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DIVINE MERCY APOSTOLATE
St Peter’s Church, Padungan, Kuching, in the Archdiocese of Kuching.
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Encountering the Mercy of God By Fr. George Kosicki, CSB What is most important about “going to
confession?” Is it examining our conscience
and preparing a list of our sins since our last confession? Is it telling our sins to the priest and
saying our act of contrition? Or is it
receiving the absolution of the Church through the priest and doing our
penance? Certainly all
these are important, but I like to think of confession as a four-step
movement toward a deeper encounter with Christ – an encounter in which our
misery meets His mercy. What are the four steps? To reflect on our lives, to repent of our
sins, to receive mercy, and to respond by being merciful to others. Reflect In preparing for this encounter with
Christ we need to call upon the Holy Spirit, asking Him to show us our sins
to “convict” us of our sins (see John 16:8).
Pope John Paul II says that this is one of the chief works of the Holy
Spirit. Why does the Holy Spirit convict
us of sin? To make us feel
guilty? No. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin so that
we can see ourselves as we really are, recognizing the depth of our
sinfulness, our weakness, and our need for God’s mercy. As we allow the Holy Spirit to do
this, we discover what sin is. Sin is
simply a turning away from God. It
doesn’t change God or diminish His love for us. It separated us from Him. If I turn away from the light of the
sun and enter a cave, I place myself in darkness. The sun hasn’t changed, and its light is
still available to me. All I have to
do is come out of the cave. In the same way, when I turn away
from God and enter the cave of my self-oriented concerns and desires, I place
myself in sin. God hasn’t changed, and
His love and forgiveness are always available. I simply need to come back into His
presence. Before going to confession, then,
we need to do more than simply come up with a quick “grocery list” of
sins. We need to spend time in prayer
and reflection, asking (and allowing ) the Holy Spirit to walk us through the
various types of sin, so that we can clearly see all the ways in which we
have turned away from God – not so that we will become depressed, but so
that, in the confessional, we can come before God as we really are, convinced
of our need for His mercy and longing to receive it. Our confession becomes especially
fruitful if we can first recognize and then verbalise to the priest the area
of our lives where we need mercy the most. The following list may prove
helpful in examining, under the light of the Holy Spirit, the possible types
of sin in your life. Sins of Commission The
sins against The Ten Commandments: 1.
I am
the Lord your God. You shall have no
false gods before Me. 2.
You
shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. 3.
Keep
Holy the Sabbath Day. 4.
Honour
your father and mother. 5.
You
shall not kill. 6.
You
shall not commit adultery. 7.
You
shall not steal. 8.
You
shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. 9.
You
shall not covet your neighbour’s wife. 10.
You
shall not covet your neighbour’s goods. Sins of Omission ·
Omitting
to love one another as Jesus loves us (John 15:12). ·
Omitting
to be merciful as the Father is merciful (Luke 6:36). ·
Omitting
to forgive another as we are forgiven (Matthew 6:14-15). Sins of Waste ·
Waste
of graces ·
Waste
of talents. ·
Waste
of suffering. The Father chose the way of suffering for His Son Jesus to bring
forgiveness and mercy to all mankind. He
has asked us to make use of our suffering, uniting it with Christ’s (see
Philippians 1:29; Colossians 1:24; Luke 9:23) Sins of Idolatry ·
Making
idols of possessions. ·
Making
idols of success. ·
Making
idols of reputation (and the list goes on and on). Sins of Self-Salvation ·
Trying
to save ourselves by our own efforts. ·
Trying
to save ourselves, without considering others. ·
Trying
to live without God. Repent Having revealed to us the ways in which
we have turned away from God, the Holy Spirit now invites us to turn
back. This turning back is called
“repentance.” In the confessional, aware of our
sinfulness, we turn back to God through His representative, the priest, as we
really are. Nothing hidden, no
excuses, fully exposed to the view of God. In our sinfulness, we ask for
forgiveness. In our sickness, we ask
for healing. In our weakness, we ask
for strength. In our misery, we ask
for mercy. We stand before God empty,
humble, and repentant, determined to amend our lives and resolved to make reparation
and do penance. But we don’t do this in a spirit
of sadness. We do it with joy! Confession is not a tribunal of judgment
where we have others accusing as and a judge to condemn us. As Saint Maria Faustina explains (Diary
1448), confession is a “Tribunal of Mercy,” where we accuse ourselves under
the conviction of the Holy Spirit, who stands by our side as our defense
lawyer so that we may receive, not judgment, but MERCY. Receive This
is the heart of the Sacrament of Reconcilaition. We come to the “Tribunal of Mercy,” not to
be judged, but to receive mercy.
Realising how much we have allowed ourselves to become filled with
thoughts, concerns, anxieties, and values that are not of God, we consciously
try to empty ourselves of all these things so that God can fill us with His
mercy. The more we empty ourselves,
the more we can be filled. It all comes down to trust. Trust is the key to receiving God’s
mercy. The more we trutst that God
really loves us, really cares about us in a personal way – no matter how bad
our sins have been – the more we can let go of all the things that prevent us
from being filled with His love. He
told Saint Faustina: Let no soul fear
to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet, (Diary 699). The more a soul trusts, the more it will
receive (Diary 1578). The very words of absolution that
the Church places on the lips of the lips of the priest speak of this great
gift of mercy that we receive in the Sacrament of Reconciliation: God the Father
of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son has reconciled the
world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of
sins: through the ministry of the Church may God give you pardon and peace,
and I absolve you from your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Respond We don’t receive this gift of mercy just
for ourselves. Having received it,
we’re supposed to give it away. God
wants to fill us with so much mercy that it will overflow from us to others. He makes this very clear in His
words to Saint Faustina: When a soul
approaches Me with trust, I fill it with such an abundance of graces that it
cannot contain them within itself, but radiates them to other souls (Diary
1074). This outpouring
of God’s mercy to others is not an optional response. It’s a requirement. “Give freely what you have
received as a gift. “(Matthew 10:8), Our Lord tells us …”Love one another as
I have loved you.” (John 13:34)…”Be merciful even as your Father is merciful.”
(Luke 6:36). In His
revelations to Saint Faustina, Our Lord strongly reaffirms these Gospel
commans. He told her: I demand from you deeds of mercy…. You are
to show mercy to your neighbours always and everywhere (Diary 742). If a soul does not exercise mercy in some
way, it will not obtain My mercy on the day of judgment. (Diary 1317). How
are we to exercise mercy? By our
actions, our words, and our prayers, by performing the Corporal and Spiritual
Works of Mercy, and by developing an attitude of mercy in our daily
lives. We thus become “ambassadors of
reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:20), instruments in the hands of God to bring His
reconciliation, His forgiveness, His mercy to all those we meet in our daily
lives. And
so, we come full circle. How should we
approach the Sacrament of Reconciliation?
Not as mere recitation of sins, but as a way to encounter the mercy of
God. We call upon the Holy Spirit, who
shows us our sins, invites us to repent, and enables us to bring our sins to
the source of mercy – the cross of Jesus Christ. There, at the foot of the cross, we receive
mercy and forgiveness and are sent forth as channels of mercy for others. |
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MERCY APOSTOLATE
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