Robert had a secret. There was something that he did in his past that he truly regretted and was ashamed of. It was a sin, plain and simple, and he never told anyone about it.  And as a result of this, he stayed away from the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Eventually he began to think that he didn’t have to worry about going to confession, after all, most people didn’t bother with that Sacrament anyway!

But for some reason, during this season of Lent he began to think about that bad time in his past, and what he had done. His parish was offering a day retreat at a local retreat center and his wife talked him into going. While there that day, Robert really felt like he wanted to be free from this heaviness and guilt once and for all. So, he goes to talk to the priest during one of the breaks.

“Father, my sin is too great. I haven’t been able to bring myself to ever say it in confession, and I can’t tell you how long it has been since the last time I even went…” And the priest said to him, “Do you really think that your sin has power over Christ? To make your sins more powerful than Christ—-you’ll excuse me for saying this—-but, that’s ridiculous! Christ can obliterate that sin—-all your sins! Your sin has no power over Jesus. So, stop making yourself and your sin the center of everything. Focus on Jesus Christ and the cross—-make that the center. You have to let Christ forgive you.”

Christ died on the cross. We just heard it proclaimed to us. He’s putting your sins (and mine) (our) on himself to free you (us) and to open the door to heaven for you. This is that important to Christ! You have to let him forgive you. (Pause) But sometimes we can get caught up in the wrong type of thinking which often goes like this: “I’m a good person, I really don’t need to confess my sins,” thinking that being a basically good person somehow excuses us from this Sacrament. Why did Jesus go through all that terrible suffering and agonizing death? It wasn’t so people could say, “Thanks, but I don’t really need that, you were wasting your time.” Would any of us really want to say this to Christ, “You were wasting your time, I’m a good person, I didn’t need that?”

So, Jesus says to you, “Don’t let my death on the cross go to waste. You must have your sins forgiven. My Father passionately wants you to do that!”

We need Christ who went to the cross for your sins and mine. We need Christ to help us out through his forgiving of our sins.

I’m now going to go through an examination of conscience. Think about those things that you would want Christ to away from you.

Then…

Confessions will be heard on Tuesday evening beginning at 7:00. There will be six priests here so that things won’t go too long. We will have the act of contrition available so don’t worry about having to memorize that.

Please come. It really is important to Jesus.