Is Forgiveness Important?   The most difficult challenge we have in life is the ability to forgive and to be forgiven. Countless examples are around us of people who live without “Forgiveness.” 

I think of the families that are torn apart because we can’t forgive. Bitterness – Hostility – Grudges that we carry with us for years and years; never letting the anger, never letting go of the hurt. Meet an angry person and you will meet a person who has been hurt.   Letting go of that hurt is not something that we can do easily. It cripples us, deforms us.   Think of the cripples in the Gospel and the Lepers deformed and cut off from a normal life. 

I think of the young man who killed himself because of being bullied and exposed on the internet. Unable to forgive himself and recognize that God’s love is unconditional. Yet the actions of a few destroyed his life.   Jesus teaches us to let go of our fears, to remember that each person is a son and daughter of God. How many times do we not accept others, are intolerant, or bully. We carry that “prejudice” or “bigotry” within us – unleashing it on others.   Think of the people Jesus met – the woman caught in adultery, the prodigal son who left home (maybe today the prodigal is the son or daughter on drugs, the street kid, and the lost one.) 

Why go to confession?   The Sacrament of Reconciliation is more than a pious devotion that we pick or choose to participate in occasionally.   The Sacrament is an opportunity to encounter Christ – the one who risked his life – literally – for the sinner, the lost one, the one who could not forgive and the one who believed that they could not be forgiven.  

 “Sidelined: The Sacrament of Reconciliation”    

   by Rev. Msgr. Lewis F. Gaetano, D.Min.

Pastor of Christ the Servant Parish, Canton, Ohio, a priest of the Diocese of Youngstown ; Chair of the Presbyteral Council Justice Committee ;and former Chair of Theology at Walsh University, North Canton, Ohio.                                                                                                                                                                            

Many with whom I share ministry scramble to find priests for our seasonal penance services. We find ourselves encouraging and coaxing, even at times resorting to a dose of old fashion guilt; after all “guilt is the gift that keeps on giving”.   It appears that the Sacrament of Reconciliation – confession- has been added to the list of private or pious devotions in the life of our people, similar to the the rosary, novenas, First Fridays and candle lighting; valued according to our personal  choosing.

A devotional is defined as, “an act of prayer or private worship; a religious exercise or practice other than the regular corporate worship of a congregation.” The Seven Sacraments of the Church are not private or personal-pious exercises. Rather they are events in which the community encounters the Risen Christ. These sacraments belong to the community and are celebrated by the community in the name of Christ. It is through these sacraments – these events - these particular corporate and communal celebrations that we are enabled to encounter the living Christ. And so, it is important to remember that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not a mere devotional but rather an act of the Risen Christ – the Body of Christ – the corporate or communal manifestation of Christ present – a Sacrament.  

In the Sacrament of Reconciliation the individual encounters the forgiving Christ who assures us of God’s unconditional love: “your sins are forgiven.”   Reflecting on the Gospel stories, we can identify with so many characters that experienced God’s forgiveness in the person of Jesus. We can place ourselves in their particular situation; be it the lost son away from home, the woman with seven husbands, the rich man in search of more for his life, or the Roman soldier who wondered if his son would live. All of these people were in search of the healing power of God’s love and some reconciliation with the community – something that would give further meaning to their lives.   Take for example those who were blind and deaf, the speechless and lame; each person a symbol of humanity’s struggle for wholeness of body, mind, and spirit – salvation.   Each represents to us a segment of humanity blind to the vision of God’s love for all creation; deaf to the sound of God in the voiceless mass of humanity; speechless before the principalities and powers of discord that rule the world; crippled and unable to walk this earth with dignity and grace.    The leper, the woman caught in adultery, the one whose life was overcome by a legion of evil spirits, the crippled at the pool of Siloam; each sought belonging and acceptance within the community – perhaps even a place at the table.   If we put ourselves into the circumstances of each story, we are able to recognize the significance and consequence of sin reaching out and touching those individuals seeking wholeness in their experiences of life - even crossing the boundaries of time.  In each situation I am reminded of Jesus saying, “What is easier to say get up and walk or your sins are forgiven.”

We come as one through our Baptism (another sacramental event of the Church) into the Body of Christ. It is in that particular event that the community is reminded of its identity: persons- within- community – visible images of the invisible God – created in dignity and grace.   How often humanity finds itself disfigured by the reality of sin rather than reflecting the love and compassion, mercy and justice of the One in whose image we are created.   We distort our image and that of others and strive to create a reflection that our culture imagines to be more genuine. Such false images are created by the consumer-marketing and advertizing “gods” of our time and sold to people who are hungry for meaning and wholeness.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a process in which we come to recognize our own reflection as it truly is: in the context of the ecclesial community. The Church, the Body of Christ, becomes the mirror in which we can see our true reflection – the true ennoblement of what we are called to become. Over 2000 years ago people were able to see in the person of Jesus their true selves.  Today are we able to see ourselves reflected within the Body of Christ; witnessing and naming our sins, those distortions of body, mind and spirit. As persons-in-community we can seek the healing and wholeness that God offers through Jesus in the power of the Spirit.   For the Church, each season of Grace serves as an appropriate time to turn from the false pretensions and distortions of our culture; to truly become a living presence of healing and wholeness within our families and community. In a word, we become Servants of Christ.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is much more than a pious or religious practice. It is a time of renewal, a time of transformation, a time of conversion, and a time of new life.   The Sacrament of Reconciliation is an act of worship in which we recognize the presence of God’s unconditional love, and through which we meet the Risen Christ.   As we walk out of the confessional we find ourselves empowered by the Spirit to take our place within the Community, and in turn to enable others to encounter God through us – the Risen Body of Christ.