“all flesh shall see the salvation of God”
“The Messiah is very close to us, and during these days of Advent we should get ready to receive him in a new way when Christmas comes.”[i] We can do this by going to confession and inviting other to join us. In many dioceses, throughout Advent there are several penance services at churches, in addition to normal confession times. Sadly, many people have not been to confession since their first reconciliation. One of the precepts of the Catholic Church is to go to confession at least once a year. “In many cases, bringing our friends closer to Christ means taking them to receive the sacrament of Penance, one of the greatest treasures Our Lord has left to his Church. Perhaps no way of helping friends is as great as making it easy for them to go to Confession.”[ii]
Why is repentance difficult for us and for others? There are various reasons as to why people do not want to go to confession, but it boils down to two main factors: the loss of the sense of sin and being paralyzed in our sin. Indeed, Pope Pius the XII said, “the greatest sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.”[iii] Many people don’t repent because they do not know sin and aren’t aware that they are sinning. Those who know they are sinning may still not go to confession because they are paralyzed in their sin, fearful of coming back in the mercy of God. “Every day we meet friends, colleagues, relatives who have lost their sense of what is most essential to their very existence. They feel unable to go towards Our Lord, and they walk along the paths of life as though paralyzed, because they have lost hope. We have to show them the way to the humble cave in Bethlehem. There they will find the meaning of their lives. To do this we have to know the way ourselves.”[iv]
What is the sense of sin and how do we lose it? Blessed Pope John Paul II wrote in 1984, “Over the course of generations, the Christian mind has gained from the Gospel as it is read in the ecclesial community a fine sensitivity and an acute perception of the seeds of death contained in sin, as well as a sensitivity and an acuteness of perception for identifying them in the thousand guises under which sin shows itself. This is what is commonly called the sense of sin. This sense is rooted in man's moral conscience and is as it were its thermometer. It is linked to the sense of God, since it derives from man's conscious relationship with God as his creator, Lord and Father. Hence, just as it is impossible to eradicate completely the sense of God or to silence the conscience completely, so the sense of sin is never completely eliminated. Nevertheless, it happens not infrequently in history, for more or less lengthy periods and under the influence of many different factors, that the moral conscience of many people becomes seriously clouded. ‘Have we the right idea of conscience?’ - I asked two years ago in an address to the faithful – ‘Is it not true that modern man is threatened by an eclipse of conscience?’ Too many signs indicate that such an eclipse exists in our time. This is all the more disturbing in that conscience, defined by the council as ‘the most secret core and sanctuary of a man,’ is ‘strictly related to human freedom...For this reason conscience, to a great extent, constitutes the basis of man's interior dignity and, at the same time, of his relationship to God.’ It is inevitable therefore that in this situation there is an obscuring also of the sense of sin, which is closely connected with the moral conscience, the search for truth and the desire to make a responsible use of freedom. When the conscience is weakened the sense of God is also obscured, and as a result, with the loss of this decisive inner point of reference, the sense of sin is lost. This explains why my predecessor Pius XII one day declared, in words that have almost become proverbial, that ‘the sin of the century is the loss of the sense of sin.’”[v]
Why do we personally have to know the way to repentance ourselves? If we do not know the way, how in the world are we supposed to lead others? It would be like the blind leading the blind. “We must have interior life. We have to talk to Jesus and strive, ourselves, to improve in those very things in which our friends have to improve. We must have an unshakeable hope in the supernatural means.”[vi] Our holiness will be the greatest witness to others.
How do we grow closer to Christ? “Prayer, mortification (fasting), and good example will always form the basis of the Christian apostolate. The more petition for others is backed by the sanctity of the suppliant, the more certain it is to be answered.”[vii]
How can we help our friends go to the Sacrament of Penance? “Sometimes we will have to help them, with tact and kindness, make a good examination of conscience. Sometimes we will accompany them to the place where confessions are being heard. At other times again, a word of encouragement and affection will suffice, accompanied by a brief and properly-prepared instruction about the nature and value of the sacrament. What joy each time we get a relative, a colleague, a friend, to receive the sacrament of divine mercy! This same joy is shared in Heaven by our Father God and by all the blessed.”[viii]
What happens in the Sacrament of Penance? “In the Sacrament of Penance man is reconciled with God and with the Church. It is one of the most intimate and personal of human acts, and brings about many fundamental changes in the sanctuary of each man’s conscience… In the Sacrament of Penance Our Lord sorts out all those misplaced elements; in addition to pardoning the sins, he restores to the soul its lost order and harmony.”[ix]
How do we prepare ourselves and help others prepare for the Sacrament of Penance? “We say in the Act of Contrition, ‘I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life.’ The Sacrament of Reconciliation includes five steps: Examination of Conscience, Sorrow for Sins, Resolve to sin no more, Confession to a priest, and Penance. We must have the desire or resolve to avoid sin and amend our lives.”[x]
Can we force someone to go to confession? No. One must want forgiveness and at the very minimum be sorry for their sins in order to be forgiven. The old saying “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” We can present God’s love and mercy and try and help lead them into a want to be forgiven, but if a soul is not ready then God will not force His way in.
What are the benefits of leading others to penance? “Whenever anybody makes a sincere and repentant Confession it is a moment of rejoicing not only for the penitent but for everybody…The saints in Heaven, the holy souls in Purgatory, and the Church which is still on pilgrimage through this world rejoice together every time an absolution is given.”[xi]
We have to realize that sin is never just a personal, private thing that only affects a singular person—it affects everyone. “The greatest tragedy in any man’s life is sin, because the result of sin is a far-reaching disorder which starts in the very center of his being and spreads outward to affect all those around him.”[xii] We should listen to the words of Saint Paul when he said, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.”[xiii]
To drive the point home, our late Holy Father, Blessed Pope John Paul II said, “This is the other aspect of that solidarity which, on the religious level, is developed in the profound and magnificent mystery of the ‘Communion of Saints’, thanks to which it has been possible to say that ‘every soul that rises above itself raises up the world’. To this ‘law of ascent’ there unfortunately corresponds the ‘law of descent’. Consequently one can speak of a ‘communion of sin’, whereby a soul that lowers itself through sin drags down itself, the Church and, in some way, the whole world. In other words there is no sin, not even the most intimate and secret one, that exclusively concerns the person committing it. With greater or lesser violence, with greater or lesser harm, every sin has repercussions on the entire ecclesial body and on the whole human family.”[xiv]
How does Confession benefit the Church and others as a whole? We must never forget we are all one body of Christ and see the joyous benefits of going to the Sacrament of Penance and the joy the whole Church has not just here on earth, but also in Heaven. “…when a Christian goes to Confession, the whole Church receives an incalculable benefit. Every time a priest pronounces the words of absolution, She rejoices and is mysteriously enriched, because every Confession, through the Communion of Saints, sends blessings which resound through the whole Mystical Body of Christ.”[xv]
“In the intimate life of the Church…every member supports all the others with his good works and merits, and is at the same time supported by them. We all need to be, and in fact we all are, continually receiving a share of the spiritual benefits which are common to us all. Our own merits are helping our fellow men in every part of the world…To loosen’ the chains of sin is at the same time to tighten the bonds of brotherhood. Ought we not to go to this Sacrament more joyfully and more regularly when we know that by the very fact of making a good Confession we are helping so many other Christians, and especially those who are closet to us?”[xvi]
[i] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[ii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[iii] Pope Pius XII, Radio Message to the U.S. National Catechetical Congress in Boston (October 26,1946): Discorsi e Radiomessaggi VIII (1946) 288.
[iv] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[v] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 2 December 1984, 18
[vi] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[vii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[viii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 9.1
[ix] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 10.3
[x] http://linktoliturgy.com/?load=page&page=1511
[xi] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 10.3
[xii] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 10.3
[xiii] 1 Cor. 12:26
[xiv] John Paul II, Apostolic Exhortation, Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 2 December 1984, 16
[xv] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 10.3
[xvi] Fernandez, In Conversation with God, 1, 10.3