First Sunday of Lent, Year B
First Reading: Gn 9:8-15
Second Reading: 1 Pt 3:18-22
Gospel Reading: Mk 1:12-15
On Wednesday we began the Season of Lent, when we repent our sins and do penance for them.
When God assumed human nature, he assumed our sins and all they deserved. This is the “good news” of the Gospel Reading: the forgiveness of sins. “Believe the good news,” Jesus said.
However, he also said, “Repent.” Why, if God is so ready to forgive us, must we repent? What is repentance?
God offers us forgiveness untiringly, but we must accept it. In fact, we must ask for it. (To see this, imagine that your spouse has been unfaithful. Imagine that they come back to you, aware that you know of their adultery, and, without a word, presume that the old relationship is re-established.)
God offers to forgive what we have done wrong, not excuse it or overlook it. He excuses what can be excused. He offers forgiveness for what is inexcusable. When we ask for it, we admit, first, that what we have done is wrong and, second, that at least part of it was our own fault. In other words, we admit both objective and subjective guilt.
However, we must also intend to change. We cannot have simultaneously a sincere desire for forgiveness and an explicit intention of continuing the sin. (To see this, try to imagine your adulterous spouse asking for forgiveness while declaring that they’re not going to change!)
Moreover, we must also be sorry for our sins. (To see this, imagine your spouse saying simply, “I’ve been unfaithful to you, but I promise I won’t do it again,” and stopping there. Something is missing!)
Anyone asking for forgiveness says he is sorry, but what does he mean? “I’m sorry you found out”? “I’m sorry because I didn’t enjoy it”? “I’m sorry because it has hurt you so much”? “I’m sorry because it has made me ashamed of myself”?
An apology might contain any or all of these elements. The Church calls it imperfect contrition: sorrow for sin inspired, for example, by fear of hell, loss of self-respect, a sense of shame, or a sense of ingratitude to God. Perfect contrition is sorrow for sin arising from perfect love, founded on God’s own personal goodness and not merely his goodness to us.
Imperfect contrition can co-exist with perfect contrition. Perhaps, as we come to love God more, our contrition will have more and more motives.
How do we know when we are truly sorry? The answer is simple: when we can say that we wish we had not done it. “I’m sorry; I wish I hadn’t done it; I won’t do it again.” The phrases go together naturally.
On Easter Sunday, Jesus breathed on his apostles and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive men’s sins, they are forgiven them; if you hold them bound, they are held bound.”
Priests exercise this God-given power in the sacrament of reconciliation (also called confession, penance, and conversion or “turning back.”) It has four parts: repentance, or contrition, which can be perfect or imperfect; confession; satisfaction, or reparation (from the verb “repair”); and absolution.
Confession can be the most difficult: to admit our sins, out loud, in bald words, even in the secrecy of the confessional. Priests know how hard it can be, and Pope Francis has urged them to make it as easy as possible, so that the sacrament is an experience not of “a prosecuting court,” but of “forgiveness and mercy.”
That is what the priest expresses in the words of absolution: “Through the ministry of the Church, may God grant you pardon and peace. I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Go in peace; your sins are forgiven.”
It is as near as the nearest priest. We should never neglect this sacrament, but remember it especially during Lent.
Father Hawkswell is again teaching “The Catholic Faith in Plain English.” All the materials (video and print) are available online free of charge at beholdvancouver.org/catholic-faith-course. Session 23, “God’s Will,” will be available Feb. 21.