This Place Is Full of Sinners!

'THE MERRY CATHOLIC' -- 'Bless me, Father, for I have, y'know, done it again!'

My wife and I moved recently, so now we’re members of a new parish. I have to be honest, this new parish of ours is filled with sinners. I mean, it is stunning how many people in this parish commit sins!

OK, maybe that’s not the best way to phrase it. You see, back during Advent, our parish had a Penance Service on a Sunday afternoon. Keep in mind, that particular Sunday afternoon was a little more than two weeks before Christmas. So, it was a key shopping and holiday preparation day. And yet, literally hundreds and hundreds of parishioners showed up for the Penance Service. All these people, of course, are the “sinners” to which I refer.

There were five priests present, all working hard, but it was like trying to get through airport security on the day before Thanksgiving. That is, the lines were long and they moved at a snail’s pace. Too bad parishes don’t offer something like TSA Pre-check status, where you pay 80 bucks and have access to the express line for the next five years. They could call it TSJ Sin-check. (The “TSJ” stands for “Time to See Jesus.”)

I stood in line for over 45 minutes before finally getting my chance to meet with a priest. By then I had to rework my list of sins and put “impatience” at the top.

Obviously, I’m kidding (except about the waiting in line part). It was truly wonderful to see so many people show up on a busy Sunday afternoon in December for the sacrament of Confession. (Yeah, I know it’s now officially called Reconciliation. But I’m a pre-Vatican II old timer, and when I first entered the “scary phone booth” at the age of six, it was called Confession. All these decades later, that is the only word that still fills my heart with both fear and joy, so I’m convinced Confession is the best term to use.)

The sacrament of Confession is awesome. It’s a wonderful opportunity to be filled with supernatural grace. When you spend time honestly examining your conscience, and call to mind all the times your thoughts, words, and deeds were self-centered and harmful to others, and then humbly say them out loud to a priest, it feels like a big weight is being lifted off your shoulders. Your heart feels as light as a feather when you walk out of the Reconciliation Room. (By the way, the “scary phone booth” is rarely used these days. And even in the older church buildings, which still have the traditional confessional — a booth on the left, a booth on the right, and the priest in the middle on a swivel chair — it isn’t really scary; that was just a grade-school phobia, when it seemed like the priests were nine feet tall with laser beams shooting out of their eyes.)

In case you’re not sure, the priest is not the person who provides forgiveness — unless you specifically sinned against a priest and then repented and asked him to forgive you. In the confessional, forgiveness comes from God. The priest is only sitting in the place of Christ, which is the historic way the sacrament is administered.

Catholic Answers explains it well on their website: “The priest in the sacrament of confession is acting in the person of Jesus Christ (in persona christi). When the priest absolves the penitent, he doesn’t say, ‘God absolves you from your sins’ but rather ‘I absolve you from your sins,’ because he is acting in the person of Christ at that moment. Only God forgives sins.”

Since it is clear that everyone is a sinner — clearly spelled out in Scripture, plus our common sense and experience — it’s crucial that we all receive on a regular basis the grace and forgiveness available in the sacrament of Confession. (Let me clarify: everyone in the history of humanity has been a sinner, except for Jesus, Mary, and my mother — and I’m not too sure about Mom.)

I hope your parish, like mine, is filled with sinners. No wait, I already know your parish is filled with sinners. What I mean is, I hope your parish is filled with sinners who KNOW they are sinners, and therefore seek true forgiveness and grace at a parish Penance Service. And for those parishes that are overflowing during Penance Services, I hope they develop some kind of “TSJ Sin-check” program.

(These “Merry Catholic” essays are featured on WJMJ, 88.9 FM, the radio station for the Archdiocese of Hartford, CT.)