Earlier today I did what I try to do every Saturday, I set out in a car looking for a confessional. I don’t do it because I’m holy. I do it because I realize I am not. I stumble often, so often that I am reminded by my conscience that I should be getting better at this, not worse. It seems though that we fear that confessional, that moment when we come face to face with Jesus and say we are sorry. Why? Because Satan has done a real number on us. He has convinced us before we sin that sin just isn’t a big deal. Then after we sin, he tries to convince us that God will punish us severely, or never forgive us for what we did. It always amazes me when I go there and I get a small prayer or something like “pray for those you’ve hurt.” That’s because Jesus is waiting for us to come back to him.
In the first reading, we see Isaiah saying he is a man of unclean lips. Oh, how I feel that. Then we see the image of red hot coal being put on his lips to purify them. That’s a reminder that the process of becoming holy isn’t always a pleasant one. That’s why we need confession. To humble ourselves and do what Jesus said to do, go to the authority of the Apostles of who Jesus said: “whose sins you forgive are forgiven.” The Priest in the confessional is a representative of the Church, who in persona Christi makes present that very promise. No, it’s not easy to talk to someone you may know and tell them what you did. Even to someone you don’t know, it can be hard. It’s a moment of humility. Where we say this is how Jesus and His Church have shown us to do things, so we do it.
Then we see Peter making much the same statement. “Depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man.” I feel that too. The man who would be the first of our Popes reacted to Jesus much the way we sometimes to do. I am sinful, I have fallen yet again, why would God love me? Jesus words echo to us today and throughout all of eternity: “Do not be afraid.” He is doing a work in us, changing us slowly through conversion after conversion into who we are meant to be. When I was praying at Saint James in Belvidere, Illinois I looked up at this marvelous image of Jesus at the transfiguration. It reminded me that Jesus didn’t “transform” at that moment, rather the people there got to see who He truly was. That’s what confession helps us do as well, it takes a sinful man and in that moment of humility reveals the image of God that is inside of him. That image that we haven’t lived up to, but that still clings on I believe for anyone who is still seeking confession.
Saint Paul in his writings reminds us that we should cling to that which he taught, the teaching of the Apostles. As a Catholic, I believe that the same authority which the Apostles taught with has been handed down throughout generations from Bishop to Bishop, Priest to Priest. When we adhere to the teachings of the Church, we cling to those promises that we see so clearly in the scriptures. “I am reminding you, brothers and sisters, of the gospel I preached to you […] through it you are also being saved.” Don’t be afraid of the confessional, make frequent use of it, of all the sacraments. For it is through that Gospel, through those Sacraments, that we are being saved.
A reflection on the readings for Sunday, February 10th, 2019. The 5th Sunday in Ordinary Time:
IS 6:1-2A, 3-8, PS 138:1-2, 2-3, 4-5, 7-8, 1 COR 15:1-11, LK 5:1-11