more
ominous, it reveals a spiritual self-image constructed not upon the
bedrock of humility and truth but the fear of meeting God
face-to-face. The conclusion? We alienate ourselves from
the powerful and transformative experience of God’s mercy.
“How can you give what you yourself have not experienced?” Pope John
Paul II ask once when speaking about the Sacrament of Penance.
Consider
those 200 people who paid to listen to a motivational speaker.
The man
started off his seminar by holding up a $100 bill. He asked the 200
people in the audience, “Who would like this $100 dollar bill?”
Hands started popping up. The speaker followed up, saying, “I am
going to give this $100 dollar bill to one of you but first, let me
do this.” He proceeded to crumple the $100 dollar bill up. He then
asked, “Who still wants it?” Hands waved in the air. “Well,”
the motivational speaker replied, “What if I do this?” He proceeded
to drop the $100 dollar bill on the ground and started grinding it
into the floor with his shoe. He then picked up the $100 bill which
was now all crumpled and dirty. “Who still wants it?” he asked the
audience. Every one of the participants waved their hands lustily
in the air.
“My friends, you have all learned a very valuable lesson,” the
motivational speaker said. “Because the $100 bill did not decrease
in value—it was still worth $100 dollars—you still wanted the $100
bill. Now, how many times have you fallen short of living a
virtuous life, crumpled up your life, ground yourself into the dirt
by making some very bad decisions that you’ve now lived to regret,
and then, ended up feeling as though you’re worthless before God?”
The motivational speaker rubbed his chin with his hand and dropped
his head as he looked at his shoes. Following a pregnant pause, he
then looked up at the audience and said, “No matter what has
happened or what will happen, you need to understand that you will
never lose your value in God’s eyes. To God, dirty or clean,
crumpled or finely creased, you are still priceless.”
“Peace be with you,” Jesus announced to his disciples that evening
of that first day of the week. Oh, how we wish to experience that
“peace” which St. Paul says, “is beyond all understanding”!
But, we forget that the apostles had all—to a man—deserted Jesus as
he walked on his way to Calvary. We forget the shame that filled
their souls and surely caused them to blush when Jesus broke through
those barred doors. Yet, as Psalm 118 reminds us, “The stone which
the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. By the Lord this
has been done….let us be glad and rejoice….”
Perhaps worst of all the apostles was St. Peter whose boastful pride
was crushed when St. Peter finally realized that he had denied Jesus
three times. But, after St. Peter experienced God’s mercy on that
evening of the first day of the week, St. Peter wrote to the Church
of Rome of his hope that its members would “rejoice with an
indescribable and glorious joy, as you attain the goal of your
faith, the salvation of your souls” (Peter 1:9).
For St. Peter (and for you and for me) what is important is not that
we have sinned, because we all have sinned. Nor is it important how
grievously we have sinned, because God’s mercy has transformed the
souls of the greatest sinners, like St. Peter, St. Paul, and St.
Augustine. No, what is important is that we stop taking comfort in
the knowledge of God’s mercy―the
stuff of the mind that doesn’t change our behavior―and,
much as we may fear it, allow ourselves to experience the
reality of God’s mercy―the
stuff of the soul that possesses
the power to change our lives.
Mercy is so contrary to our way of
looking at life that we cannot grasp this divine gift unless the
reality of God’s mercy continually breaks into our lives, breathes
new life into our suffocating souls, and crushes our pride. My
friends, the only way to experience God’s merciful love is to be
continually reminded of it.
Yes, we
can think “I am a sinner filled with shame and hope for God’s mercy”
but we cannot experience God’s mercy without encountering another
human being. That human being is Jesus Christ who, through the
Church in the person of the priest, offers the certainty of God’s
mercy in the Sacrament of Penance. As the motivational speaker
reminded the 200 people attending his seminar, “You will never lose
your value in God’s eyes. To God, dirty or clean, crumpled or
finely creased, you are still priceless.” But, to experience
the certainty of God’s mercy, it takes another human being.
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HOMILY
