Confession and Forgiveness (HOMILY ON THE 2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY) APRIL 2023

Confession and Forgiveness (HOMILY ON THE 2ND SUNDAY OF EASTER (DIVINE MERCY SUNDAY) APRIL 2023

Acts 2:42-47; Ps.118; 1Peter 1:3-9; John 20:19-31

 Confession and Forgiveness

While still very much in the euphoria of the Easter Joy, we are called upon today to reflect on the Mercy of God. The Mercy of God has a lot to do with the season of Easter. Without the Divine Mercy, the source of Easter Joy will not be understood neither will the lesson be well learnt and lived out. First, the passion and death of Jesus was occasioned by the calumny of men. During the Holy Week, we saw how everyone was involved in this calumny; including the disciples. The resurrection of Christ meant victory over wickedness and betrayal. But what do we do with such victory? We live in a world where people no longer want their perceived enemies to die but to live and see them prosper; so that they can rub off their prosperity on the faces these perceived enemies. Sometimes, we spend so much time begging God for deliverance from the hands of our enemies. But it seems the more God delivers us, the more revengeful we become. That is not how to be responsible with the victory God gives us.

In the gospel reading of today, Jesus appeared before his disciples who were guilty of betraying him during his passion and he said to them: Peace be with you! They may have thought that this was a mere greeting. But Jesus repeated those powerful words meaning that he wasn’t just greeting; He was forgiving them. Peace is an attribute of Mercy. The betrayal of the disciples is not justified but Jesus chose to excuse them. The disciples did not do the greatest harm to Jesus but the betrayer of an insider is always more painful. Yet, Jesus has not come to revenge or rub off the victory of his resurrection on them; he has come to forgive them. There is always a reason to forgive or not to forgive; it all depends on which our hearts decide to pick on.

It is often said that the first beneficiary of an act of forgiveness is the one who forgives. This is true even for Jesus. The fact is that revenge is a distraction; forgiveness has a way of keeping us focused. After Jesus had forgiven his disciples, he breathed on them, instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation and commissioned them as ordinary ministers of the Sacrament. All these would either not be possible or make sense if he had not first forgiven them. It therefore means that through this act of forgiveness, Jesus remained focus on his purpose for choosing disciples. If he had not forgiven them, then the whole goal of choosing men who will continue his mission after his physical presence, would have been defeated. Beloved, if forgiveness could benefit the one who is Mercy Himself, how much more you and I. Each time that hurtful feeling wants to deter you from forgiving, rather understand it as the devil trying to keep you away from the miracle that comes with forgiveness.

Clearly, Jesus gave the disciples power to both forgive and retain sins. This is not just a teaching to forgive those who offend us. It is a conscious institution of the Sacrament of Reconciliation wherein only those who share, by succession, in the office of the disciples, can administer the sacrament. If I give my gate keeper the power and modalities for allowing anyone entrance through the gate into my house, I have invariably decreed that only those who have been screened by my gate keeper can have valid access to my house. Whoever attempts any other mode of entering or tries to undermine the gate keeper, should not expect to be welcomed. Beloved, we do not have the local standing to demand that God should forgive us our sins through another method(s) other the Sacrament of Penance which He Himself had instituted.

One challenge people have with going to confession is the thought of revealing to mere mortal some shaming deeds we have done in secret. Why should I tell my sins to a man like me? Not being able to deal with this has either made some not to approach the confessional or to retain some grievous sins, or to play with words when confessing their sins. Now, lets us look at the very words of Jesus: if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Clearly, this power to forgive/retain sins demand from the minister/Priest the exercise of the intellect. A priest cannot forgive a sin that has not been made known. This is different from the priest understanding the sin! He may not understand the sin; but the sin must be made known. A sin that is not made known is that sin that the penitent consciously makes unintelligible for the minister at the confessional. It is different from when a person uses a dialect that the priest do not understand in making confession. In this second instance, the person does nothing wrong if that dialect is the only dialect with which he/she can make the confession. In this case, though the sin has been perfectly made known, it is not understood by the priest due to language barrier; yet the sin is forgiven.

Any sin that is retained (not made known) by the penitent is not forgiven. To retain sin means to choose not to confess it. This is different from forgetting a sin. But to purposefully fail to do a proper examination of conscience so that we do not remember some sins and become guilty of not confessing them, still amounts to retaining those sins. They are not taking care of by the words: for these and other sins of my past, which I cannot now remember…

But this is common sense o! It makes no sense asking forgiveness for a sin you have not yet admitted; it amounts to making caricature of repentance. A “sorry” that is said for “sorry-sake” is no “sorry” at all. Come to think of it! Sometimes, we can be suffering from certain ailment that we dare not mention to anyone. But no matter how secret we keep the sickness, the doctor is always an exception. In fact, we know that the extent to which we open up to our doctor/lawyer is the extent to which they can help us. In the case of confession, the Priest acts both in the name and in the person of Christ. So, the extent to which we open up, is the extent to which we are forgiven.

It is not enough to make a good confession; we must also learn to live as ambassadors of mercy. Such living was common amongst the early Christians as described in the first reading of today. Sharing life together is the key that unlocks many signs and wonders amongst the people of God. Such a community is always progressive because unity is strength. This does not mean that we should willingly offend others and unscrupulously expect them to forgive. Being ambassadors of mercy implies mutual love and respect. The early Christian community were at the service of one another, and this made the community attractive to outsiders. Anyone community that harbours grudges cannot serve themselves; without service there is no growth.