[Friday follow-up]
This Sunday, Divine Mercy Sunday, coincides with these words from Jesus, as he appears to the apostles in the Upper Room:
“Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (John 20:21-23)
This sets up a fascinating bookend.
Jesus begins His public ministry with a simple message – Repent and Believe.
He completes His earthly mission by investing the apostles with two great authorities – to hear the confessions of sin as described in the passage above (so that people can fully repent) and to preach and baptize (so that people can truly believe.)
The Church Fathers unanimously recognized John 20:21-23 as establishing the Sacrament of Reconciliation – confessing our sins to Christ, via an ordained Priest. This practice shows up in many early Christian writings. Here, from St. Irenaeus, “(disciples of the heretic Marcus) have deluded many women. . . . Some of these women make a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence, as if withdrawing themselves from the hope of the life of God, they either apostatize entirely or hesitate between the two courses.” (from Against Heresies)
Jesus stipulated confession as part of the preparation for receiving Divine Mercy (see Jesus’ words to St. Faustina in the postscript). Many and deep are the reasons for confessing our sins. Not the least of which is that Jesus understands our human nature and our need to unburden ourselves and receive forgiveness. We often quote Fulton Sheen on this – himself a student to psychiatry. He would note that psychiatrist colleagues in New York City would comment that they didn’t have Catholic patients. Sheen understood this to be because they were instead receiving their “therapy” in the confessional. But when Catholics began abandoning the confessional, they soon started making their way to the psychiatrist couch.
In any event, the sacrament of confession is a powerful way that we build our relationship with Jesus. We noted that Good Friday is in many ways the key event in Christ’s life regarding our relationship with Him – for on the cross He bore our sins and sufferings. We draw intimately close to Him on the cross, when we stop to acknowledge and confess those same sins.
For those readers who are not Catholic, here is a time-honored act of contrition:
Forgive me my sins, O Lord, forgive my sins of my youth, the sins of my age, the sins of my soul, the sins of my body, my idle sins, my serious voluntary sins, the sins I know, the sins I do not know: the sins I have concealed so long, and which are now hidden from my memory.
I am truly sorry for every sin, mortal and venial, for all the sins of my childhood up to the present hour.
I know my sins have wounded Thy Tender Heart, O my Savior, let me be freed from the bonds of evil through thy most bitter passion, death and resurrection, Jesus my precious Lord, forget and forgive what I have been.
In the name of the Father, the Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.
A blessed Divine Mercy Sunday to you –
Steve and Karen Smith
Interior Life
Postscript: St. Faustina diary entry #699.
On one occasion, I heard these words: My daughter, tell the whole world about My Inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy.
The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy.
… Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy