Ordinary 31

The Thirty – First Sunday in Ordinary Time

Wisdom 11:22 – 12:2; Psalm 145; 2 Thessalonians 1:11 – 2:2; Luke 19:1-10

For many years I have been observing, reading and reflecting on the Sacrament of …Confession… Penance…Reconciliation. We are not even sure what to call this Sacrament. Each name change emphases only an aspect of the Sacrament and yet do any of them go to the heart of the Sacrament? Do any of us understand the Sacrament in its fullest sense?

In all of our experiences of the Sacrament, have you and I ever felt what Zacchaeus did? Elation!

Zacchaeus, a tax collector, was treated as a political and religious traitor, a public sinner and was presumed to be corrupt which he himself attests to, “and if I have extorted anything from anyone…” But listen again to the words of the Gospel, “Jesus looked up and said, “Zacchaeus…today I must stay at your house…[for] today salvation has come to this house because this man too [this traitor, this sinner, this corrupt individual] is a descendant of Abraham. For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save what was lost.” 

Did you notice what took place? There was a desire within Zacchaeus to see Jesus, a longing or maybe just a curiosity? Whatever his motives, the initiator of the encounter is Jesus. Jesus takes the first step.  “Get down here Zacchaeus, I’m going to have dinner at your home today.” From this connection, from this recognition by Jesus flows a willingness within Zacchaeus to change his life. Twice we hear, “today!” God is present at every moment of our lives. God is continually inviting and encountering us, “today!”  There is joy in what Jesus announces. We are witnessing Jesus live out his own parables; a father going out after two lost sons, a woman searching and finding a coin, a shepherd a lost sheep. Today, Jesus seeks out Zacchaeus. Jesus is daily seeking out you and me. And all of these stories conclude with great rejoicing.

But is great rejoicing our experience? Is elation, joy and the celebration with others what most of us have experienced in the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

My experience over the years has pretty much been discomfort, some fear and shame. What is the priest going to say?  He’s probably never again going to look at me the same because my sins will be indelibly marked in his memory. So we want to slink in and slink out as quickly as possible or simply stop going to Confession which is what most of us have done. And we tell ourselves, “I can confess my sins directly to God, I don’t need a priest,” especially if we have had poor experiences in the past. Does this scenario resonate with you? It is surely a caricature but I expect there is some truth in it.

If fear, shame, embarrassment, poor encounters are our experiences, there is a problem. These kinds of emotions and poor experiences have no place in the celebration of any of the Sacraments. They are seven encounters with the risen Christ who so loves us that nothing, Paul writes, can separate us from him. [See Romans 8:28-39]

Consider the incident of the woman caught in adultery, it was the elders who in publicly bringing her before Jesus imposed on her shame and fear. She was being used to entrap Jesus. Yet Jesus treated her with respect and dignity; as an equal. He spoke to her and not about her.  He offered her not condemnation but mercy. Mercy, Pope Francis never ceases to proclaim, is the name of God. Maybe that should be the name of the Sacrament – The Sacrament of Mercy.

Since the 1970’s, popes, bishops, and parish priests have bemoaned that the long Saturday lines for the confessional – which were part of Catholic life a generation or more ago – have gone, possibly forever.  And I would comment, that may be a good thing. The long Saturday lines were never a universal experience. It was limited in time and region. History will always shed light on our nostalgic longings of what we think it always was like. Therefore are hierarchy and some people longing for the return of an experience that was not? When history reveals to us a complex past should we not take note and reflect and rethink?

Authors and preachers have claimed for years that we have lost a sense of sin, confused psychology with spirituality, and that people are looking for “cheap grace.” Now, is there probably some truth in all of these observations? I expect so. But why does the hierarchy and preachers assume that the behaviour of the People of God has taken a wrong turn? Might, as in the past, the people be the teachers in this matter? Do not shepherds need to listen as well as teach?

Fr. Rob Esdaile of Surry, England wrote “I believe one reason that the old “three-minute confession” has died is because it was not a fully human encounter, and so could not function effectively as a sacramental encounter with the unconditional love of God. It frequently felt like being sent to the [principal’s] office: humiliation and punishment; the opposite of grace.”  Where is the Gospel joy over one sinner who repents…the “Zacchaeus experience”?

On the other hand, during this same 50 years, 90 per cent or more of Catholics present themselves to receive the Body and Blood of Christ in Communion each Sunday. The link between confession of sin and the reception of the Lord’s Body and Blood, one being a condition of the other, has been broken.

Pope Francis comments that Holy Communion “is not a prize for the perfect but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.” Francis resonates over the centuries with the great Doctor of the Church, Saint Ambrose who wrote: “If, whenever Christ’s blood is shed, it is shed for the forgiveness of sins, I who sin often, should receive it often: I need a frequent remedy.” 

Reconciliation and Eucharist maybe linked but not as we have thought; one being the gateway for the other. Interestingly, both Francis and Ambrose use medical terms for the work of the Spirit in Holy Communion. How well the medicinal analogy merges with Pope Francis’ imagery of today’s church as a “field hospital.” Are not many people thirsting for the medicine of mercy? Is that the reason why Zacchaeus climbed up the sycamore tree to see Jesus?

Let’s continue this topic next Sunday and in the meantime I ask you to reflect on your past experiences of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. What has that experience been like?

Do you experience God’s forgiveness in ways other than the Sacrament of Reconciliation?