Feb. 16, 2012 Thursday: 6th Week in Ordinary (B)
Confession in a Coma
By Sister Emmanuel
Here is one of many incredible stories that Fr. Tim Deeter shared with me from when he was in the States:
"Every day I would go and visit the Catholic patients in the hospital behind my parish, and there was one woman who was always on the list, because she was in a coma. Well, one day I had this huge list of patients, and I looked at it and I said, 'Oh, I've got to cut a couple of these people out. Maybe the woman in the coma, she doesn't need to see me. She can't talk to me anyhow, and so I'll just cut her off the list.' But as I went around and visited everybody I felt guilty, and
thought I'd better go and see her. So I went and sat by her bed and went through the whole routine, 'It's Fr. Tim. It's Tuesday.' And at the end I sat there and I said to myself, 'This is really stupid. She can't respond to me, I'm wasting my time. I'm not going to come anymore. I'm going to cross her off my list.'
"And all of a sudden a thought came to me which was not my own: 'This woman needs absolution from her sins.' And I thought to myself, 'You're right. This woman hasn't been able to go to Confession; she's in a coma.' And so I leaned forward again, and I said to her, 'Any sin that you've committed, that you've not had forgiven, present it now to the
Lord in your mind. Give your sins to the Lord, and then I'll say an Act of Contrition with you.' And so I waited, then I said the Act of Contrition, then I gave her absolution. I sat back in my chair, and the woman sat up immediately from her bed. She didn't look at me, she looked right past me at the Cross that was on the wall. She held out her arms wide, and with a beautiful smile on her face she said, 'Jesus!' and fell back and died. I whipped around to see if Jesus was there, and He was, but not for me to see. He had come for her, at my command, through the sacrament of Penance, and the woman went with Him in great joy!
"So these sacraments are important things. If God is calling you to the sacraments, don't put them off for other things, because you might not be alive the next day!"
"Every day I would go and visit the Catholic patients in the hospital behind my parish, and there was one woman who was always on the list, because she was in a coma. Well, one day I had this huge list of patients, and I looked at it and I said, 'Oh, I've got to cut a couple of these people out. Maybe the woman in the coma, she doesn't need to see me. She can't talk to me anyhow, and so I'll just cut her off the list.' But as I went around and visited everybody I felt guilty, and
thought I'd better go and see her. So I went and sat by her bed and went through the whole routine, 'It's Fr. Tim. It's Tuesday.' And at the end I sat there and I said to myself, 'This is really stupid. She can't respond to me, I'm wasting my time. I'm not going to come anymore. I'm going to cross her off my list.'
"And all of a sudden a thought came to me which was not my own: 'This woman needs absolution from her sins.' And I thought to myself, 'You're right. This woman hasn't been able to go to Confession; she's in a coma.' And so I leaned forward again, and I said to her, 'Any sin that you've committed, that you've not had forgiven, present it now to the
Lord in your mind. Give your sins to the Lord, and then I'll say an Act of Contrition with you.' And so I waited, then I said the Act of Contrition, then I gave her absolution. I sat back in my chair, and the woman sat up immediately from her bed. She didn't look at me, she looked right past me at the Cross that was on the wall. She held out her arms wide, and with a beautiful smile on her face she said, 'Jesus!' and fell back and died. I whipped around to see if Jesus was there, and He was, but not for me to see. He had come for her, at my command, through the sacrament of Penance, and the woman went with Him in great joy!
"So these sacraments are important things. If God is calling you to the sacraments, don't put them off for other things, because you might not be alive the next day!"
http://www.spiritofmedjugorje.org/june2010.htm
