The peace that Jesus gives us is to be one with God through the forgiveness of our sins.
On the night of His Resurrection, divinely empowered, the apostles become peacemakers by bringing the gift of God’s forgiveness. It is important for us to pay close attention to the steps by which Jesus helps us understand the great sacrament of His mercy, the great sacrament of penance.
The first step is when Jesus says to His apostles, “Just as the Father sent me, so I send you.” Jesus sent His apostles to continue the saving mission of His mercy. We know that only God can forgive sins. However, Jesus imparts to His apostles this divine power: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” Then He makes a gesture we may overlook. He breathes on them and says, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He gave them the Holy Spirit so that they might forgive sin in God’s name.
We hear this every time the priest pronounces the words of absolution: “God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of His Son, has reconciled the world to Himself and poured out the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins through the ministry of the Church. May God grant you pardon and peace.”
The second step refers to the essential structure of the sacrament of penance. Jesus did not give His apostles the capacity to read people’s minds and souls. The only way the apostles would be able to know sins, and to forgive them or retain them, is when we humble ourselves and confess our sins.
And so it is very important to give only your sins. Do not justify why you committed them. Do not give the priest a story. He knows by your sins a little bit of the story already. We do not need to name persons we believe made us commit a sin. All we need to do is confess our sins.
I learned an adage in the seminary for confession, and do not take it as an insult: KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. I have to keep it simple when I go to confession, and I bet my brother priests would say the same thing: please, just keep it simple. Just give me your sins. That is what is holding us back from being in communion, in oneness with God.
You may say, “Oh Father, I don’t know if I made a good confession or not. I don’t feel like I have.” But it is not about feelings. If you have given your sins without reserving anything for yourself, you made a good confession. You do not have to feel it. But you can know and believe that you are forgiven.
Jesus established the sacrament of penance on Easter Sunday because He wanted us to link the joy of the Resurrection with the joy of forgiveness.
He points this out in the parable of the prodigal son. The lost son rehearses a speech. He gives the litany of his sins to his father. And what does the father do? He erupts with happiness. He sees his son from a distance and runs to meet him.
That is the way we approach the sacrament of penance. In every good confession, you are a son or daughter coming back to the Father’s house. You are not your sin. Yes, you are a son or daughter who has committed sin, but you are not your sin. Yes, you have been dead, but you are going to receive life again by confessing your mortal and venial sins so that you can be made fully alive in Christ.
Now when you approach the holy sacrifice of the Mass, the great feast that the Father wants to give us, remember we who have been dead have been brought back to life through His grace, through His love, and through His endless mercy, because His mercy endures forever.
Father Kevin Lix, Parochial Vicar