It Is God's Will

MARK 1: 40-45
A leper came to him and kneeling down begged  him and said,  "If you wish, you can make me clean."

Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand,
touched the leper, and said to him, 
"I do will it. Be made clean."
Leprosy left him immediately, and he was made clean.
Then, warning him sternly, he dismissed him at once.
Then he said to him, "See that you tell no one anything,
but go, show yourself to the priest
and offer for your cleansing what Moses prescribed;
that will be proof for them."
The man went away and began to publicize the whole matter.
He spread the report abroad
so that it was impossible for Jesus to enter a town openly.
He remained outside in deserted places,
and people kept coming to him from everywhere.

We have no idea what it meant to be a leper in the time of Jesus. First of all, many different skin conditions could be considered leprosy some of which were not.  The people of the time thought that leprosy was very contagious and so a person with a suspected case was cut off from his community. He was fated to live a life outside the family that loved him and he was forbidden to even come close to the temple or synagogue and that for an observant Jew was the worst thing about the condition, he was cut off from Yahweh's people.  Worse than that, the common belief was that he was being punished for some sin that he or one of his ancestors committed so he was not the target for any sympathy from the populace.  

The leper in our story had heard of Jesus and how he had been able to cure some people. It was hard for him but he presented himself to Jesus and prostrated himself and said that if Jesus would will him to be clean, he would be clean.  Jesus was moved with great pity and noted the man's humility and faith and told him that it was His will that he be cured. The man was immediately cured and Jesus asked him not to make a big deal about it and told him just to make the required thank offering at the temple as Moses had commanded but the man spread news of his cure far and wide. 

There is a terrible disease that is affecting a lot of people today.  It is not a pretty disease and it ravages those that have like no other plague ever seen by man on this earth. It is a killer disease and is one-hundred percent fatal to those who refuse treatment for it, and many do refuse because they think that they are healthy.  The disease is self-righteousness which is afflicting many of us.  We have lost the sense of sin in our lives.  Some of us delude ourselves in thinking that our life is one in which we have defeated sin and we are blameless before God and man.  This spiritual myopia is a quite curable if we want it to be cured.  All we need to do is to take the medicine that has been offered by Jesus. For us Catholics, we need to sit back and examine our conscience after asking the Holy Spirit to reveal our sins.  An honest review is the first step. Our leper friend knew he was a leper when he approached Jesus, we must know and acknowledge that we are sinners as we approach Him.  Then what?  Do we pray to Jesus asking for forgiveness?  Sure, why not?  But we must not stop at this point.  We must, with all humility, face our sins, face to face with Jesus and His Church in the sacrament of reconciliation.  It is here that we receive the forgiveness of Jesus for sure and forever. Here too we receive the wisdom on how to avoid committing sins again, and it is here that we prayerfully express our sorrow and receive the forgiveness of Christ and His Church.  Why do we need the forgiveness of His Church? This is because no sin is committed that does not affect the Body of Christ in some way, shape, or form.  We sin in community and the community forgives us and we heal the brokenness of our relationship with Christ and His community. 

Confession? Is this really necessary?  Verbalizing our faults will make us own them and let us see we are not as perfect as we had thought ourselves to be.  We will begin to see us as God sees us and because we have humbly expressed our sorrow and asked to be made clean, just like the leper, we will be welcomed back into the community and we will take our place as a follower of Christ. 

Sin can be forgiven in the confessional and that restores the relationship between us and God. What remains is the effect of sin on our soul.  The poor souls in Purgatory are saved by Christ's death on the cross and will attain heaven. What they are doing in Purgatory is removing the attachments to sin that may be left on the soul. They need our prayers.  Please pray for them today. So many are there who have no one to pray for them.  Say this prayer for them today:

According to tradition, St. Gertrude the Great was told by Our Lord that the following prayer, each time she piously recited it, would release 1,000 souls (or a vast number) from their suffering in purgatory:

“Eternal Father,
I offer You the most precious blood
of thy Divine Son, Jesus,
in union with the Masses said
throughout the world today,
for all the Holy Souls in Purgatory,
for sinners everywhere,
for sinners in the universal Church,
for those in my own home,
and in my family. Amen.”

He Is Like A Refiner's Fire

Yes, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.

But who will endure the day of his coming?

And who can stand when he appears?

For he is like the refiner's fire,

Do we really want this thing to happen? I mean Malachi tells us that the Lord is going to be like a refining fire.  You know, when you mine silver or gold a lot of things can contaminate the end product which makes it worth a lot less than it could be.  So the refiner builds a fire, not just any fire, but one that is so hot that it melts the gold or silver and burns away the imperfections in it. The end result is pure, uncontaminated, the best that it can be. 

I know that Protestants and even some Catholics do not believe that there is such a place as Purgatory. But this reading from Malachi, what else can it mean?  If we take the proposition that God is Holy and that nothing unclean or unholy can be around him, doesn't it make sense that He would put into place a way for the dross to be burned away so that his faithful child, one that died in His friendship, could prepare him or her self to be with Him in heaven?  But, did not the sacrificial death of Jesus redeem us fully and give us a ticket to enter the pearly gates?  Yes, Jesus died for our sins and they are all forgiven but what justice would there be, for example, if you were a thief and you stole and then you were "saved" and your sin was forgiven, the person you stole from would still be out the money unless you repaid him. 

Every sin we commit has two effects on our soul. In the case of a serious sin, also called mortal sin, it breaks the relationship between God and his child. In the case of a minor offense, called a venial sin, the relationship is not broken but there is an obstacle between Father and child.  The relationship is still there but there is, for lack of a better word, a bump that needs to be smoothed.  For us Catholics, we have the assurance that our sins are forgiven when we confess them and accept the mercy of God in the confessional.   The sin is forgiven for sure but the attachment to that sin, the temporal satisfaction required to remedy what we have done is still there.  We can satisfy this temporal satisfaction by prayer, fasting, giving alms while we live.  Now if we die and we have an unforgiven mortal sin on our soul, there is no hope for us, we will end up in hell with the devil.  If the mortal sin had been rectified in the sacrament of confession, but we never satisfied the temporal requirement to purge it from our soul, we will have to do so after death.  It is the same for venial sin.  The time for making up for temporal things is while we are on earth.  While we live we can sacrifice and do penance and satisfy the obligation.  Once we have died, we will need to go through the refiner's fire which we call Purgatory.   We ourselves will choose to go there for we will know that we are not ready for heaven.  Does this sound like a fairy tale?  Here is another example.  You and John were the best of friends, you went to school together and all through life you kept up your friendship.  One day you were called to John's bedside as he lay there dying.  He calls you close and confesses that in second grade he was the one that stole your pencil, the one with black lead on one side and red lead on the other.  He stole it because he wanted to annoy you. You cherished that pencil.  As he takes his last breath, you tell him how much you hate him for stealing that pencil.  Some years later, you die and you never gave up that hate for John for stealing your pencil.  John is now among the other saints in heaven in the presence of Almighty God.  If you were admitted to heaven with this hate on your soul, what would you do when you saw John for the first time in heaven.  Most likely you would at least have a bad thought or two about him and you would be causing hate to enter heaven and that is an impossibility.  What is God to do with you?  The sin is a minor matter and not worthy of hell, but He cannot admit you to heaven because you are attached to the sin and sin has no place in heaven.  God in His mercy allows you to choose to go to the refiner's fire, to have all of the dross burned out of your soul after which you will be allowed to enjoy heaven forever.   God is that merciful.   So, Purgatory is real because God's love for us and His desire for us to be with Him is real. 

Can you avoid Purgatory?  Sure you can and some of us do avoid Purgatory.  We can do this by living a worthy life, confessing our sins regularly and to do penance for them by sacrificing our time, talent, or treasure in doing some worthy cause.  You see, when you move out of yourself and see how others live, you can be more charitable and loving.  This will help you remove the residual stains on your soul.  God loves you so much that He sent His only Son to die for your sins.  He opened the doors of heaven for us so we can live in peace and security with Him forever. 

A Great Promise

I am the LORD, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, 

"Fear not, I will help you."

How can we fail when we have a friend such as this.  The God of the universe loves us so much that He watches and will grasp us with His right hand and will keep us from harm.  He tells us in this reading from Isiah that we are to fear not for He will help us. 

Look around the world today.  If there ever was a time when we needed the strong right hand of God to grasp us and pull us out of the pit it is today. Mind you, the world is still a very beautiful place.  There are abundance and plenty all around us. The sun rises and sets as it always has, the tides of the ocean are regulated by the moon. Plants take in the sunlight and grow and are nurtured by God's mighty hand and the animals of the forest find their food provided for them.  Yet, God in his love has done so much more for those of Adam's race.  Time and time again he has come to the aid of His children and all of us while at first grateful, later we fall away from His counsel, forget His laws, and we wander off on our own way again.  Does God turn His back as we would to one who offended us greatly? No, with infinite patience, care, and love He extends His hand in friendship ready to accept any and all that want to return to Him. 

In this season of Advent, I ask you to be cognizant of the state of your soul. Are you wandering down a path that will lead to your spiritual ruin?  Do not give the devil a victory by thinking you have not sinned.  This lie is the evil one's sharpest tool and one that is used to separate man from God. When was the last time you approached the Lord in the sacrament of reconciliation?  A year ago? Five years? A quarter of a century ago?  It does not matter how long it has been, make plans to receive the mercy and love of our God in the confessional.  He knows your sins already, you will not be telling Him anything He doesn't know.  But to heal you have to tell Him what you have done and apply for His forgiveness and mercy.  He has never rejected anyone who has come to Him in tears and sorrow, even if it took years and years to come to the realization that sin was present in life.

Forgiveness and healing are but steps away.  Show your love and faith in God by admitting your wrongs and resolving to do right.  Then the coming Christmas holy day will mean more to you than it did when you were a child because you will know the love and mercy of the God of the universe and He will grasp you with His strong right hand and never let you go again.  

Today would be a great day to say the rosary for the Poor Souls in Purgatory, it is the memorial of St. John of the Cross. Please remember the poor souls, they cannot pray themselves out of purgatory, they need your help.  Remember, my friend, as they are, perhaps someday you shall be. 

There Is No Small Sin

"Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments

and teaches others to do so

will be called least in the Kingdom of heaven.

But whoever obeys and teaches these commandments

will be called greatest in the Kingdom of heaven."

When we think of Jesus we most often think of Him as kind, loving, gentle, and meek.  This is good because He is all of these things.  In today's Gospel reading we catch a glimpse of another facet of Jesus.  We see what I call Jesus the Prophet.  Today His words tell us that we are God's children and we are called to obey and he tells us that there are consequences when we disobey and commit sin. 

Sin happens anytime when we place our will above that of God's. Our Church wisely classifies sin into two types which are venial or less serious sin and a mortal sin which is a sin that does just what it says, it destroys the relationship between the person and God.  Praise God that all sin is forgivable through the sacrament of reconciliation which we can use to express our sorrow and receive assurance that we are truly forgiven for what we have done. 

While I agree that there are two types of sin and that every sin, no matter how grave can be forgiven, I want to talk a little about the nature of sin itself.  Father Larry told this story.  He was driving to work one day and a person cuts him off.  He lost his temper and mentioned things about the other driver's ancestry that would have amazed the driver had he been able to hear them.  This act of cussing out the man that offended him was, of course, a venial sin.  He did not know the person in the other car and he did not really mean the things he said so it was not a grave sin.  Now imagine the same circumstances but the other driver happened to be his mother.  He has the same reaction.  The sin would be greater because of the dignity of the person he was sinning against. 

This is why I say that there is no small sin. There are sins that are milder than some but every sin, no matter how small, no matter how venial, is an offense against God and it is no small thing. The wonderful thing about sin is that it always can be forgiven. God is always there with His arms outstretched waiting to hug us back into His family. 

So today, I challenge you to stop and think before you consider committing even the smallest sin and remember who it is you are offending.  I challenge you also if you haven't taken advantage of the Sacrament of  Reconciliation in a while, even if it has been years or decades, to consider swallowing your pride and approach the throne of grace to be received back into God's family.  Sometimes love does mean we have to say that we are sorry. 

Knowledge Ain't Enuf

I often have to remind myself that knowledge about God is not the same as a relationship with God.  I have a good knowledge about the things my church teaches about God.  I was involved in RCIA, that is the training of people looking to join the Church after they have become adults so I have had to study and learn about my religion.  This is certainly okay as far as it goes.  This knowledge was hard won and certainly useful for the people I imparted it to.  Take for example the simple Bible verse, "God is love."  To teach that to someone coming into the Church is a great good.  If I leave this nugget of truth about God in someone else's heart and do not take it into my own, then it does me no good. 

Paul tells us this in 1 Cor. 1 -3.  He says that no matter what if we do not have love in our heart, we are nothing more than a noisy gong or a cymbal making a senseless racket.  In other words, without taking the scriptures to heart, they do us no good at all.  We can memorize the whole Bible but if we do not put the knowledge into practice, it is useless to us.  So it is with God.  We can know all about Him, we can preach His wonders but if we do not have an intimate relationship with Him, well, then, so what?

For us Catholics, we have so many opportunities to unite ourselves with Christ.  Think about what you do every week at mass.  You worship God publicly and you receive God Himself into your body in the Holy Eucharist.  Is it just bread you eat?  If so, I can tell you where you can get better tasting bread and in a larger slice.  No, it is the Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity of Christ Himself that you receive.  Do you take the host, return to your place and read the church bulletin or talk to your spouse?  Don't waste the chance to pour out your heart to the One who loves you. 

We Catholics can also meet Christ in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Christ wants us to trust Him and He also wants us to come to Him and relate to Him where we have failed so he can cure us of our spiritual ills and make us stronger in the faith.  This sacrament scares many people because they think that the priest who is acting in persona Christi will remember what they confess and hold it against them somehow.  We also think that our sins are somehow unique, that father has never heard someone confess what we did before.  Do you want to bet?  Reconciliation is an opportunity to begin a relationship with Christ even before you enter the confessional because you can prayerfully examine your conscience after asking the Lord to help you recall your sins.

There are so many ways in the Catholic Church to meet Christ.  There is adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, there are ministries that need your particular talent.  Just seek and you shall find.  Getting to know about Christ is a good first step.  Getting to know Jesus as a personal friend should be your goal because this friendship will last an eternity.  

Tuesday of Holy Week - Betrayal

Reclining at table with his disciples, Jesus was deeply troubled and testified,

"Amen, amen, I say to you, one of you will betray me."

I don't think that there is anything more painful to the human heart than an act of betrayal.  What makes betrayal so painful is that it is an act of a friend.  A person who does not know you cannot betray you. We all have been the victim of betrayal in our lives.  When I was a seventh grader, my friend Dennis and I went over to McKinley Park, a beautiful place when I was a kid, it was filled with bicycle paths, playgrounds, and a lagoon that you could actually catch fish at. This, of course, was in warm weather.  My friend and I were going to the park on a day when only fools and idiots were out of doors as it was very cold. We had a purpose in mind.  The cold snap would have frozen the lagoon solid and we wanted to take some time to explore the three islands that were on this man-made lake.  And so we did.  It turned out that these three little islands were nothing very special, a fact which we took note of and started to use the ice for its native purpose, sliding.  All in all, it was a lot of fun for a couple young boys on a cold and blustery Chicago winter weekend.  At one end of the park was the "inlet" that kept the water fresh.  The inlet was not a spring, it was a pipe that poured fresh Lake Michigan water into the lagoon to prevent it from becoming a stinking swamp in the summer months.  We gravitated towards this pipe because even though it was freezing cold, there were six feet of liquid water surrounding the pipe.  We got to the edge of the ice and my friend pointed at something and I bent low to see what it was.  The next thing I knew I was under the water. The icy water made me gasp and I was out air quickly.  God was with me at that moment because I did not panic and thrash about so I stayed near the hole.  I remember seeing the ice from the bottom with the weak sunlight lighting it up.  I struggled and pushed myself up and my friend's arm pulled me out and deposited me on the ice like a walrus.  I began immediately to shiver. My friend found it all hilarious and called me a clumsy oaf.  My lips were blue and I knew I could not walk the two miles back to my home but luckily my Uncle John lived not too far from the park.  My friend said he had to go home and turned and left me shivering and freezing to death on the ice.  I trudged off the ice and walked to my uncle's house which, luckily, was only two blocks away. My uncle provided me with warm clothes and hot chocolate and called his brother to come and pick me up.  Later, I learned that my friend, Dennis, was bragging and laughing about how foolish I looked after he pushed me into the lagoon.  That was the first time in my life I felt betrayed and it hurt. It hurt badly.  If you think back, I am sure that you will remember a time when a friend turned on you.  How did it feel? 

Judas Iscariot was a friend of Jesus. He was one of the twelve picked to be His special friends, His Apostles.  These would be the men He entrusted his kingdom, his Church on earth to.  Judas was an important Apostle. He had charge of the money.  He saw to needed purchases and made sure that the charity people offered were put to good use.  He may have also kept a bit for himself, at least there were suspicions that he did so but Jesus did nothing when it was brought to His attention.  This emboldened Judas and he began to think that if he could get away with stealing from the common purse, then how could Jesus be the Messiah, the Son of God?  Judas could see the writing on the wall.  He could tell that the Pharisees were baiting Jesus and were just waiting for him to make a single wrong step. If Jesus were to be arrested, so would anyone close to him unless that person had a special relationship with the high priest.  Judas decided to sell Jesus to His enemies.  Of course, once Jesus was arrested he could keep the common purse because it was money belonging to a criminal.  Inwardly, Judas was delighted with his plan.  Outwardly he continued to pretend that he was a faithful follower of Jesus.  When the time came, he received all that he had hoped for. He got the donations, he got thirty pieces of silver, the cost of an unskilled slave, and he was immune from prosecution because he had turned Jesus in.  In the end, he realized his betrayal cost him a lot more than he had received.  He could have asked Jesus for forgiveness and he would be forgiven.  Instead, he gave in to despair and committed suicide.

We all like to think that had we been around in the time of Jesus we would have been faithful followers of Christ. Back then, being a Christian brought with it dangers of death. Would we have become martyrs for our faith of would we have offered incense to the emperor's statue? 

Today, in America, we do not risk death for being a follower of Christ. But are we afraid to show we are Christians?  The America we live in is hostile to Christian ways. We can lose friends and esteem if we point out things that are wrong.  But if we fail to do this we are just like Judas in that we are trying to make friends with those who are in power who may hate Jesus and His Church. We cannot choose to be an undercover Christian. To do so would be a betrayal that would make Judas's betrayal seem mild in comparison. 

As we approach the end of our Lenten journey, let us look at where we have missed the mark, where we have sinned.  Forgiveness is just one reception of the sacrament of Reconciliation away.  If you haven't been to it in years, so what?  Tell the priest and he will help you along.  Our sins are betrayals of the One that loves us. We can ignore them and sign on to follow the world or we can face them, confess them, and receive forgiveness.  We can be Judas who betrayed and died or we can be Peter who betrayed and lived.  The choice is up to us. 

Lent Day 3 - Sin and the gnashing of Teeth

Psalm 51

Have mercy on me, O God, in your goodness;

in the greatness of your compassion wipe out my offense.

Thoroughly wash me from my guilt

and of my sin cleanse me.

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

For I acknowledge my offense,

and my sin is before me always:

"Against you only have I sinned,

and done what is evil in your sight."

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

For you are not pleased with sacrifices;

should I offer a burnt offering, you would not accept it.

My sacrifice, O God, is a contrite spirit;

a heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

R. A heart contrite and humbled, O God, you will not spurn.

Whatever happened to sin?  Do we sin anymore?  I don't think that we sin any less!  Sin has disappeared from our conscious thought and escapes our attention.  When I was a boy, my sins were always before my eyes,  This was because I was in the charge of God's most cherished employees, the Sisters of St. Joseph.  They made sure that we, meaning the boys in the class, were always aware of our sins. Oh, sometimes a girl would be caught doing something wrong, but it just was not in their nature to go against sister's wishes. Once in sixth grade, I had sinned most grievously.  I pointed out to sister that she had picked only her favorites for speaking parts in the class play.   Sister Margaret Jean was not one to suffer such brashness and insubordination quietly.  I guess that she turned her other cheek for some things and not for others.  I was quickly and efficiently dealt with.  She just about flew over to where I was standing, you never, ever, spoke to a sister while your butt was in contact with a chair.  She grabbed me and placed me out in the hall facing the wall.  Then for next several weeks, while the other kids went to practice her play, I got to stand in the hallway facing the wall until they came back.  The finishing touch, meant to put me in my place, was that she gave me a "D" in school spirit on my report card.  To show you how rare that was, it was once thought that to get a "D" in school spirit, you had to be caught with bottles of gasoline with rags stuck in the necks and a lighted match in hand ready to burn down the school.  Going against the "Teacher's Pet" system was almost as serious.

A sin of any type comes between God and us.  If you think of the punishment of the rebellious angels was when St. Michael, my patron saint, by the way, swept them from heaven into hell, the major part of their punishment was forever being unable to see God.  There was a barrier placed between them and God.  This barrier caused great sorrow.When we sin, we too create a barrier between us and God.  If we sin in a minor way the barrier is not total.  If we commit a major act of rebellion the wall we build shields us from the Face of God.  If we die with this wall in place, our choice becomes permanent and God will honor our choice to be without Him in eternity.  A preacher once was preaching about sin and hell and he yelled out, "And there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth!" A voice of an old lady in the back of the church piped up and said, "But pastor, I don't have any teeth."  Without missing a beat the pastor replied, "Teeth will be provided !" 

I might be dead wrong about this but I think we have lost or sense of sin. In the olden days, especially during Lent, the lines at the confessionals were long.  Today, not so much.  I got myself in trouble on the Catholic Answers forum once.  I mentioned in a reply to another member's question that I thought the sacrament of confession was underused by Catholics today.  I was given a "major violation" and was told that it was none of my business if someone went to confession or not.  The self-righteous moderator missed the whole point of what I was saying.  I no longer participate in Catholic Answers forum because of this but my contention still is that the sacrament of penance is underused today.

Lent is a time to clean up the cobwebs that have gathered in our soul. But confessing to a priest, can't I go directly to God and ask for forgiveness?  Of course, you can and it is a brilliant first step. But the way Christ wants us to do it is to confess to Him through the priest who is acting in persona Christi. You see, sin is not a private matter between you and God.  We are all part of the Body of Christ and any sin, no matter how private, hurts the Body and needs to be healed. But, you say, "It's been years since I last went!"  So what? Mention that to your confessor and he will be even more gentle with you because he knows how hard this is for you.  Oh, the act of confession was never meant to be easy.  It is a very humbling experience to be in confession and to give voice to what God already knows.  Getting it out on the table is the first step in getting your imperfection healed.  Do not be afraid of seeing who you really are.  Remember, what we are is how God sees us and he sees us, imperfect as we are, and loves us anyway.  Whisper to God and listen for His reply.  His reply to you, the prodigal son or daughter, will always be, "I love you, welcome home!" 

Things That Protestants Don't Understand About The Church - Confessing to A Priest

One of the greatest gifts that we have received in the Catholic Church is the gift of the sacrament of reconciliation, or as it is sometimes called the sacrament of confession.  When I am conscious of having offended God in some way, I make my way to my local Church and enter a small room.  In this room, there is a kneeler with a screen behind which sits my pastor.  I cannot see him, he cannot see me.  If I want to I can kneel down on the kneeler and confess my sins anonymously.  I would tell him what sins I had committed since my last confession.  He will listen to me and when I am done, he will give me some advice help me live out a better Christian life.  I will then express my sorrow for the things that I had done that had become between me and God, assign me a penance to help me make up for what I had done, and then pronounce the words of absolution;

"God the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of your son, you have reconciled the world to yourself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.  Through the ministry of the church may God grant you pardon and peace.  And I absolve you of your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. "

There are no words that are so pleasant to the ear than these.  These words remove the stain of sin from souls and bring those who were living in darkness back into the light.  Woe!  Hold it!  Calm yourself.  I know that only God can forgive sin.  No, I am not spouting hearsay here.  Please continue reading. 

A friend of mine, a good Christian, but not a Catholic, told me that she finds it strange that Catholics confess their sins to a priest.  She said that when she realizes that she has done something that may have offended God, she goes directly to Him and asks for forgiveness and thus bypasses the human connection.  She also says that she feels that she is forgiven.  Praying to God for the forgiveness of sins is a good thing to do, and it is a brilliant first step in coming back to God after doing something that has injured your relationship with Him.  When my friend goes directly to God for forgiveness, does she receive it?  If she expresses perfect contrition for the sin and firm purpose to never commit the sin again I cannot imagine that God would not forgive her.  The most important thing here is to have "perfect contrition" for the sin.  Perfect contrition means that you are sorry not because you got caught with your hand in the cookie jar and you are sorry that you are going to be punished.  No, perfect contrition would be that you were sorry that you were offending the very goodness of God.  It pre-supposes that you love God above all things and you do not want to offend Him just because He is God.   Perfect contrition is very hard to come by in our ordinary human life.  Peter, the first Pope, was forgiven for his treachery on Good Friday by Christ when Jesus asked him three times if Peter loved Him.  Jesus asked him if he loved with agape love, that is love for love's sake.  Peter answered twice that He loved Jesus in a natural human way.  The third time Jesus asked Peter if he loved Him in a natural human way and Peter told Jesus that he did.  That was enough for Christ to forgive Peter.  In confession, we go through a similar process. Normal, natural, human love is sufficient to attain forgiveness because the priest is not acting as a priest but actually in the person of Christ when he utters those beautiful words of absolution. 

But how do we Catholics come up with a ritual that supposedly forgives sin?  Didn't Jesus die once on the Cross to save us from sin? Are you Catholics saying it wasn't enough for Him to die?  

The sacrament of confession, or penance, or reconciliation, is very Biblical in its origins and was, like all of the sacraments instituted by Christ to give grace. We read in the Gospel of John, Chapter 20 and verses 19 to 23; "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you. And when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them and whose sins you retain, they are retained"" 

God breathes on human beings twice in recorded history.  The first time was at creation and this is the second time.  Jesus breathed the power of the Holy Spirit into the Apostles. They now had authority to forgive sins.  We see also that they were not obligated to forgive all sins because they could retain them as well.  This begs the question, how are they going to know what sins to forgive and which sins to retain unless the penitent tells them their sins?  Verbal recitation of sins to a priest is, therefore mandatory for forgiveness. 

But this sounds like nonsense to me.  When I sin, I sin against God, not against a priest.  Only God is offended by my sin, not my neighbor.  Well, I hear you and I have to say that at one time I would have agreed with you.  At one time I thought the Sacrament of Confession was not needed, that I could and should go directly to God since I offended Him.  Sin is never a private thing.  When we sin we sin against God, of course, but we also sin against the Body of Christ.  We are the Body of Christ.  We need to ask for forgiveness for injuring the unity of the Body of Christ, in other words, even the most private of sins, committed while alone, in darkness, offends the Body of Christ and needs to be forgiven by the Body of Christ.  The ordinary way the Lord has given to us is the Sacrament of Confession. 

When Jesus gave the power to bind and loose to his Apostles, he knew human nature.  After all, Jesus was both fully human and fully Divine when he was on earth. He went through life feeling the warm sun on his back.  He heard the children playing their games.  He felt love for his mother and father.  He worked and earned his bread by the sweat of His brow.  He felt joy when his followers understood a truth he labored to give them and he felt disappointment when his discourse failed to persuade. So Jesus knew what it was like to be a human.  He also knew that we could make a case for anything that we did.  As a human, He knew that we could talk ourselves into any position and that included the power to turn what was wrong into something that was right.  This is one reason we are called in the Book of James to confess our sins to one another. In confession, we take ownership of those things that we have done.  We lay them on the table and with the priest who is in persona Christi, we admit our faults and promise to work hard to avoid this sin in the future. Then, we are forgiven, as the priest, acting as Christ, formally forgives us in the name of the Church, and in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  We do not have to guess if we had perfect contrition for our sins, they are forgiven by the power of the Divine Judge Himself through our priest. 

In the book James, Chapter 5 verse 10  we read; 
Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” – James 5:16


I hear some of you saying that on such and such a date at such and such a time, I answered the altar call and made Jesus my personal God and Savior. From that time on I was saved and once saved, always saved! Really? That is not what the Bible says. Recall please Matthew, Chapter 25 to 36 where those that fed Jesus, clothed Him, and visited Him was brought into heaven and those that did not do these things were marched off to hell. Both of the groups had one thing in common. They both knew that the Lord was God and had accepted Him as their savior. In spite of this, those that did not do the His will are taken out of his sight forever. So, once saved, always saved does not really work.


The Sacrament of Confession is a very important sacrament. It is the ordinary way we receive forgiveness of the sins we commit every day. Confessing keeps us honest and humble. I have to say that I think that in my generation and after the sacrament has fallen into disfavor with the congregation. When I was a boy, we went to confession almost every Saturday. At my parish, there were four priests that heard confessions and there was a line at each of the confessional boxes. Today, my parish has one priest and is able to fit all of the people who want to go to confession into a one hour slot on Saturday afternoon. It is possible that perhaps sin is on a downward trend and that people are really not as sinful as they used to be. Or it may just be the fact that they are afraid and uncomfortable to go to confession. That feeling of fear and discomfort about confessing has a technical name, it is called "conscience." I go to confession once a month. I am never comfortable doing it. When I am sitting there with my Pastor and he is carefully listening to me recite the errors of my ways I am very uncomfortable. When I hear those wonderful words of forgiveness, that free me from my sins, the discomfort is displaced by joy in my heart. Besides the Eucharist, I believe that the Sacrament of Confession is this most powerful of the gifts that Jesus gave to his Apostles that have been passed down to us through the ages.


The Catechism of the Catholic Church explains in easy to understand detail both what the Church believes and why the Church believes it. This resource is available for free for everybody online. I heartily recommend that both those that love the Church and those that do not reference this resource and use the Church's own words to bolster your arguments. It is a funny thing but once you start reading this book you begin to see that it all coalesces into a very neat package that provides both the what and the why and the Biblical source for beliefs. This is why I recommend this book to those that hate the Catholic Church. What better source than the Church's own writings to bring her down? The writings Lorraine Bittner and Jack Chick are filled with half-truths and outright lies about the Church. Using them to bolster arguments against the Church only serve to perpetuate lies and ignorance. Get the straight dope, go to the source.



Below are 21 reasons to go to confession. I copied them from the Aggie Catholic Blog.


21 Reasons To Go To Confession
God commanded we confess our sins to one another in the Bible. (James 5:16)
It is the ordinary way to have our sins forgiven.
We receive grace to resist sin through the Sacrament, as well as forgiveness.
We learn humility by having to confess to another person.
There is built-in accountability.
Our relationship with the rest of the Church is healed.
We receive counsel from the priest.
We can be comforted hearing the words of absolution.
All are sins are wiped away.
Helps give you the strength to forgive others.
It doesn’t cost anything.
We may not be positive that we have “perfect” contrition without it.
Helps us go deep within and think about how we can improve.
It feels good emotionally.
When we realize (again) we are sinners, it is easier to be patient with others.
Always confidential – what is said in the confessional stays in the confessional.
No more guilt.
We are better prepared to receive the Eucharist.
Forgiveness is a necessary part of growing in holiness.
Our consciences can be better formed.
If we have mortally sinned, then Confession brings us back into the family of God – The Church as well as restores sanctifying grace in our souls

Reconciliation With God and Man -

I went to confession this last Wednesday. 
My spirit always feels so much better and I feel so much more alive once experience this great gift of God's love for us. This sacrament seems to have fallen out of favor for some of my fellow Catholics and I feel sorry for them because they don't know what they are missing.  There are all sorts of reasons people do not go.  Let's talk about some of them and see how they stack up.

"I go straight to Jesus for forgiveness, I don't have to tell a priest my sins. Jesus forgives me." 

On the surface this sounds real good and is very convincing but it is not what Jesus has in mind for his followers. How do we know this? First of all Jesus gave the power to the Apostles to forgive sin. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me...and later "As the Father has sent me even so I send you, And when he said this he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven. If you retain the sins of any they are retained. (John 20: 21-23) We also read in Matthew, "Whatever you bind on earth is bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. (Matt 18:18) 

That we are to confess verbally is clearly implied because how were the Apostles to know which sins they were going to forgive or not forgive unless they were told about them? 

What advantages are there in confessing aloud to a priest? The following has been harvested from an article on Catholic Answers. Click the link to read the whole article (LINK) 

1. First he seeks forgiveness the way Christ intended. 
2. By confessing to a priest, the Catholic learns a lesson in humility, which is avoided when one confesses through private prayer.
3. The Catholic receives sacramental graces that the non-Catholic does not get - through the sacrament of penance sins are forgiven and the graces are obtained. 
4.  The Catholic is assured his sins are forgiven and he does not have to rely on a subjective feeling.
5.  The Catholic can receive sound advice in avoiding sin in the future.

This assurance that I have been forgiven by God AND his Church which encompasses all believers, both those in full communion with the Church, my fellow Catholics and those brothers and sisters that are either not in communion with the Church but are brothers and sisters because of our common brother in the person of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our savior. 

Some Catholics have not been to confession in years. Some not for 5, 10, 20 or even 30 years or longer. Being away from this great sacrament for so long causes a person to be greatly afraid as to what will happen to them if they tell a priest they have been away for so long. They envision hearing a gasp of horror from the priest and imagine hearing a long demeaning lecture.  

NOTHING COULD BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH!!!  

Don't you remember what scripture says that there is more rejoicing in heaven when one sinner repents than over 99 that did not have to repent?  Be honest with the priest, tell him how long you have been away, don't remember what to say? Father will help you. He will make it as easy for you as possible. The first step is yours. You have to go into that confession room, you have to take the first step.  After that it gets easy. The Holy Spirit brought you to this place, God already knows all of your sins, all you have to do is to face up to them and to confess them, be sorry for them, and try your best not to commit them again.  Don't be afraid, the Grace of God awaits you in confession. Take advantage of it. 

God bless you today and as we prepare to enter into Holy Week, remember God loves you more than you can imagine. He loves you just as you are and wants you to take advantage of the sacrament of confession and become closer and closer and closer to Him.  Peace! 

Marriage

This week my wife and celebrated our Twenty-Third wedding anniversary.  We drove to southwestern Michigan to my father's house in a blizzard. The journey which normally took three hours took over six hours. The next day dawned clear, the sky was so very blue and the sun so very bright. We drove from my father's house to a the county seat, Paw Paw Michigan.  There Mary and I exchanged vows in front of a judge.  We were civilly married. Our marriage was blessed two years later when Mary's annulment came through and we reaffirmed our vows in front of God and His Church.  From day one I have taken my marriage vows very seriously as I not only promised them to my bride Mary, but also to God.  I believe God brought Mary and I together, it was His plan and I am bound to fully cooperate with it.  

Our marriage is a marriage between one man and one woman. This is how marriage has always been from the very start. Go back to the story of Adam and Eve. Adam did not find a partner from among any of the creatures of the earth. God therefore created a special being for him, a woman.  All through Bible history most of the people God chooses for special tasks are men that have but one wife. God considers the bond of marriage a sacred thing, not just an ordinary relationship but relationship where man and woman can cooperate together and bring new life into the world.  This is the reason why a man leaves his family and clings to his wife, to join God in the creation of new life.

Gay marriage is something that does not exist.  Our Supreme Court may say it does, our president may paint the gay rainbow in light on the White House, but that does not make gay marriage any more legitimate. Marriage is about the creation of life. Two men or two women engaged in a sexual act cannot consummate the act to join with God in creating a new human being.  You can scream all you want to about "equality under the law" but the spiritual nature of marriage and the marriage act itself makes such equality something that is impossible to achieve in the Congress or in the courts. 

But why is the Catholic Church so homophobic?  Homosexual action organizations trot out the homophobic label when they detect any disagreement with their positions. It therefore removes a persons right to disagree with their position by in effect saying that those that disagree with them are in some way irrational.   The Catholic Church do not see homosexual men or women as sinful people. The Church, however, does see the sexual acts between people of the same sex to be contrary to God's natural law.  The Church can never approve of these acts as they are not able to produce life.  On the other hand those who are afflicted with same sex attraction are welcome to be Catholics practicing and living their live in a chaste and celibate way.  Does this seem unfair?  Hardly, the Church calls all her children to be chaste and celibate and to make use of the physical act of love in the way God gave it to us, to be used to pro-create between one man and one woman.

The Church also sees a redefinition of marriage to include same sex unions to be a danger to society. Same sex marriages lack the solemnity of genuine marriages. Same sex marriages are based solely on the feeling one person for another. It does not have the same depth as a genuine marriage because no matter what the two men or women can never use their procreative powers in the way that God intended.  The feelings of love one has at the start of a relationship change through the years.  With man and woman love becomes less of a feeling and more of a way of life.  A homosexual union will go through the same sort of change, the original feelings of love will give way and the relationship will no longer meet the emotional needs of the partners and they will split and go their separate ways. 

Well, maybe two men cannot mate and procreate but they can certainly adopt can't they?  Unfortunately this is true. The children pay the price for having two mommies or two daddies. A child needs both male and female influences for them to grow up emotionally.  This balanced nurturing is required for healthy growth. 

Finally, the proponents of gay marriage are trying to change society to recognize homosexuality as a normal way of life.  They are trying to achieve acceptance of the straight community for no other reason but to silence the nagging doubt in the back of their conscience that something is wrong in their life.  Legal pronouncements will do nothing to assuage their conscience, it will remain standing in the way of a complete joyful life because they are looking for something that does not exist nor has it ever existed. 

Am I homophobic?  No, I am not.  I am a realist, I am a Catholic, and the reading and research I have done tells me that everything we do in life that goes against God's natural law leads to sadness, sin, death, and eternal loss of one's place with God.  I also because of my beliefs have to stand up and point out that homosexual actions are wrong, are against God's law and will lead to pain.  I have to stand up for what is right no matter what rabid gays thing and say.  I am a gentle person, I love life, I love people but I also must stand tall and speak my beliefs.  I have this right and duty.    

I Want to See...

What is it you want Jesus asked --- the bling beggar said "I want to see."

I remember in June the sun would stay up until 8:30 PM and then after June 21, the longest day of the year, darkness started creeping in. Each day the sun lost out the darkness a minute or two earlier each day.  Now as we approach the end of October night comes earlier and the darkness is begging to hold sway for longer hours of our day. Eventually on December 21 it will be at its most powerful and the things around us will be in the darkness longer than on any night of the year. 

 In the world we live in there is much darkness and by this I mean of the spiritual kind.  I remember when I was a kid on Saturday afternoon there would be three priests hearing confessions and there would be a waiting line.  I am a happy member in a very vibrant, active, and spiritual parish. The people I've met are solid Christians. Our ministries that assist the poor are robustly supported by the parish in both time and treasure.  The parish is a good example of what a parish should be, caring, spiritual, and proud to practice the temporal works of mercy. 

All of this being said and believe me, I am not judging others, I am wondering if a type of spiritual darkness is creeping into the Church members. Today, one priest hears all of the confessions in one hour on Saturday afternoon. You just do not see people taking advantage of the sacrament of reconciliation as much as before. Is it people are not sinning?  I think it is more likely that we are loosing sight of what sin is and how it can creep into your life.  

The sacrament of reconciliation is a wonderful sacrament.  It gives you a chance to admit where you have "missed the mark" for that is what sin is, missing the mark.  You might say that you know you sin and you and Jesus are great friends and you confess directly to Him and he forgives you.  That is a great first step but that is not how Jesus set it up. We are told in the Bible to confess our sins and when Jesus institutes the sacrament of confession he tells the apostles "whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven, whose sins you hold bound, they are held bound."  How are the apostles supposed to decide which sins to forgive if they are not confessed to them?

The act of confessing is preceded by examining ones conscience.  Before you examine your conscience you need to ask the Holy Spirit to give you light to see your sins clearly for we all have some sorts of spiritual blindness.  But, I hear you say, my sins are small. Well, that may be true but look at whom you have sinned against, God Himself!  If you want to see just how serious God considers sin, just look at a crucifix and meditate on the pain and suffering that Jesus went through for you.

There is none so blind as one who will not see. Ask and you will receive, seek and you fill find, knock and the door shall be opened for you.  Don't be afraid to ask the Holy Spirit what your sins are. He already knows.  Don't be afraid to confess to a priest, he takes the place of Christ and reconciles you to God and to the Church. The priest has heard it all, you're not that much different than the person next in line. 

Thank you Matthew Kelly who has inspired me to write the above. His website is here:  http://dynamiccatholic.com/

I encourage you my friends to think carefully about the state of your soul as it relates to the absolute goodness of God.  I encourage you to go frequently to confession and receive not only forgiveness but grace to avoid sinning in the future.  Jesus has given us this great gift and we need to use it. 

If you are a non-Catholic and have any questions about the faith, I would be pleased to answer them for you.  I stress the word ANY because nothing is secret or hidden in the Church that was founded by Jesus Christ.  Send your email to michaeljspoula@outlook.com

Genuine questions will be answered, hate mail, attempts to "convert" me will be deleted.  I want to be a font of information for those who have questions about the Church, so so not be shy.  God Bless.