Lesson Seven Recap: The Sacrament of Confession/Reconciliation

Hello everyone!

Well, we have only five sessions left in our "Four Pillars of Faith" series, and I must say, I am proud of the students who attend. Of the fifty-five plus in attendance, all of you seem very motivated to live out the teachings of our Church. This blesses my socks off! You all are so encouraging to me! God bless you for your faith-filled response!

As a recap, I want to briefly go over the previous week's lesson, since I posted only that which pertained to the one hour fast before Communion. I'll make it brief.

LESSON SIX REVIEW:

Lesson Six dealt with the Sacraments of Initiation: Baptism, Confirmation, and the Eucharist.

Baptism: Is the gateway sacrament that initiates one into the life of Jesus. We are baptized into Christ, his life, death, burial and resurrection. We are made a part of the "New Adam", we share in His history and future, His Life, His Spirit, and His MISSION. We participate in his role as Prophet (proclamation of the Gospel in words and work), Priest (we mediate God to the world in our prayers, sufferings, and reparations with Christ) and King (we are servant leaders of the human family to lead them into the Kingdom of God and meet our King.)

Confirmation: This sacrament is an empowerment sacrament, meant to give you the Holy Spirit in power and abundance to give you the supernatural gifts and abilities in your unique mission for Christ.

Eucharist: The Source and Summit of our Faith! It is Jesus Himself, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity that is given to us so that we may participate in Trinitarian life in our soul, spirit and body. Remember, in the general resurrection, we will receive our bodies again, in a resurrected state like Christ's. So, your bodies matter!

The Sacrifice of the Mass, where we receive the Eucharist, is a transformation of the Passover liturgy that was the quintessential feast of the Jews. It was THE feast that gave them their identity among other nations. Israel was God's people, and the Exodus was God's supernatural advertisement to the world that He covenanted with Israel to be their God, and they were to be His people. The Passover memorialized that event and "made it present to the Jews" every year it was celebrated.

To us Catholics, the Sacrifice of the Mass is THE quintessential sacrament that gives us our identity and the New Israel, the Church, God's Holy People. Jesus, who died on the cross, made the Lord's Supper and the Cross essentially one. So it is primarily a sacrifice, although it is also a sacred meal. We CANNOT supersede the meaning of sacrifice with meal. The covenantal meal is in light of the sacrifice of Christ where we, the people he died for, consummate the "marriage" between Christ and us. It is the "marriage supper of the Lamb" with His bride, the Church. So we enter into intimate communion with our Lord and with each other. We receive his life in the Eucharist, we pledge Him our lives in response, in true marital self-giving.

Yet, sacrifice is what gives the covenantal meal its meaning. We see in the death of Christ and his resurrection, the lengths that Christ went to re-establish humanity as a community of worshippers, with Christ as THE worshipper of the Father as the New Adam. Our assisting at Mass is an assisting of Jesus Christ as He worships the Father with the total self-giving of his life, which is death. It is an act of adoration on Christ's part, thanksgiving, prayer/supplication for others, and reparation for the sins of the world. Since Christ's sacrifice includes all of us and our lives, with the suffering setbacks and good works, our assistance is both a privilege and responsibility. This is why your presence is required in the offering of Jesus to the Father. You mean something to God--in fact, you mean everything to the Father, you mean the death of His Son. Won't you come and worship?

LESSON SEVEN REVIEW:

We only made it through Chapter 18 in the USCCA, the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

The importance of this sacrament can never be overstated. Since the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith, we must not enter into it with a cavalier and presumptuous attitude. These attitudes are faith-killers! Even if we have "pet sins" that we have considered to be venial (light), the attitude that allows these sins to grow and be sustained are sustained by presumption, which can become mortal. This is why it is incumbent that we reject all sin! The difference between venial and mortal sin is as different as getting shot in the chest by an arrow that misses the heart by 3 inches and getting shot through the heart and dying. The casual and careless attitude toward venial sin must be eliminated from our disposition. Thank God that our venial sins are eliminated in our partaking of Holy Communion. But let's not take this for granted. Let's develop the grit to pursue holiness.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a sacrament as the others, where there is a minister (the priest with juridical authority from the Bishop), form (the words of absolution) and matter (our contrition, confession of all mortal sins in kind and number; our purpose to amend our ways and not sin again, and the fulfilling the works of penance and satisfaction). Like the matter in the Eucharistic feast, the bread and wine are consecrated and thus transubstantiated into the Flesh and Blood of Christ. The matter in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, contrition or sorrow, confession, purpose of amendment and satisfaction, are "transubstantiated" into grace, power and peace with God. The grace that we lost in mortal sin has been revived, restored, and with theological certainty, the accumulated graces you had before are restored as well. The words of absolution are not merely declarative, meaning, they don't just state the obvious that has occurred, they in effect cause the transformation of the matter into power, just as the words of consecration transform the bread and wine into Christ's flesh and blood!

So, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is not just the forgiveness of sins, like our dear Protestant brothers and sisters like to define our sacrament. It is the absolution, and transformation of the penitent, with the energies, sins, repentance, sorrows, purpose of amendment and satisfaction and confession into Divine Power! It's a sacrament of healing of souls due to the poison and death darts of sin!!! THIS IS WHY WE HAVE IT! JESUS WANT TO HEAL OUR SOULS! Phew, I do get excited, don't I?

FOR THOSE WHO MISSED MY AUGUST 12th POST ON CARDINAL NEWMAN AND VENIAL SIN, SEE IT HERE. You'll love it, and it will change your views towards your "pet sins", believe me.

So don't let others define what this sacrament means. Let them know how the Church defines it. Priests don't forgive sins, Jesus Christ does. The priest only acts in Christ's name. It is as if you are seated before Jesus, naming your sins in kind and number and he, gives you counsel, gives you the means to atone, and absolves you of sin and it's eternal punishment. Praise God!

Now, as your brother and friend, I urge you, no, I beseech you, no, on my knees I plead with you, be reconciled to Christ. Go, examine your conscience; make a good confession, be restored to the graces you had before so that the Mass you assist at and the Eucharist you partake in is done with a disposition to receive the infinite graces. Please...I don't want ANY SACRILEGIOUS COMMUNIONS from ANY of you! Don't break my heart, for it breaks the heart of Christ. That's all.

God bless, dear ones!

Sam