St. Joseph of the Lakes

For many years I had the impression that Christianity was a self-improvement program. I thought we were given the sacrament of Reconciliation with hope that we can make promises that we would change our behavior but as I have gotten older I have discovered this is a very misleading idea. I have come to appreciate why so few people come to this beautiful sacrament. They do not want to rehash their on-going brokenness in front of the priest. After centuries of God telling His people that He expected them to follow His laws he finally announces in the first reading that He will do everything. He will open our graves and give us life. Eternal life depends on Him, not us.

Over the years I have seen the confessional as a beautiful place where those who have become extremely alienated from the Church and God come back to join the family of faith again. I have seen it lifting up the regular members of the Church by reaffirming God’s great love for them. There are some who haven’t been to confession for many years who are afraid that the priest will be disappointed by their feebleness. They avoid making this contact because they think that they are supposed to be doing the work instead of reflecting on God’s work in themselves. They are thinking like I did when I was younger; that somehow my salvation was up to me instead of God. The good news I have grown to accept is that as often as I go to confession the more I am reaffirmed of God’s saving work in me, instead of reflecting on my continuing brokenness.

It used to be hard for me to tell the same sins to my confessor. I would promise that this time I was really going to change and become better. Then when the time came to go to confession again I would realize how much of a mess that I am. It took many years of living in my brokenness that I began to understand how hopeful Ezekiel’s words are for me. He is the only one who can reach past our brokenness to lift us to new life. Once I began to understand this I began to grow in my ability to love and accept others in their brokenness. It was only then that I discovered God’s work of salvation in me.