Lent A Time to Start Again

We have just entered Lent. Lent is a time of change. During Lent we can reflect on where we can make changes in our lives so we can become a better person. The day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday, or Fat Tuesday, Or Mardi Gras, or whatever you want to call it. Shrove comes from the word shriven, which means to go to confession. The idea is that on the day before Ash Wednesday it is a day to go to confession, clean our souls, to start again.

I like a clean house. I am certainly not obsessive compulsive when it comes to cleaning, but I do have a schedule of when I dust, vacuum and wash the floors so that things do get done. Once a week whether I like it or not I clean the house so that I can keep on top of the dust that builds up. That way when I have a surprise visitor I am not embarrassed. It is the same with my soul. Once a week whether I think I need it or not, I go to the sacrament of Confession. That way when Jesus makes surprise visit I am ready for Him.

Frequent confession is something that is practiced by the saints and is recommended to us by the Church. A few years ago a child asked Pope Benedict XVI why we should go to confession regularly if we always seem to be confessing the same sins. His very practical answer hit me, “It is true: Our sins are always the same, but we clean our homes, our rooms, at least once a week, even if the dirt is always the same; in order to live in cleanliness, in order to start again. Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen, but it builds up. Something similar can be said about the soul. If I never go to confession, my soul is neglected and in the end I am always pleased with myself and no longer understand that I must always work hard to improve, that I must make progress. And this cleansing of the soul that Jesus gives us in the sacrament of confession helps us to make our consciences more alert, more open, and hence, it also helps us to mature spiritually and as human persons. Therefore, two things: Confession is only necessary in the case of a serious sin, but it is very helpful to confess regularly in order to foster the cleanliness and beauty of the soul and to mature day by day in life.”

The famous quote “love means never having to say you’re sorry” from the old movie Love Story is so wrong. If love is to last we always have to say we are sorry whenever we do anything wrong. If we love God it means always having to say you're sorry and we have this beautiful sacrament to help us do it.

The loss of the sense of sin is one of the biggest problems facing our society today. Sin breaks the supernatural bond which unites us to God. We have to constantly remember that Christ suffered His Passion for our sins. We must do all that we can to make our consciences more sensitive, and to guard them from becoming deformed or imperceptive. The sense of sin is clearer for us when our relationship with God is strengthened by our sacramental life and by sincere prayer.

I recently was helping prepare some grade 8’s for Confirmation and got quite a chuckle when one boy told me there were 9 Sacraments. He thought the sacrament of confession; penance and reconciliation were all different sacraments! It certainly is the sacrament of many names. Some call it the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father from whom one has strayed by sin. It is the sacrament of Penance, since it sanctifies the sinner's personal steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction. It is the sacrament of confession, since the confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. It is also our "confession" - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward us sinners. It is the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the sinner "pardon and peace." It is the sacrament of Reconciliation, because we reconcile with God when use this sacrament.

This sacrament could be considered the “environmentalists sacrament.” We hear a lot these days about the recycling of garbage. Well the sacrament of confession is the recycling of human “garb age”. Through the graces of the sacrament we are treated and processed and made suitable for reuse. We come out bright and shiny new, in the image of God, ready to be start again. G.K. Chesterton once said: “When a Catholic comes from Confession, he does truly, by definition, step out into that dawn of his own beginning…in that brief ritual God has really remade him in His own image. He may be grey and gouty; but he is only five minutes old.”

Through this sacrament we receive special graces to help us to be stronger in our fight against our defects and to help us avoid sin though we must also realize that we will never get rid of sin. Because of Original sin were born to fall. In the Gospels we read that “The just man falls seven times a day”. We need to have sin and confession in order to progress in the spiritual life. The problem is not that we fall, or sin; it is whether we get up and try again or not. In the Stations of the Cross we can see what Jesus did each time He fell.

Penance and repentance are demanded due to sin, because of the virtue of justice. St. Augustine said, “It is not enough to change ones habits and abandon sin. One must make satisfaction to God through the sorrow of penance, the sobs of humility, the sacrifice of contrition and almsgiving. External penance – prayer, mortification and fasting – should always be accompanied by interior penance in order to be effective.” The penance that the priest gives us has an atoning power that our privately performed penance cannot match.

Sorrow for our sins is a very important part of confession. Sorrow is not necessarily a feeling, it is an act of the will which leads us to rectify and improve to love God more and to use the means to do so. Our catechism teaches us that the more sorrow for sin that we have the more the temporal punishment due to sin is taken away. The argument is always that if we just say an act of contrition then our venial sins can be forgiven. From experience we know that we do a much deeper examination of conscience and have a much deeper sorrow for our sins when we go to confession than if we were just to say an act of contrition

Sure our protestant friends think it is sufficient to privately confess to God. Sacramental confession though forces us to acknowledge our sins out loud and to actually hear the absolution by the priest assuring us of forgiveness. The process we have to go through in the sacrament is a lesson in humility which acts as a deterrent to sin. We do not have to rely on subjective "feeling". Also in Confession we obtain sound advice on avoiding sin in the future. It is Jesus himself who speaks to us through the priest.

In order to make a good confession, each day we need to make a good examination of conscience. Many of the saints did a quick examination at midday as they said their Angelus. This practice helps us to keep on top of all that is happening during our day. Then at the end of the day we should spend a few minutes doing a more thorough examination.

A firm purpose of amendment is also necessary to be forgiven. If we do not have any intention of changing the priest will be unable to give us absolution. For example if we say we are sorry for something we have no intention of stopping we will not be forgiven.

When we confess our sins we should follow the example some of the greatest saints taught, the 4 “c’s”. When we confess our sins we need to be clear, concise, concrete, and complete. We must also keep in mind that we are there to confess our sins, not our spouses sins, or what our mother-in-law has done to us or what our children have forced us to do.

Sure we may have heard stories of those who have had a bad experience in Confession. It is important that we choose a confessor who is reliable, pious, learned, and who likes being in the confessional. For each one of us, it is important that we seek out and find a good confessor and learn again, as the Church urges us, to confess our sins with faithful frequency and not let the cobwebs build up. We must also do all we can to help our friends and family understand the importance of this sacrament. We should be constantly involved with the helping bring them to this healing sacrament, through our prayer, our example and our loving words. It is the best thing we can do for those we love.

So Lent has begun. Why not take the time to make a good confession.