Published in the bulletin of Holy Ghost Catholic Church in Knoxville, TN, on the 16th Sunday of Ordinary Time.
My dear Parishioners,
Peace! There are twenty-three (23) In Brief passages in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and five (5) canons in the Code of Canon Law which can help us to appreciate the Sacrament of Penance. The following is a reflection on CCC, 1489
The Sacrament of Penance allows us to return to communion.
with God. Because of our wicked sins, communion needs to be restored between us and God. While we sadly have the ability to rupture our communion with God by our sins, abusing our freewill, we are unable on our own to return to communion with God. While Repentance on our part is important and essential for communion with God, it is His initiative which reestablishes us to a state of grace.
Returning to communion with God is a movement born of the grace of God. Redemption, repentance, conversion all require God’s grace at work in us. We have in the sacraments sure access to the grace of God. Baptismal grace is foundational for our life in Christ. Our sins wound our relationship with God. Mortal sins rupture our communion with God. Whenever we reject sin and Satan and the glamour of evil it is thanks in no small part to God’s grace at work in us. God’s grace is always radiating out from His throne of mercy. Our acceptance of His grace is itself yet another grace, that His power might be upon us. We receive many specific graces in the Sacrament of Penance, including the restoration to communion with God and return to the state of grace.
The Sacrament of Penance is part of God’s mercy and concern for our salvation. While the unrepentant seem content to die in their sins, God wills not the death of the sinner, but that we be converted and live and move and have our being in Him (cf. Ezekiel 18:23; Acts 17:28). As followers of Jesus Christ we should not persist in a state of sin and the consequent separation from God.
We should ask in prayer to God for the grace of mercy and salvation for both ourselves and for others. Every time we come to the Holy Mass we ask for God’s mercy in the Greek Kyrie Eleison (Lord Have Mercy) or the Latin Confiteor (I confess), for ourselves. It is no less salutary and praiseworthy to ask for God’s grace for everyone else as well. Just as we should not limit our lives of prayer to Sunday Mass, so too our prayers of contrition and repentance should not be limited to the Penitential Rite of Mass or the Sacrament of Penance, privileged moments though these are. Two helpful prayers are: the “Jesus Prayer” Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner“; and the ”Fatima Prayer" O my Jesus, forgive us our sins. Save us from the fires of Hell, lead all souls to Heaven especially those in most need of Thy mercy.
God bless you!
Father John Arthur Orr