Making a good confession

Fr Dylan James gives excellent advice:

Dispensing the blessings of the New Covenant

Easter Thursday - (Luke 24:35-48)

Even faced with the risen Lord the disciples are still struggling to believe what they can see, hear and touch. The hypothesis that somehow the disciples came up with the resurrection stories from their faith in the resurrection does not hold up – what is revealed here is that the disciples struggled to have faith; faith was born not from themselves but from encountering the risen Lord and grew by grace.

The risen Lord shows that He is the same person they knew by showing them His wounds. Here was the same body that had been crucified two days earlier. So not only was His body missing from the tomb, but now they can see the body with its wounds. So the evidence that He had risen is incontrovertible for the disciples.

Of course there is something altogether different about Him too! He is not a vision, nor a ghost. He is physically there. To demonstrate His physicality He asks for something to eat, and they offer Him broiled fish. Ghosts or visions do not eat.

So the picture is building of what the nature of the resurrection is. The resurrected Lord is physically present with the body that was crucified. The risen Lord talks and eats. Together with this is the fact that He can appear to various people in different places (outside the tomb, on the road to Emmaus, then in a locked room). He seems no longer subject to the limitations of time, space and the laws of nature. He reveals therefore what His glorified body is like, and thereby shows what our resurrected and glorified bodies will be like.

Just as He had done for the disciples on the road to Emmaus, so He does for the Apostles. He opens their minds to the meaning of Scripture. So also for us, if we are to understand the Scriptures we must allow Christ to teach us by the Holy Spirit through the Church’s teaching authority (we cannot hope that personal interpretation will allow us to understand the Scriptures rightly!).

Finally our Lord commissions the Apostles to go and preach repentance and salvation to all people and nations. The Church dispenses the blessings of the New Covenant through the preaching of the gospel and the administration of the sacraments (see Mt 28:19-20 ‘baptism’, Jn 20:23 ‘confession’).

The Lord wants the fruit of His passion, death and resurrection to be shared with all people that they may turn away from the fallen life and through the grace of Christ live the risen life in Him. The capacity to do that comes through baptism, and our repeated failures to rise to the new life are rectified through the Sacrament of Penance. Through the Eucharist (if we receive it in a state of grace) our lives are increasingly ordered to the risen life.

Fr Ian

Keeping a good and fruitful Lent - part 6

"confession" from the door of sacraments in St Peter's Basilica

Let us not forget that Lent is also about overcoming sin through grace. If you like we not only encourage new growth (virtue and fruits) but also need to prune back (confess).

All the things I have suggested so far in this guide are about encouraging virtuous exercises in our daily/weekly lives. Fasting should help us increase our self-mastery. But we also need to seek grace through confession. And there are two aspects to this I would recommend:

Sorry Lord, I did it again!

1. Daily examination:  we need to have a frank assessment of our day. If you do it only once a week you'll forget lots of things. Ask our Lord for light and then role through the day in your mind. Identify your sins and ask God for forgiveness. This should not take more than a few minutes. Over a number of days you will notice some sins repeat - make a note of them. Finally say sorry to God and ask for the grace to amend your life.

St 'Padre' Pio in the confessional

2. Sacrament of confession: During Lent go to confession more regularly. Why not try weekly? If you really want to conquer sin in your life you need grace, and the special grace for this is found through this sacrament. Even if you have not committed a mortal sin, you still need grace to overcome sinful habits. Of course you must confess grave sins but you would benefit from confessing your worst venial sins too, especially those you keep repeating. There might be a particular sin you want to overcome in grace? Well keep a tally of how many times you commit it. This can help you assess whether you are getting better before you've managed to overcome it entirely. Habits of sin can take time to deal with, so keeping a tally can be an encouragement.

I know we are only obliged to go to confession once over the paschal period, but let us not settle for the minimum, with regard to confessing let us strive for the best this Lent!

Lenten counsel no 6 - Take sin seriously! Don't just try to forget it. Our Lord wants us to not sin at all. While that seems understandably a far off goal, we do need to take steps towards it. We won't if we forget our sin. So a daily examination is most essential. Say sorry and ask for grace. And then go to the sacrament of confession for the grace to really change your life. It really does work - the Saints have proven it!

[For those in Plymouth I am opening Christ the King every Thursday evening (7-9pm) for adoration and I'll be available to hear confessions. We also hear confessions before and after mass at 12noon Mon - Fri and on Sunday morning, 11.30]

Fr Ian