Reconciliation: √ CELEBRATING GOD’S FORGIVENESS

√  We all know the parable of the Prodigal Son.

√  It is probably the best example of the human process of reconciliation, and of the theology of the new rite of Penance.

From talking with a lot of you, I have found many find it difficult to believe the story (see Luke 15:11-32).

The father welcomes the son back instantly--doesn’t even wait for him to get back to the house.

AND HE ISN’T AT ALL INTERESTED IN HEARING THE YOUNG MAN’S CONFESSION, only in celebrating his return!

This is not the way we Catholics have always looked at this sacrament.

And even with a new rite, we tend to adopt the attitude of the older son in the story:

forgiveness comes only after you re­cite your list of sins, agree to suffer a bit for them, do something to make up for your sins, give some guarantee you won’t commit the same sins again, and prove yourself worthy to join the rest of us who haven’t been so foolish!

Right?

What we find hard to believe is that God is not like the older son, but the parent.

God is not out to catch us in our sin but wants to reach out and hang on to us in spite of our sin.

Reconciliation (and the new rite is careful to point this out) is not merely a matter of getting rid of sin.

Nor is its primary concern what we, the penitents, do.

The important point is what God does in, with, and through us.

√  We Journey Home to God

God’s reconciling work in us does not happen instantly.

Reconciliation is a long, often painful process-

It is a journey not confined to, but completed in, sacramental celebration.

√  It is a round-trip journey away from our home with God and back again that can be summed up in terms of √   three “C’s”:

√ conversion, √ confession and √ celebra­tion-  √ AND in THAT ORDER!

√  We remember it differently from the past. (Ask what they remember)

Receiving the sacrament meant beginning with a  √ recitation of sins (confession).

√  Then we expressed our sorrow with and Act of Contrition, agreed to make some satisfaction for our sins by accepting √  our penance, and  √  resolved to change our ways (conversion).

√  Celebration was seldom, if ever, part of the process.

And now they tell us it’s the heart of the process!

We can better understand the stages in our journey to reconciliation-and the order in which they occur – if we examine the Parable of the Prodigal Son.

This will help us to understand why the theology of the new Rite of Penance suggests a reordering in the pattern that we were familiar with in the past.

Like the young man in the story, our journey also begins with the selfishness of sin.

His sin takes him from the home of his parents-as our sin takes us form the shelter of God and the Christian Community.

His major concern in his new self-centered life-style – as is ours in sin – is himself and his personal gratification.

None of his friends last; his friends run out when his money does.

Eventually he finds himself alone, mired in the “mud” of his life.

Then comes the most significant phrase in the whole story: “Coming to his senses at last...”

For him, this is the beginning of the journey back home, the beginning of conversion. √

Conversion: An Ongoing Process

√

                        The conversion process begins with a “coming to one’s senses,” with a realization that all is not right with our values and style of life.

Prompted by a faith response to God’s call, conversion initiates a desire for change within us.

Change is the very essence of conversion.

Shuv, the Old Testament term for conversion, suggests a physical change of direction;

metanoia, the New Testament term, suggests an internal turnabout, a change of heart that shows up in our behavior.

The Gospel tells us that metanoia occurs when God’s Spirit breaks into out lives with the Good News that God loves us UNCONDITIONALLY, NO STRINGS ATTACHED, NO MATTER WHAT WE DO OR WHO WE ARE!

√  Conversion is always a response to being loved by God.

In fact, the most important part of the conversion process is the experience of being loved and realizing that God’s love saves us – √  we do not save ourselves.

√

Our part in this saving action is to be open to the gift of God’s love – to be open to grace in our lives.

Persons who turn to God in conversion will never be the same again, because conversion implies transforming the way we relate to others, to ourselves, to the world, to the universe and to God.

Unless we can see that our values, attitudes and actions conflict with the Gospel, we will never see a need to change or desire to be reconciled.

The need for conversion does not extend only to who have radically embraced evil.

Most often metanoia means the small efforts all of us must continually make to respond to the call of God.

And when we discover in our examination of our values, attitudes and style of life that we are “missing the mark” we experience the next step in the conversion process –   √  Contrition.

This step helps us break away from our misdirected actions, leave them behind and make some resolutions for our future.

            Let’s go back to the Parable.

The young man takes the first step in the conversion process when he “comes to his senses,” overcomes his blindness and sees what he must do.

“I will break away and return to my father.”

Before he ever gets out of the pigpen, he admits his sinfulness.

In this acknowledgment of sin he both expresses contrition and determines his own penance.

“I will say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against God and against you... Treat me like one of your hired hands..”’

For many people in the past penance connoted “making up to God” by punishing ourselves for our sins.

But true reparation is not punishment.

√At its root, reparation is repairing or correcting a sinful life-style.

In the past we were told to do penance as temporal punishment for our sins.

 √  Now, however, we understand that our real “punish­ment” is the continuing pattern of sin in our lives and the harmful attitudes and actions it creates in us.

The purpose of doing penance is to help us change that patterns.

  √                                Penance is for growth, not for punishment.

“Doing penance” means taking the steps in the direction of living a changed life;

it means making room for something new in our lives.

It means WE MUST BE WILLING TO CHANGE!

 √ Confession:

Externalizing What is Within

Confession, one aspect of the sacrament which used to receive the greatest emphasis, is now seen as just one step in the total process.

  √ CONFESSION OF SIN CAN ONLY BE SINCERE IF IT IS PRECEDED BY THE PROCESS OF CONVERSION!

It is actually the external expression of the interior transformation that conversion has brought about in us.

It is a much less significant aspect of the sacrament that we made it out to be in the past.

This does not mean that confession is unimportant – only that it is not the essence of the sacrament.

Let’s look again at the parable.

The father, seeing his son in the distance, runs out to meet him with an embrace and a kiss.

Through one loving gesture, the father forgives the son – and the son hasn’t even made his confession yet!

When he does, it seems the father hardly listens.

√  The confession is not the most important thing here;

 √  the important thing is that the son has returned.

 √ The son need not beg for forgiveness,  √ he has been forgiven.

This is the glorious Good News that most of don’t really believe even though it is at the root of our faith:

 GOD’S FORGIVENESS, LIKE GODS LOVE, DOESN’T STOP.

In this parable, Jesus reveals to us a loving God who simply cannot NOT forgive!

Our attitude toward the Sacrament of Penance is intimately related to our image of God.

We need to really believe that our God is not some big bogeyman waiting to trip us up, but a great Lord who is ever ready to reach out in forgiveness.

The Rite of Penance reflects this image of a God of mercy.

Formerly it was the penitent who began the encounter in confession –

“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned” –

not unlike the way the son in our parable planned to greet his father.

But the parent in the parable intervened.

In the same vein, now in Penance it is the confessor who takes the initiative, reaching out, welcoming the penitent and creating a hospitable environment of acceptance and love before there is any mention of sin.

Thus, the sacramental moment of confes­sion – just one of the sacramental moments in the whole Rite – focuses on God’s love rather than our sin.

Of course, the new Rite does concern itself with the confession of sins.

 √ But one’s sinfulness is not always the same as one’s sins

 √ And, as a sacrament of healing, Penance addresses the disease (sinfulness) rather than the symptoms (sins).

 √ So, the sacrament calls us to more than prepared speeches or lists of sins.

 √ We are challenged to search deep into our heart of hearts to discover the struggles, value conflicts and ambiguities (the disease) which cause the sinful acts (the symptoms) to appear.

Which leads us to a couple of important questions:

√  (Can children do this at this age?}

√ Can we?

 √ A question that often arise is: Why confess my sins?

And why confess to a priest?

Why not confess directly to God, since God has already forgiven me anyway? From God’s point of view, the simple answer is:

 √ There is no rea­son. God’s already forgiven us!

 √ But from our point of view, the answer is that as human beings who do not live in our minds alone,

we need to externalize bodily – with words, signs and gestures – what is in our minds and hearts.

 √ WE NEED TO SEE, HEAR AND FEEL FORGIVENESS  – NOT JUST THINK ABOUT IT

We need other human beings to help us externalize what is within and open our hearts before the Lord, which puts confessors in a new light.

They are best seen, not as faceless and impersonal judges, but as guides in our dis­cernment compassionately helping us experience and proclaim the mercy of God in our lives.

As the introduction to the Rite puts it, the confessor “fulfills a parental function ...reveals the heart of God and shows the image of the Good Shepherd.”

 √ Another of the confessors roles is to say the prayer of absolution.

Contrary to what we may have thought in the past, this prayer, which completes or seals the penitent’s change of heart,  √ is not a prayer asking for forgiveness.

 √ It is a prayer signifying God’s forgiveness of us and our reconciliation with the Church – which is certainly something to celebrate.

WHICH LEADS US TO:

√Celebration: God Always Loves Us

“Celebration” is a word we haven’t often associated with the Sacrament of Penance.

But in Jesus’ parable, it is obviously important and imperative.

 √“Quick!” says the father, “let us celebrate.”

And why?

Because a sinner has converted, repented, confessed and returned.

√Celebration makes sense only when there is something to celebrate.

Each of us has had the experience of going to gatherings with all the trappings of a celebration – people, food, drink, balloons, bands and yet the festivity was a flop for us.

For example, attending an office party can be such an empty gathering for the spouse or friend of an employee.

We are trying to turn our celebrations of this sacrament here at St. Therese into true celebration.

It is apparent, however, that this sacrament is not seen as an occasion to celebrate for those who come every month.

Why?

Because celebration flows from lived experience or it is meaningless.

The need for celebration to follow common lived experiences is especially true of sacramental celebration.

All of the sacraments are communal celebrations of the lived experience of believing Christians.

Perhaps what we need to help us feel more comfortable with the idea of celebration in relation to Penance is a conversion from our own rugged individualism.

√                      Let’s face it – there is something abut believing in a bogeyman God from whom we have to earn forgiveness that makes us feel good psychologically.

 √ It’s harder to feel good about a God who loves and forgives unconditionally – whether we know it or not, want it or not, like it or not.

In the face of such love and forgiveness we feel uncomfortable.

It creates a pressure within us that makes us feel we should “do someth­ing” to deserve such largess – or at least feel a little bit guilty.

The older brother in our parable expresses this same discomfort.

Upon witnessing the festivities, he appeals to fairness and legalism.

In a sense, he is hanging on to the courtroom image of the Sacrament of Penance, suggesting that there is no way everyone can feel good about the return of the younger brother until amends have been made.

I know from talking to groups and individuals here at St. Therese that many of us here in this parish would certainly cast our votes for the older brother for he most closely resembles us in our understanding of God’s limitless love and forgiveness.

 √                                 He is too calculating, too quantitative.

 √ This son finds it difficult to understand that we are never NOT forgiven.

 √ THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE DOES NOT BRING ABOUT SOMETHING THAT WAS ABSENT.

                        √  √IT PROCLAIMS AND ENABLES US TO OWN GOD’S LOVE AND FORGIVENESS THAT ARE ALREADY PRESENT!

The older brother’s problem is a universal human one.

It’s tough for most of us to say, “I’m sorry.”

And, if you are like me, it’s most difficult of all to say gracefully, “I accept your forgiveness.”

To be able to do that we must be able to forgive ourselves.

That, too, is what we celebrate in the Sacrament of Penance.

The community’s liturgical celebration of Penance places a frame around the picture of our continual journey from sin to reconciliation.

Only someone who has never experienced or reflected on that journey will fail to understand the need and value of celebrating the sacrament.

The older son in our story may be such a person.

When the father calls for a celebration, everyone else in the household responds.

Not only do they celebrate the younger son’s return, they celebrate their own experience of forgiveness, mercy and reconciliation as well.

They, like us, have been on that journey from which the young man has returned.

So there IS something we can do about the unconditional forgiveness we receive from God: forgive as we have been forgiven:

Having been forgiven, we are empowered to forgive one another, heal one another and celebrate the fact that together we have come a step closer to the peace, justice and reconciliation that makes us the heralds of Christ’s Kingdom on earth.

√A Communal Celebration

Why don’t we just go to a priest and let him “hear” our confession like we used to: why do we have these big gatherings during Lent and Advent?

 √Because sacramental celebrations are communal because sacramental theology is as much horizontal as they are vertical

What does that mean?

Well, sacraments happen in people who are in relationship with each other ( horizontal) and with God (vertical)

We’ve spent so much time in the past emphasizing the vertical aspect of sacraments at the expense of the horizontal.

In the area of sin, forgiveness and reconciliation this is particularly evident.

 √                                 Our sinfulness disrupts our relationship in community as well as our relationship with God.

And since the sacrament begins with our sinfulness, which always affects others, it is only proper that it culminate with a communal expression of love and forgiveness that embodies the love and forgiveness of God.

√ √ Unconverted “older sons” (or daughters) will always be out of step with the Christian community.

When we celebrate the sacrament, we celebrate with joy and thanksgiving because the forgiveness of the Christian community and of God has brought us to this moment – and that is worth celebrating.

There is no room for the attitude that forgiveness comes “only when you have recited your list of sins, agreed to suffer a bit for them and proven yourself worthy to join the rest of us who haven’t been so foolish.”

Such “older sons” are looking for what theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer called “cheap grace” – grace without discipleship, without the cross, without faith, without Jesus Christ living and incarnate,

and without the conversion necessary to live reconciliation within the Christian community.

Such a person is hardly ready to celebrate the Sacrament of Penance as it is understood today.