Pardon and Peace

It’s not even the end of November yet and already everyone is just waiting for 2020 to end!

This has been an extraordinary, unforgettable, world-changing year for most lives on this planet. And the worst part is that much of the catastrophe has been unleashed by human beings’ reactions to each other because of the virus, not the virus itself.

This virus has brought out the worst and the best in humanity, but it seems like we have a long way to go before the worst is really fully out of us.

What will it take, I wonder?

Surely, changing the page of the calendar and wishing everyone a happy new year is not going to change our follies into wisdom and our tragedies into fortunes.

When you pick up your phone or the newspaper, aren’t you tired of reading the brokenness of the world, each page and each day seemingly showing us an all new low of humanity? How much longer before we fall to our knees in exhaustion, longing to be better than THIS?

What’s the point of another Christmas and another New Year if nothing is actually going to change???

Have you tried to change into a better version of yourself and fallen flat on your face? I have. Many, many times.

Until I discovered a place that I could go to get pardon and peace, healing and hope. And most importantly: real change. IN ME!!!

 

Physically, it’s a small, simple, cozy place.

But emotionally, it’s a war zone.

 

It’s the place that I go to, to kill my pride, my self-righteousness, my arrogance.

It’s the place I walk out of with the bounty of the battle: pardon and peace, healing and hope. And most importantly: real change. IN ME!!!

 

It’s the place where I change.

It’s the place where I change because I confront my sin.

It’s the place where I change because I confront my sin by something as simple as confessing it to a person who is committed and commissioned to set me free.

It’s a place I really wish I could take each and every one of you to.

 

Wouldn’t you like to be free from your sin that stains you, enslaves you, makes you pay huge consequences ultimately separates you from everyone you love even though you don’t want to hurt them?

 

I know what it feels like to be so fed up with my sin that I’d rather go this place again and again and again…no matter how long it takes to heal, than stay stuck in the swamp of my own sin, slowly but surely drowning.

 

It’s the arms of OUR Father.

At the invitation of our older Brother.

^“Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” John 20:21-23

 

Wait a minute! Jesus sent out some people (not all people) with the power of the Holy Spirit to forgive sins??!!!

 

Were they sinful themselves? Of course, they were.

Were they perfect in their relationships with God and each other? Of course not!

 

Yet, for some reason, best known to Him, Jesus, the One who died for our sins, chose to release HIS forgiveness through others.

Jesus said that. Jesus wanted that for me.

That’s a good enough reason for me to approach the confessional.

 I know people have legitimate concerns about approaching the confessional:

(1) Some feel that they have sinned too much to receive God's forgiveness. That no one else in the world could have possibly done what they've done. That that priest could never have heard of anyone else confessing those sins. Well, God has loved, forgiven and used sinners far worse than you and me. Just look at the Bible- its full of sinners.

(2) Some feel that they haven't sinned at all and have nothing to confess. Well, God wants you to examine your heart even more closely and grow even more in holiness. Don't wait till the last minute, because you really don't know when that will be.

(3) Some feel that there is nothing to gain from confession because they are so stuck in habitual sin that they are just going to repeat that same sin again after the confession. I have experienced great liberation from habitual sin by confessing it every month because Jesus not only forgives but he heals in the confessional.

(4) Some feel scared that their secrets may be exposed if they say them aloud. Well, that's great because once sin is exposed to the light of Jesus, it has no power over you. If others choose to gossip about sin that God Himself has forgiven, they are talking about something that doesn't exist as far as God is concerned.

(5) Some can't trust the available priests to be approachable and fear reproach in the confession. Jesus uses all kinds of people, priests included, in all kinds of situations. Trust Jesus. 

 

We have all been through so much this year.

Let’s not allow this to be just another advent, just another Christmas, just another New Year.

Let’s not carry our sin with us one day longer than we need to.

Make an appointment with your local Catholic priest.

Go to confession.

Face your demons.

Let Jesus vanquish them.

Walk away with the bounty: pardon and peace, healing and hope.

 

You probably have a lot less to confess than I do.

You probably can’t think of much to say at all.

 

But if we all went, if we all scanned our souls to handover any remnants of sin, if we all repented together, in this season….

 

Can you begin to imagine what God could do with that?

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chronicles 7:14

 

Let’s do our part and hold God to His promise.

Let’s go to confession.

He is the only One who can undo what we've become. 

If you can’t see the video, please click here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIVaTPdh_ig