Day 198: Reconciliation with God (1440-1445)

• It’s Day 198!!

• THE SACRAMENT OF PENANCE AND RECONCILIATION

• Today we will talk about where the sacrament comes from

• We are also talking about what sin is

• ONLY GOD FORGIVES SINS

• When He reconciles us and forgives us, He brings us back to His heart

• BUT…

• He also brings us reconciliation with the Church

• RECONCILIATION AND THE CHURCH

• So let’s pray!!

Prayer by Fr. Mike: “Father in Heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. We thank you for the fact that while we wander away from you, while we sin, while we say no to you, you never say no to us. You never reject us. You never stop calling us back to your heart. You never stop loving us. You always want us to receive your forgiveness. You always want to receive us back into your heart. Help us. Help us in our sins to never stay away for long, to never stay far from you. But in our sin, we ask that you please break through with the Power of your Holy Spirit, break through with your voice of grace, your voice that calls us home, that calls us back to you. Help us always say yes to you, especially after we have wandered far away. Call us home today. Bring us back now. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen”

• So there we have it!!

• Challenging, yet so consoling

• Paragraph 1440 says, “Sin is before all else an offense against God, a rupture of communion with him. At the same time it damages communion with the Church.”

• It’s not no one

• Someone got hurt

• Some people say things like, “Well, no one was hurt.”

• How can that be wrong?

• If it didn’t affect you, why does it matter?

• Something isn’t wrong because someone got hurt

• A thing is a sin not because someone was damaged

• It’s a sin above all else because it was prohibited by God or commanded by God

• And we didn’t do it

• It’s a relationship

• Sin is saying to God, “God, I know what you want. I don’t care. I want what I want. I’m going to do what I want to do.”

• It’s not an accident

• It’s not a mistake 

• It’s choosing MY will over the WILL OF GOD

• I’m going to choose ME over GOD

• So it’s a rupture of communion with God

• ME NOT YOU

• Here’s a story about C.S. Lewis so let’s listen

• Basically, it’s either us saying to the Father, “Thy will be done.”

• OR…

• It is God saying, “You got what you have chosen, your will.”

• It’s not only an offense against God

• It also damages communion with the Church

• If we could wrap our minds around this reality, so much would change

• Our approach to the Church would change

• Our approach to Reconciliation would change

• When we were baptized, we were brought not only into this incredible relationship with God the Father

• We were made into God’s adoptive sons and daughters

• We are temples of the Holy Spirit

• We partake of the divine nature

• All of these transformations

• BUT…

• We are also brought into the family of God, the Body of Christ

• We are made members of the Church, which is truly a family and is truly a body

• Therefore, when we sin, particularly in a mortal way, we cause a rupture in our relationship with God and we are also causing a rupture in our communion with the Church

• Both are incredibly serious

• Both require forgiveness

• Both require reconciliation

• There is a grace in knowing the depths of our sin and how we have separated ourselves from God, the source of all our lives

• There is a grace of knowing that and letting it pierce our hearts

• There is a grace of knowing that we do not belong to ourselves

• Not only do we belong to God Himself, we are members of His family, a part of His Body, a part of His Church

• When we say no to the Father, we say no to the Church

• We are creating division with us and God and us and the Church

• Therefore we need reconciliation with the Church and reconciliation with the Lord

• ONLY GOD FORGIVES SINS

• Jesus has extended His power to forgive to human beings

• He has given His Apostles and their successors the power to exercise this ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation 

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• Remember, forgiveness is releasing someone from their debt

• Not that we are going to completely trust again or that all is good in the sense of the relationship has been restored

• BUT…

• In the sense that we are not going to wait to be paid back

• We are owed nothing and justice demands that it is paid back

• BUT…

• Since the debt is unable to be paid back, we release them from their debt

• We are not going to wait around to be paid back

• That is forgiveness

• There is another step…

• Our relationship has been RESTORED

• Our relationship has been made NEW in an incredible way

• Let’s listen to Fr. Mike’s example…

• There is such a thing as forgiveness without reconciliation

• We are not called to reconcile with everyone where we bring them back into our trust

• God and the Church bring us back into reconciliation

• God brings us back into relationship with Him

• When God forgives us, He also restores us in our place in His Body

• He restores us in our place in His family

• He does this through the ministry of the Sacrament of Reconciliation and Penance

• WHICH IS REMARKABLE!!

• Why can we even claim this?

• Matthew Ch 16, Jesus makes it very clear and hands over to Simon Peter this office

• “I give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”

• He also gives that to the other Apostles with Peter at its head

• That ability was given to the other apostles too as well as their successors

• What does that mean?

• Paragraph 1445 says, “The words bind and loose mean: whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God; whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into his.”

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US!!

• God has not only extended the ability and power that He alone can do

• God alone can forgive sins

• BUT…

• He gives this ministry of forgiveness and reconciliation to the apostles and their successors, the bishops and priests

• BUT…

• God gives them this authority

• “Whomever you exclude from your communion, will be excluded from communion with God. And whomever you receive anew into your communion, God will welcome back into His.”

• There is something so powerful about the authority that Jesus Christ has given to His Church

• It’s a scary authority

• The more authority one has, the more responsibility to use that well a person has been given

• Paragraph 1445 says, “Reconciliation with the Church is inseparable from reconciliation with God.”

• You were brought into the Church at your Baptism

• You were brought into right relationship with God at your Baptism

• Therefore, to be brought into right relationship with God again, after sin, would also entail being brought into right relationship with the Church

• THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR US TO UNDERSTAND AND INTERIORIZE!!

• It is easy to say, “I sinned against God, so I’m going to go to God.”

• It is more difficult to say, “I have sinned against God and against the Body of Christ on earth and against His Church on earth. Therefore, I will go to God and I will also go to His Church.”

• THIS IS HOW JESUS ESTABLISHED THIS!!

• Tomorrow we will talk more about how we actually do this

• How does this get exercised?

• How do we take those steps?

• When God gives us His forgiveness, He gives us forgiveness through His Church

• He gives us forgiveness in order to reconcile us not only to Him and His heart, but also to His Body, the Church on earth

• Hope that makes sense!!

• Fr. Mike is praying FOR YOU!!

• Please pray for Fr. Mike and for each other!!

• I cannot WAIT to see you tomorrow!!