**In his Oct. 25 Mass homily, the Holy Father provides relevant direction
about recourse to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.**
During his daily Mass Pope Francis centered his homily on the Sacrament
of Reconciliation, stressing that sin is an everyday struggle that requires
accountability through “face-to-face” contact.
“Confessing our sins is not going to a psychiatrist, or to a torture
chamber: it’s saying to the Lord, ‘Lord, I am a sinner,’ but saying it
through the brother, because this says it concretely. ‘I am sinner because
of this, that and the other thing.’”
The Pope offered his Oct. 25 reflections to those gathered in the chapel of
the St Martha guesthouse, where he has chosen to reside.
Pope Francis opened his homily by reflecting that for many believing
adults, the idea of confessing one’s sins to a priest is either so unbearable
that they completely avoid the Sacrament, or the process is so painful
that
the truth is transformed into a form of fiction.
Recalling St. Paul’s words in his Letter to the Romans from today’s
readings, the Pope noted that the apostle did the opposite, confessing
publicly that “good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh,” and that he
doesn’t do the good that he wants, but only the evil which he hates.
— The Christian Struggle
The Pope stressed that it often happens in the life of faith that “when I
want to do good, evil is close to me.”
“This is the struggle of Christians. It is our struggle every day. And we do
not always have the courage to speak as Paul spoke about this struggle.”
Often, noted the Holy Father, we seek to justify our sins by making
excuses and saying that “we are all sinners.”
“If we don’t recognize this, we will never be able to have God’s
forgiveness,” urged the Pope, “because if being a sinner is a word, a way
of speaking, a manner of speaking, we have no need of God’s
forgiveness. But if it is a reality that makes us slaves, we need this interior
liberation of the Lord, of that force.”
Pope Francis then emphasized that the most important element for St.
Paul in finding a way out of this justification was to confess his sin to the
community, noting that “he doesn’t hide it,” and that the confession of
one’s sins with humility is something that the Church requires of us all.
“Confess your sins to one another,” he said, repeating the words of St.
James, not to be noticed by others, but rather “to give glory to God” and
to recognize that it is only he who can save.
This is why, stressed the Pope, we go to a “brother priest,” to confess,
urging that when one confesses, it must be done with “concreteness.”
“Some say: ‘Ah, I confess to God.’ But it’s easy, it’s like confessing by
email, no? God is far away, I say things and there’s no face-to-face, no
eye-to-eye contact,” while “others [say] ‘No, I go to confession,’ but they
confess so many ethereal things, so many up-in-the-air things, that they
don’t have anything concrete. And that’s the same as not doing it.”
Concreteness, honesty, and the genuine ability to be ashamed one’s
mistakes are all qualities needed in order to be open to the forgiveness of
God, as well as the deep awareness of his love, the Pope noted.
— The Example of Children
Concluding his reflections, Pope Francis stressed that in the face of
Confession, we should have the attitude of a small child, because “when a
child comes to confess, he never says something general.”
“‘But Father, I did this and I did that to my aunt, another time I said this
word’ and they say the word. But they are concrete, eh? They have that
simplicity of the truth.”
Although “we always have the tendency to hide the reality of our
failings,”
the Pope noted that “there is something beautiful: when we
confess our
sins as they are in the presence of God, we always feel that
grace of
shame.”
“Being ashamed in the sight of God is a grace. It is a
grace: ‘I am
ashamed
of myself.’”
When we think of this kind of shame, the Pope stressed, “We think of
Peter when, after the miracle of Jesus on the lake, (he said) ‘Depart from
me, Lord, for I am a sinner.’”