The Fifth Sunday of Lent B

A friend of mine told me a story about his first experience of the sacrament of reconciliation. He was a newly ordained priest and had gone to a parish to supply. He was asked to hear confessions. So he went into the box and as he sat down the chair collapsed under him. As he finished getting out the chair he heard a little voice say from behind the grill “And for all these sins and those I can’t remember I ask forgiveness.”  Not hearing what she had said he said the words he gave a penance and absolution and she totted off happy.

Lent for many people is a chance to examine their life and for many they feel the need to go to the sacrament of reconciliation. They may like the priest and possibly the penitent have had a bad experience and so do not go anymore. Many others feel that they are ok because they have already been forgive through the penitential rite of the Mass. You know as much as I do that there is a value in going to a person to share your problems and have another person hear us even if they are struggling to get out of their seat.

It is hard sometimes to die to sin to realise that we need his mercy and forgiveness. Just like the seed that dies in the ground to produce new life so does being humble and accepting God’s love and forgiveness.

Often when we don’t allow ourselves to forgive or be forgiven we can have a hardness of heart. Our souls in a sense are troubled. It all depends on how we respond to that hurt that someone has done to us or how we have hurt others. It is often good to revisit that hurt and that pain to recognize how it has affected others and how it affects us. We can ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit to work through us especially for the hurts that we may find it hard to let go. As the Catechism says “The Holy Spirit turns injury into compassion and purifies our memory in transforming the hurt into intercession.” Through the intercession and the help of the Holy Spirit we can then grow into a deeper understanding of ourselves and also those around us.

Ultimately the confession and reconciliation is to grow deeper into the mystery of God’s love for us.  We can see this love played out for us in so many different ways through the friendship a kind word or a helping hand. Next week we start Holy Week:  The week where we see the extent of God’s love for us all. We witness the washing of feet and the last supper on Holy Thursday where we were told to do this in memory of me. Good Friday where Jesus showed us the extent of his love by dying on the cross: We come in Holy adoration to kneel at the foot of the cross. Then we get the great Vigil of Easter where the Church shakes with joy as Jesus rises from the dead. I encourage you all to enter fully into the mystery of this love by coming to the Triduum.  Come again and experience his love and be renewed by his grace and love in your lives.