When we open our Bibles to page one, we find God busy creating the whole universe from nothing. And He does it with high hopes; He looked at it and saw that “it was very good.”
We also read that we are not the first ones God created. He first made angels. And like us, he made them with freedom to choose to love. Some chose not to, led by Lucifer, now called Satan. So when God created us humans, there was Satan, who chose to be God’s enemy, waiting there to spoil God’s work. And it wasn’t hard. He knew that we had weaknesses, including pride, wanting to be greater than we are. He understood this well, being proud himself. So he soon convinced our ancestors to disregard God’s command in order to become as great as God is. People still fall for this lie today.
When Christian missionaries went to Africa and began to talk of sin, the people had no word in Swahili for it, so they chose to use the word “kosa” which meant “mistake” or “fault.” Our ancestors made a mistake. A big one. We do the same, over and over. We decide that we know better than God does. We are told that Lucifer’s sin was the exact same thing.
Our free choice to ignore the God who created us brought about several consequences. One was that we owed God reparations for such an offense. A debt that we cannot possibly repay. Another was that our relationship with God was damaged. He had offered us eternal happiness with Him, and we had said “forget it.” We had rejected His loving care for us. We had rejected His monumental gift. We can call this original sin, but our own individual sins amount to the same thing.
But God is Love. It’s as if that is what He is made of. So He decided on a solution. We can’t pay our debt, we can’t love Him enough to make up for our affronts to His love and goodness, so He will pay it for us. And then God the Son came among us as Jesus.
And Jesus grew up and went out to tell us about love and to invite us to live it, just as He did. But we made more “mistakes.” The religious leadership decided to have Him killed. Jesus knew this but went anyway to Gethsemane, the Garden of Olives, to pray. Like anyone else, He did not want to die, especially by torture, and He first asked the Father to change the plan. But love won. He agreed to pay the price. This was the key moment: when Jesus said His “Yes” to the Father, out of love for us helpless people.
And so Jesus reconciled humankind with God by making such a loving sacrifice at such great cost, and doing it both as the Son of God and as a man representing all humans.
But there is a catch. We have used our free will to make our mistakes, our sins, and so we have to admit our mistakes, our sins, express our regrets and apologies, and correct our values. We call this repenting. It repairs our spoiled relationship with God. Jesus made it easy by giving us the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Jesus hopes that our regrets are based on loving him, although we are taught that He will settle for less exalted reasons. And He assures us that He will forgive fully, never bringing our sins up to us again. Our slate is completely cleaned. Our debt is gone. It can be quite a relief.
LIVING IT
This sacrament is not automatic. There is need for us to have the right attitude. God does not owe us the forgiveness of our sins. It is not something we earn by going through some ritual. Remember what Jesus said about the Pharisees and their long prayers that are not sincere.
What is needed is a combination of love and humility. Like with every other Sacrament, love is an essential ingredient. We have to treat God as someone we love, someone whose love we have abused, someone OUR love now wants to restore friendship with. The humility is in both admitting the sin, and in admitting further that we cannot make up for it. We go to Jesus like a helpless child, but in confidence that our sin cannot end or even decrease His love for us. We ask forgiveness, and then count on it because He promised to forgive when anyone sincerely repents. Even though we cannot ever make up for the mistake, the affront to His love, Jesus erases it from our record, but He also offers us a chance to make a stab at reparation by having the priest assign us a penance. This is not a pointless ritual. It is another chance to perform an act of love, so that we at least participate in a tiny way in the reparation that He makes for us. Our tiny love is combined with His great love, and delights the Father.
One additional thought: In this sacrament Jesus forgives us immediately and completely, but how effective it is in healing us depends on our attitude. In the Lord's Prayer we say to the Father: please forgive us as we forgive. If we truly want to live out this sacrament of forgiveness, we need to learn to forgive as well, even the tough cases. Jesus is our model. On the cross He prayed: Father, forgive them, for hey know now what they are doing. If we can't at least honestly try to forgive, then how can we expect to be forgiven?
RECONCILIATION AT HOLY ROSARY PARISH
The sacrament of Reconciliation -- Confession -- is available every Saturday from 3:45 to 4:30.
In case of special need, call or visit the parish office for an appointment.