David Ancell / Sunday August 28, 2011
Recently, I was in the Confession line at a very large parish. Well, actually, I wasn’t really in line. There wasn’t one. This parish has only a thirty-minute time period for Confession, and I found out why. After one more person, there was no one left.
As much as I hear about no one going to Confession anymore, I don’t find it to be completely true. I was actually surprised by what I saw at this particular parish, but then again, there are other signs that something isn’t quite right. At my parish, there are often long lines for Confession.
Regular Confession is one of the greatest things we can do for our walk with God. When we examine our conscience, we recognize how our lives are not in line with what God wants. We have to admit that to the priest. When we receive absolution, we not only receive forgiveness of our sins, but powerful grace to help us to avoid sin in the future.
It doesn’t end there, though. As we get closer to God, we learn more and more how we are falling short. We bring those to the sacrament, and more grace is poured forth. More and more of what is not of God is stripped away , or at least we get a second chance to work on what we weren’t able to accomplish since our last Confession.
It’s sad to see a large parish in which people are not taking advantage of this. There is great grace available. All one needs is a sorrow for sin and a resolve not to commit those same sins again. If we do fall in to the sin again, go back to Confession and try again. God is ready to take us back and give us the grace. Take advantage of it.
Your sorrow doesn’t have to be some totally altruistic motive either. Even sorrow for sin because of fear of Hell is enough to receive the grace of the sacrament. After all, Hell is separation from God, and if you don’t want to go there, you don’t want to be separated from God. You will either go to Confession or Hell, so go to Confession. Of course, you will want to get to where you have a pure love of God, but this is much more easily accomplished when God has forgiven your sins. Then, there is not eternal punishment to fear. So, let God give you the grace he so badly wants to give you.
Category: Cathechesis, Catholic, Spirituality
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