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Beginning with Ash Wednesday through Lent and Holy Week, I estimated that I've heard around 700 confessions. Fr. Miles heard about the same number or more. Isn't that incredible? I have been a priest now less than 2 years, and I estimate that I have heard about 2,000 confessions during that time. Do you ever wonder how many confessions are heard in one year here just in United States? Let's do a rough calculations. There are over 41,000 priests
in U.S. and I estimate that each priest hears around 1,000
confessions a year. That would mean around 41,000,000 confessions are heard in
a year! That's 41 million moments when God's forgiveness, mercy, and
healing were given just in our country. Have you ever also wondered the following? "I wonder what it's like to be the priest sitting on the other side of the grill?" Well, today, I'm going to give you an insider's scoop of what's it's like being on the "other side of the grill."
I celebrated my First Mass here at Our Lady of Mercy on June 1, 2008 after being ordained on May 31st. At my first mass, after communion, I presented to my dad the confessional stole that heard my very first confession after being ordained as a priest. As the tradition goes, the father of the priest will be buried with that stole in his casket. And when he reaches Heaven, St. Peter will ask him, "So what have you done on earth." And the father of the priest will show the confessional stole to St. Peter and say, "I have offered to God the Father my son as a priest. Through this stole, my son brought God's mercy and forgiveness to many souls." When my dad received the stole, he was very moved.
I remember that very first confession. As I pronounced the words, "And I absolve you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," I was thinking to myself, 'Is this for real, uttering these words on behalf of Jesus?' In today's First Reading, we read, "Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles." And I was overcome by the signs and wonders that happened through these merely human hands. Jesus told St. Faustina, the saint of the Divine Mercy the following words about what power he was giving through the priests. "Tell my priests that hardened sinners will repent on hearing their words when they speak about My unfathomable mercy, about the compassion I have for them in My Heart. To priests who proclaim and extol My mercy, I will give wondrous power; I will anoint their words and touch the hearts of those to whom they will speak." (Diary of St. Faustina Kowalska, #1521) I remember in one of the first confessions I heard, as I intently listened, the person making the confession began to cry uncontrollably, not only because they were sorrowful for their sins but because they also experienced the mercy of Jesus. I sat there wondering, 'I haven't even said a word!' In today's Gospel, Jesus just walks past through locked doors and does something incredible for the disciples. He said, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." He then breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." It is then, the Holy Spirit who is behind the power to forgive sins. We priests look at our hands and tremble at the fact that we are instruments of God's power to forgive sins.
Many people tell me, "Father Paul, confession is really difficult for me, so I don't like to go." Perhaps you had an unpleasant experience with a priest. But do you ever wonder what truly happens in a confession? Is it just two persons sitting there chatting? This week, I went to East Baton Rouge Parish Prison to visit a person. But I needed to be cleared of background checks and needed a photo taken for an ID badge. I was sitting on a stool getting ready for the camera, when a young man next to me said, "Are you a preacher or something?" I looked at him and said, "Yes, I'm a priest." It was a surreal experience. Here was a young man getting booked for a crime, and here I was next to him "getting booked" to visit prisoners. I walked around, and because of my priest collar nobody said anything. I wondered to myself, 'How cool! This white collar allows me to go through even locked prisons!' In confessional, I remind people that although all it appears to be is that we are just chatting, invisible to us, Jesus is walking through the locked doors of their heart, looking for prisoners to set free. As the tears stream down from their eyes, I remind them that right now Jesus is healing and freeing you from your past hurts and sins.
Jesus instituted the Sacrament of Reconciliation as his ordinary means to imparting his mercy and forgiveness. But that wasn't enough for him. He wanted to institute a special feast day to open the floodgates to his mercy. So Jesus instituted the Second Sunday of Easter as the Divine Mercy Sunday. Jesus told St. Faustina, "My daughter, tell the whole world about My inconceivable mercy. I desire that the Feast of mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet. My mercy is so great that no mind, be it of man or of angel, will be able to fathom it throughout all eternity. Everything that exists has come forth from the very depths of My most tender mercy. Every soul in its relation to Me will contemplate My love and mercy throughout eternity. The Feast of Mercy emerged from My very depths of tenderness. It is My desire that it be solemnly celebrated on the first Sunday after Easter. Mankind will not have peace until it turns to the Fount of My Mercy." (Diary §699)
So should we not tremble knowing that on this Divine Mercy Sunday, we who are poor sinners including this poor priest, be given such gift of mercy, undeserved and unmerited. How grateful we are Heavenly Father for your unfathomable generosity!
