Confession Part 2 - Fulton Sheen
Sometimes, now not always, but sometimes we can cover up our want of individual justice by a great love of social justice. Let me explain.Remember when Judas was at the banquet room of Simon? The woman came in and poured ointment on the feet of our Blessed Lord. Judas said:
- "Why this waste? Why not give this money to the poor?"
- "I heard you on the mountain of the beatitudes, saying blessed are the poor; where's your love of the poor now? Have you forgotten all those people that are living on hanging shacks in the road between Jericho and Jerusalem? Remember the days when we walked through the inner city of Jerusalem; have you no interest in those poor? Look at these humble fishermen shacks here at Capernaum. Where is your love of the Poor?"
- "Judas, you have the poor with you always, me not always."
So, when we suppress our guilt, it is there for eternity, unless it is forgiven. When it is forgiven, it is completely blasted out.
Well, how do we now, through the mercy of God and the fullness of faith in Christ, how are our sins forgiven? By Confession.
What is Confession? Nudity. It is nudity of the soul. It is stripping ourselves of all false excuses and shams and pretenses and revealing ourselves as we really are.
Do you know, my good people, as we have given up the Examination of Conscience and the Sacrament of Confession, nudity increases in the world? Physical nudity? Let us study it for a moment.
When Adam and Eve were in the garden, they were naked but not ashamed. Why? Because they were covered with the aura of God's grace. It, as it were, shone around about them, robed in glory. And, yes, there was no sense at all of nakedness. After Adam and Eve fell, they perceived themselves to be naked. Why? They lost the grace of God. And they then had to be clothed.
Do you know how their nakedness was covered? Yes, fig leaves, I know, but they wilted and their shame was revealed. So, how was their nakedness covered up? God made for them the skins of animals. God did something. It was done vicariously. An animal was killed, not Adam and Eve. And it involved the shedding of blood.
I could take you all through the Old Testament in unfolding that story. But the point is that they were naked and ashamed because they had lost the grace of God.
In our modern world, we are bringing back nudity, trying to get back into the Garden of Eden without walking up the hill of Calvary. It cannot be done.
So, what is Confession? It is another kind of nudity. Not epidermic nudity, but ethical nudity in which we just say to the dear Lord, this is how I am, a miserable sinner. And when we make that Confession, then what happens is what might be called the recycling of human garbage.
We hear a great deal today about the recycling of garbage, but I am speaking about the recycling of human garbage. When you go to Confession to have your sins forgiven by the blood of Christ, incidentally, applied through the priest, there is always an effect of that sin that remains.
Suppose that I told one of these little children that every time they did anything wrong they were to put a nail into a board. Can you imagine that? Every time you did wrong, disobeyed your mother, for example, you were to drive a nail into the board. Then every time your mother forgave you, and you said you were sorry, the mother would tell you to pull the nail out. Is there anything left? What is left? A hole is left. That is the effect of sin.
Even though the sin is forgiven, we have to make some reparation for it and that is the reason you are given a penance in Confession, to fill up the holes. And to help us make adequate reparation for sin, we have the intercession of the Saints and the mercy of our Blessed Lord.
When we go to confession, our lives are completely changed by submitting to the Mercy of God.
Thank you, and God love you!