Confession

At Mass on Sunday, Father was pitching the Advent Penance service at our parish. In the bulletin insert, he always has a "Nourish Your Faith" column-often pertaining to the homily or coming feast. This past Sunday, the following was one of the stories in the column (I hope he doesn't mind me using it):

"Why should I go to Confession? I've nothing to confess." A stocky teenager said this to me. I could see no sign of a halo. He seemed sincere. I thought of the old theological dictum, "The greatest door into Heaven is ignorance." Yet, some disillusionment seemed necessary. "Do you mean to claim that you have committed no sins, not even the smallest, since last year?" His reply was, "I guess not." Rather ambiguous!

Later I told this story to students in one of my classes without revealing the identity of the speaker. They roared laughing, "Lies, lies! He's just telling lies." It is amazing how little self-knowledge we can have.

Sensitivity to sin comes from closeness to God. In the movie Hunchback of Notre Dame, Quasimodo gazes on Esmeralda in wonder. He exclaims, "Until I saw how beautiful you are, I never realized how ugly I am." The brightness of God illumines all the secret corners of our hearts.

We feel like Peter after the miraculous catch of fish in Luke 5:8. He fell on his knees before Jesus and said, "Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man." The reply of Jesus was, "Don't be afraid. From now on you will be catching men.”

Good stuff... Oremus pro invicem!