THE INDISPENSABILITY OF THE SACRAMENT OF CONFESSION

 

Dear brethren, we are on an important Sunday of the year - Divine Mercy Sunday. This is the latest feast that the Church has instituted in the liturgical calendar. Across the centuries, the Christians have celebrated the God of love than God of Mercy. The two commandments of love, has projected our God as Love than mercy. Mercy is not different from love. According to the Catholic theological tradition, mercy is a certain kind of love, a certain expression of love. St. John Paul II says, Mercy is the second name of Divine Love. Our God is love not because we are worthy of His love, rather He has made us worthy by mercifully forgiving all our sins. Sins are offences against God. God has the right to punish for those offences, yet He forgives us. This is divine mercy – giving up the right to avenge the enemy or trespassers.

Divine Mercy is a result of the private revelation which St. Faustina had with Jesus. Jesus revealed to the world through St. Faustina that He is first and foremost merciful than divine judge. In an era of war and sexual immorality, our divine saviour comes down not to punish the world but repair it through His infinite mercy. In all centuries Christians have prayed and pleaded for the mercy of God especially in the season of lent. But it is right and timely that the concept of divine mercy is revealed only in the last century. The present century that is involved in all kinds of sin, a century that celebrates sins, need the mercy of God to rectify things. Punishment for sins would only accelerate the end of the world and make Satan a winner. The mercy of God and conversion of sinners reverses the evil into good.

The amounting of sin in the world is due to cowardice of human beings. Humans have become weak to bear sufferings to preserve the truth. In order to cover their weakness they celebrate their fall as expression of their freedom. The pride to proclaim oneself as strong person has deteriorated the morality. The idea behind to wash out the concept of sin from the face of the earth is lack of humility. If only we admit that we have fallen, we can rise from the pit either by ourselves or with the help of others and walk in the surface again properly. On the contrary if we celebrate our fall into the pit, we continue to remain in that pit, we make that pit as our world. All want to live a spotless life, yet no one dares to fulfil it. All want to be sinless, yet no one wants to fight against sin. All want to forgive, yet no one wants to be forgiven. Yes, the pride to project oneself as good deprives him/her from receiving the mercy of God. Pope Francis has stated several times that the church is the community of forgiven sinners. In the first reading of today we see that the first Christians live together joyfully. Their togetherness is the effect of the forgiveness of the risen Lord. The risen Lord proclaimed ‘peace’ on the day of His resurrection (Jn 20:19, 21, 26). The sense of being forgiven has bound them together and has made them humble to share everything in common. The one way to become a forgiven sinner is to become aware of our daily blessings. When we start wondering the beauty of life, nature, history, cosmos… we become grateful person. In becoming a men of gratitude we become a forgiven sinner. The word ‘forgiven sinner’ is not negative, rather it exhibits that we have become worthy of God’s grace. The greatest gift of God is divine grace. In pride, we reject that gift. Grace is given not to become slaves but to become sons and daughters of God. In this world, we plead for the grace and mercy of human bosses to survive, yet we hesitate to plead for the mercy of God that makes us friends of God – makes us divine sons and daughters.

The Gospel reading very clearly states that the Church has the power to forgive sins (Jn 20:23). Our protestant brethren insist on direct confession of one’s sins with invisible God. Yes, it is very easy to confess one’s sins to an invisible God than to a visible and known priest. At the same time they need to know that it is difficult to encounter God with our sins when He becomes visible to us. Since, we cannot encounter God with sins, God himself has granted the grace to forgive the sins to a human priest. Through St. Faustina, Jesus has revealed that He would grant a complete pardon to the souls that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion on the Feast of My Mercy (1109). The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion will obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment (699). To confirm this revelation and encourage the souls to obtain divine mercy, the Catholic Church has granted a plenary indulgence for this Divine Mercy Sunday. Let us make use of this chance to obtain heaven. May the experience of divine mercy make us humble and strong to suffer for truth. In the second reading, St. Peter tells that our faith in the risen Lord is more than gold. If gold is tested in fire to refine, what about our faith? If only our faith is tested it becomes a precious jewel. Thus, we need to suffer to manifest the truth. Today lies are everywhere, yet they are accepted as truth. It is because the lies have no capacity to suffer and defend themselves as lies. The incapacity to survive in their own name is the weakness. Conversely, truth has courage to suffer. That’s why truth never identifies itself with lies. The lies may wear the shoes of truth and acclaim truth as lies but truth never proclaims itself as a lie. Our true risen Lord invites us to live a truthful life – a life that is possible even after reaching the tomb. May God grant us His infinite mercy.    

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