Day 204: Summary of Sacrament of Reconciliation (1485-1498)

• It’s Day 204!!

• MCNUGGET DAY!!

• We have been talking about the Sacrament of Reconciliation

• Let’s take a moment and call upon the Lord

• We know the goodness and the truth

• We know the beauty and the grace of God’s forgiveness that comes to us in Reconciliation

• Let this be a thing that non only illuminates our mind, but touches the depths of our hearts and moves us by God’s grace to surrender ourselves and submit our sins to the Lord to be forgiven

• Let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. We thank you for your love, your unstoppable and unfailing love. We thank you for your mercy that meets us in our misery. Lord God, we have mercenary hearts and you have a merciful heart. And we ask that you please meet us in our brokenness and meet us even in our resistance to grace. Whether that resistance be anger or frustration, whether that resistance be self-condemnation or embarrassment, if that resistance is shame or is anger. Lord God, I ask you to please meet every one of us wherever we are, and bring us to your mercy, bring us to your grace, and bring us to your heart. We make this prayer in the mighty name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• This is something we have been praying and learning about 

• Why do we have to go to a priest for Confession?

• BECAUSE THAT IS HOW JESUS SET IT UP!!

• That is what Jesus gave us

• This mystery of forgiveness

• This mystery of Reconciliation

• This ministry of Reconciliation

• Paragraph 1485 says, “‘On the evening of that day, the first day of the week,’ Jesus showed himself to his apostles. ‘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’ (Jn 20:19, 22-23).”

• THIS IS HISTORICAL FACT!!

• The Lord God Himself gave the ABILITY AND AUTHORITY to forgive and to retain sins to the Apostles

• That passes on to their successors

• That’s the gift

• How we look at this reveals so much about our own hearts

• If we say, “Oh why do I have to do this kind of thing? This is so stupid. I wish He didn’t do this.”

• VS

• “Oh my goodness, Lord! Thank you so much!! I know you’re a God of mercy. I know you’re a God of forgiveness. I know that you’re a God who is good. You died for me. You live for me. You reign in Heaven to intercede.”

• The Son sits right under the Father interceding for us

• That’s how GOOD God is

• He also gives us this place we can go and lay down our sins and hand over our hearts in humility

• We surrender ourselves in Confession

• Mediated through that ministry of the priest, mediated through the Church, we receive God’s UNFATHOMABLE AND INFINITE MERCY

• One perspective is a HEART OF PRIDE

• A heart that says I don’t have to submit myself or I don’t want to have to surrender myself

• I don’t want to have to be humble before another human being

• The other perspective is a HEART OF GRATITUDE

• A heart that says I hate sin

• A heart that says God, you love me and thank you for giving me this gift

• Paragraph 1488 says, “To the eyes of faith no evil is graver than sin and nothing has worse consequences for sinners themselves, for the Church, and for the whole world.”

• We need to reflect on this ⬆️

• Tomorrow we are going on to The Anointing of the Sick

• We are going to talk about what the role of sickness has in this world

• God made a world that was completely whole and intact and good and there was no sickness

• There was no death

• There was no suffering

• And then Original Sin BREAKS the world

• We now experience a lot of evil and suffering

• Not everyone gets healed even though Jesus Christ is the healer, the Divine Physician

• Anointing of the Sick is oriented towards healing

• We have to see with the eyes of faith that there is NO GRAVER EVIL THAN SIN

• Suffering and death are not things that God intended

• These are not good

• BUT…

• We have to remember that THERE IS A WORSE EVIL THAN DEATH

• THERE IS A WORSE EVIL THAN SUFFERING

• THERE IS A WORSE EVIL THAN MANY OF THE EVILS THAT YOU AND I GO THROUGH

• That evil is something you and I CHOOSE

• SIN!!

• NOTHING IS GRAVER!!

• THERE IS NO EVIL GRAVER THAN SIN!!

• We need that mindset

• Because without that mindset, when we talk about healing and when we talk about Jesus Christ entering into our lives and truly giving us these sacraments of healing, we will end up thinking that if a person is not physically healed then it does not matter

• Paragraph 1488 says, “To the eyes of faith no evil is graver than sin and nothing has worse consequences for sinners themselves, for the Church, and for the whole world.”

• SIN IS THE WORST THING IN THE WORLD!!

• Paragraph 1490 says, “The movement of return to God, called conversion and repentance, entails sorrow for and abhorrence of sins committed, and the firm purpose of sinning no more in the future. Conversion touches the past and the future and is nourished by hope in God’s mercy.”

• Paragraph 1496 says, “The spiritual effects of the sacrament of Penance are: reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace; reconciliation with the Church; remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins; remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin; peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation; an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.”

• We do penances and we have indulgences for the CONTINUED REMISSION of temporal consequences due to sin

• Confession itself also has that 

• Peace and serenity of conscience is important because some people go to Confession and don’t feel anything

• That’s OK

• That’s actually wonderful

• Be at peace with that

• If you aren’t overwhelmed by feelings of serenity or any spiritual consolation that is still wonderful

• Be at peace with that

• Confession gives us the strength to move forward just like the Eucharist not only feeds us and unites us closer and closer to Jesus Christ and the Church

• Confession gives us an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle and fortifies us

• WE ABSOLUTELY NEED THAT!!

• We get it every time we ask God for this

• Every time we come before the Lord in the sacraments or in prayer, He answers

• He hears our prayers and He answers our prayers

• Please pray for that spiritual strength to engage in the Christian battle

• In the spiritual battle sometimes God needs to be our shield and defend us because of how weak we are

• God will give us the increased spiritual strength to engage in spiritual battle

• Fr. Mike is praying for YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!