As we move deeper into Lent, Bishop Mark Davies’ latest pastoral letter is a timely reminder for us to consider and avail ourselves of the sacrament of confession:
“I have stood only once in the Judean wilderness, described in the Gospel today: a landscape of rocks and barren earth looking almost like a different planet. Only the unusually heavy rain, which fell that day, reminded me of home – and more profoundly that you and I are now called to stand in that same place of struggle during these days of Lent. On Ash Wednesday the Season of Lent began with the invitation to turn away from sin and be faithful to the Gospel. It is never easy to face up to our own sins, to resist the illusions about ourselves, which the Devil constantly presents. This is why the Church calls us urgently to confess our sins in these forty days, which lead us towards Easter.
“We live in a society where we are used to hearing ‘public confessions’ on our television screens. We even demand such confessions of those in public life who must admit their most shameful failings. Yet when it comes to ourselves, we can find confessing our sins so humanly difficult even though the priest represents, not that often ‘unforgiving public’, but the only One who can save us from our sins. I have gone to Confession regularly throughout my life but I have never found it any easier to say those words: “Father, these are my sins.” And I hope I will never find this any easier. Otherwise I would never hear the more wonderful words: “The Lord has freed you from your sins, go in peace.”
“So that the Lord can so free us from our sins we need to honestly confess whatever seriously disrupts our relationship with Him and any mortal sin, which destroys that relationship. “Christ instituted the Sacrament of Penance for all sinful members of his Church,” the Catechism explains, “above all for those who, since Baptism, have fallen into grave sin …” (CCC 1446). And to deepen our relationship with Him, which is to grow in holiness, confessing our everyday sins and failings, our venial sins, helps us to avoid sin and grow in the Christian life. As the Catechism describes, “the regular confession of our venial sins helps us to form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let ourselves be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit.” (CCC 1458).
“This Sacrament is given many names in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: reconciliation, penance, forgiveness. The name I am particularly drawn towards is the ‘Sacrament of Conversion’. For conversion continues throughout our lives from our childhood to old age in this Sacrament, where Christ Himself promises that His grace and forgiveness will be found. Throughout the course of our lives and our struggles we will always find in this Sacrament that “His patience awaits us”, as St John Vianney so beautifully expressed it.
“It does, of course, go against the grain to admit where we have gone wrong. It goes against our pride and illusions, to humble ourselves by confessing our sins before a priest. The priest represents both Christ and the whole body of the Church, which has been wounded by our sins, for in this Sacrament we are healed and reconciled with Christ and His Church. And it is through such a sincere confession of our sins that all illusions about ourselves are put aside. We can see then why the Church understands confession to be the only ordinary way, “for the faithful to be reconciled with God and the Church.” (CCC 1484). Yet it is through this confession made with sorrow and a firm purpose of amendment – that is, an honest will to avoid the same sins and whatever leads us into sin – that we each come to know one of the greatest joys to be found on this earth: the joy of being forgiven and raised up once more by grace.
“It is my prayer that we can each re-discover Confession in these forty days of Lent. Indeed, I hope we more than re-discover this Sacrament. May we come to love this Sacrament left for you and for me by Christ the Lord. Thus, in our struggle with sin and temptation may we share His victory in the wilderness, the victory which Easter promises us.”
+ Mark
Bishop of Shrewsbury
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