From pastor’s desk on the 3rd Sunday of Advent, year B
On the third Sunday of Advent we are reminded again about the need of preparation and reparation for the coming of the Lord. It is again the voice of God’s messenger, Saint John the Baptist, “I am the voice of one crying out in the desert, ‘make straight the way of the Lord.’” John the Baptist called people to repentance because he knew that human sins are obstacles to the knowledge of God and to the recognition of the Lord’s coming in human form. In other words, the Lord cannot reveal Himself to an unrepentant soul, for that soul is blinded by sin and its consequences. John the Baptist is like the voice in our conscience which reminds us that we all need to repent, to turn away from sin, and to follow the Lord. If we could only realize who God is and who we are before God, then our immediate response to John’s calling would be authentic conversion of our heart.
We know, however, that often repentance is not that easy. For even when we know we are doing wrong, we internally get stuck. So, it is exactly to those people that the Lord speaks through the prophet Isaiah, “He has sent me to bring glad tidings to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to the prisoners, to announce a year of favor from the LORD.” We all are very often the captives of sin or the worldly way of life. The Lord comes to us and He helps us when we cannot do it on our own. For that very reason Jesus has established the Church and has given us the sacraments so that they can liberate us, give us life and strength, and eventually make us holy.
A particular sacrament that helps us more than others in our way of repentance is the Sacrament of Reconciliation, otherwise known as confession. This is a reminder to come back to the sacramental confession before important liturgical celebrations of the Church like Christmas and Easter. So, while we are getting ready for Christmas it is good to prepare not only our homes, but most of all our souls. Please take this opportunity and make a good examination of conscience—you may find plenty examples of them on the Internet. Also come to Sacramental confession on the coming Monday or another day if you cannot make it then. And remember the Sacrament of reconciliation is just another way of God’s expressing His love for His people.
Below you will find a few excerpts from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the meaning of this sacrament.
May you be filled with joyful expectation of the Lord’s coming. I wish you all a blessed week.
Fr. Janusz Mocarski, pastor
SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION
ACCORDING TO THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
1423: It is called the sacrament of conversion because it makes sacramentally present Jesus' call to conversion, the first step in returning to the Father 5 from whom one has strayed by sin. It is called the sacrament of Penance, since it consecrates the Christian sinner's personal and ecclesial steps of conversion, penance, and satisfaction.
1424: It is called the sacrament of confession, since the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament. In a profound sense it is also a "confession" - acknowledgment and praise - of the holiness of God and of his mercy toward sinful man. It is called the sacrament of forgiveness, since by the priest's sacramental absolution God grants the penitent "pardon and peace." It is called the sacrament of Reconciliation, because it imparts to the sinner the love of God who reconciles: "Be reconciled to God." He who lives by God's merciful love is ready to respond to the Lord's call: "Go first be reconciled to your brother."
1430: Jesus' call to conversion and penance, like that of the prophets before him, does not aim first at outward works, "sackcloth and ashes," fasting and mortification, but at the conversion of the heart, interior conversion. Without this, such penances remain sterile and false; however, interior conversion urges expression in visible signs, gestures and works of penance.
1431: Interior repentance is a radical reorientation of our whole life, a return, a conversion to God with all our heart, an end of sin, a turning away from evil, with repugnance toward the evil actions we have committed. At the same time it entails the desire and resolution to change one's life, with hope in God's mercy and trust in the help of his grace. This conversion of heart is accompanied by a salutary pain and sadness which the Fathers called animi cruciatus (affliction of spirit) and compunctio cordis (repentance of heart).
1440: Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church. For this reason conversion entails both God's forgiveness and reconciliation with the Church, which are expressed and accomplished liturgically by the sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation.