God is Merciful, Am I?

God is merciful. We all expect that and more. We are always ready to have God forgive us for our wrongs, evil deeds, and sins – yes there are still sins, not everything can be explained away by behavioral psychology as good as that practice and science is in its service to humanity.

When we sin, hopefully we feel some type of conviction to seek God and ask for His mercy. The first reading from Wisdom reminds us that, “you gave your children good ground for hope that you would permit repentance for their sins.”

I want to discuss two things with you today, the Sacrament of reconciliation and since God forgives us everything, does that mean that I too must forgive those who have wronged me of everything?

There has been and continues to be huge drop off in Confession over the last twenty years or so. This is for a number of reasons, the first being, society has deemed many behaviors as not sinful, it has even gone so far as declaring that what we believe to be sinful is actually something good, and something we should all do. For example, it is no longer sinful to engage in premarital relations, to cheat on my IRS return, - actually some will claim that has never been sinful. Remember give to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s. It is ok to miss mass for the kid’s soccer games, vacation, or just to sleep in. I can go on and on. And just to be fair I too am a sinner and have justified many things in life, it doesn’t make them right or good.

Since we justify our actions and are tricked into believing we are not sinning therefore gives us ample reason not to go to confession, since I don’t need it. There are other reasons people don’t go, i.e. I can go directly to God, I am too embarrassed to go, or I don’t have time to go.

None of those reasons are sufficient. The sacrament of confession is an integral part to healing and forgiveness. It helps us to become humble and rely on God. It brings healing when we can speak out loud our actions; it feels as if a heavy burden has been lifted from our shoulders. Confession stands as part two of forgiveness, part one is when we immediately ask God to forgive us and He does, but to be reconciled to the Church – His body, we must declare our sins out loud, c.f. James 5:16, and remember that our first Pope declared his sins or at least his threefold penance out loud.

It is easy for God to forgive us, and we have great opportunities to do so, why not make use of such graces?

Back to our second point, if God is quick to forgive and to forget my sins, must I also do the same? Yes! This might actually be harder for us. Scripture tells us he who hates his brother is a murderer, and who is my brother? EVERYONE!

People will always bring up extreme cases in which logic supposedly dictates that forgiveness should be withheld. I won’t get into them here and it is a struggle to forgive extreme evil and evil persons, we must be honest. What I am talking about is the hurt we do to one another, when families are broken apart through divorce, betrayal, some money dispute, etc. Family members will ignore one another for years out of principle. Let me ask you, “Is it worth it to take that principle and stand before Almighty God declaring our own righteousness in the matter?” Scripture says, “No one is righteous, no not even one, they have all fallen short of the glory of God.” C.f. Romans 3.

I know it is hard to forgive sometimes, but just remember how hard it was for Jesus to forgive us, it took 40 lashes, beatings, mockery, a crown of thorns, a few miles walk with a heavy cross, three nails, and finally a spear – though already departed. If Jesus can give us that, can’t we give some mercy to our neighbors? Unless we thought carrying a cross was just a nice pious statement.

It’s a cross to go to confession sometimes, it’s a cross to forgive those who have hurt me, but unless I embrace both those crosses I am only a Christian in name and not at heart. We can’t lift those crosses alone, but together with me helping you and you helping me those crosses will be a little lighter.

Fr. John