2nd Sunday Year A Confession

 

In the Gospel today, John the Baptist saw Jesus coming, and said, "Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world." John the Baptist was to prepare the people of his time for Jesus by encouraging them to repent and seek forgiveness for their sins.

When Jesus began His public ministry, He said, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the Gospel."

One who acknowledges their sins, repents and confesses them, is open to hearing what Jesus has to say and having a relationship with Him. We cannot have union with God in Communion, until we first are reconciled to God in Confession.

Jesus Himself instituted the Sacrament of Confession. Our Lord told the apostles, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’” Our Lord also said, “Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

From the beginning of Christianity, Christians repented by confessing their sins. St. Paul said, “We are ambassadors of Christ.” An ambassador is one who does something in the name of someone else, who sent them. He said, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.”

Confession, like all sacraments, is an encounter with Jesus. So when we confess our sins in confession, we are confessing them to Jesus. In our encounter with Jesus, He Himself absolves the sins. The priest says, “I absolve you from your sins.”, but the priest in his own name cannot absolve sins.

St. Basil the Great, in 374 AD, said early Christians confessed to the Apostles. He said, "It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they confessed to the apostles."

St. Cyprian of Carthage in 251 AD, (about 200 years after Jesus) said Christians confessed their sins to priests. He said, "Of how much greater faith and salutary fear are they who... confess their sins to the priests of God in a straightforward manner and in sorrow, making an open declaration of conscience.... I beseech you, brethren, let everyone who has sinned confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession is still admissible, while the satisfaction and remission made through the priests are still pleasing before the Lord."

The apostles, bishops and priests of the early Church, and up to today, heard confessions. For 1,500 years, all Catholics confessed their sins, and no one questioned it, until the Protestant revolt with Martin Luther. To not believe in Confession--- is really protestant. If one doesn't believe in Confession, one should not receive Holy Communion. Otherwise, as St. Paul says, “whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord.”

Confession washes away sins and prepares our heart for Jesus. Our soul is cleansed and made pure. Confession is the Sacrament of Mercy. God in His loving kindness, out the depths of His love, forgives us. Though we don’t deserve His mercy, it’s a total gift.

If we don’t confess our sins, then we won’t receive advice on how to overcome them. We won’t receive penance to make up for them. We place our soul in danger by departing from teachings of the Church.

Mortal sin causes us to be separated from God and when we come to confession we are reconciled with God. If we commit a mortal sin, we are obligated to confess our sins in confession. Otherwise, if we receive Holy Communion in the state of mortal sin, we commit a sacrilegious communion, which is an even more grievous mortal sin.

At every Mass, the Church reminds us we are unworthy to receive Holy Communion. The priest elevates the Host saying the words of John the Baptist, "Behold the Lamb of God, behold Him who takes away the sins of the world. Blessed are those called to the supper of the Lamb." The people respond declaring their unworthiness, saying, "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, by only say the word and my soul shall be healed."

If we have mortal sin on our soul and if we receive the Eucharist, without going to Confession, we receive absolutely no grace whatsoever from Holy Communion, but rather deeply offend Our Lord and add many years of purgatory time for us or if we refuse to confess mortal sins, we could lose heaven and go to hell forever.

There are various reasons why some don't receive Holy Communion: For example, someone may have accidentally ate something and broke the one hour fast before Communion, or someone may not be Catholic. Or a person may have an upset stomach and fear vomiting. Or if a person's soul is not in the state of grace (due to missing Mass on Sunday or some other serious sin) and needs to go to Confession before receiving Holy Communion. It takes humility to stay in the pew, when we shouldn't receive Holy Communion.

Confession reconciles us back to God. We go to confession, we come back to God telling Him, “O God, I am heartily sorry for having offended you.” I want to come back to You and once again be one with You. And so, when we go to Confession, we are reconciled with Him and He embraces us. When the prodigal son comes back home full of repentance, his father runs to embrace him. We restore our friendship lost due to our sins.

If we fail to confess our sins, we won’t receive advice on how to overcome them. We won’t receive penance to make up for them. We place our immortal soul in danger by departing from teachings of the Church.

Confession is called the Sacrament of Conversion. “Conversion” means to turn away from something and to turn toward something. In Confession we turn away from sin and turn toward God. In Confession, we are resolving to never commit the sin again. We want to “amend our life”. We want to do our penance and to try to never commit the same sins again by truly amending our life.

Just a reminder, we have Confession 30 minutes before every Mass.

My friends, every day we should examine our conscience so as to daily strive to improve our friendship and relationship with Jesus.

May the Virgin Mary, refuge of sinners, give us the grace to have a frequent sacramental encounter with Jesus in Confession and receive His mercy.