Feb. 28, 2012 Tuesday: Divine Mercy Mass
high school religion classes. I entered one of the classes to explain
about reconciliation and you would have thought that I was looking at
a road full of deer caught in the headlights. The students protested,
“I haven’t been to confession since I was a kid…I don’t know what to
say.” One young lady said, “My heart is pounding because I’m nervous.”
I guess for some of us, going to confession is like going to a
dentist.
When does Jesus get a chance to tell each of us that we are so
precious to Him? When does He get a chance to tell us that He does
care when we get hurt by others or when we hurt others? It’s in the
Confessional, one on one—Jesus and you. Jesus already knows that we
often turn to the Father in prayer, sees that we face sinful
situations each day, and knows that we acknowledge that we are
sinners. But what do we lack?
If I asked everyone here, “Do you know within the depths of your heart
Heavenly Father’s love, mercy, and forgiveness,” I don’t know how many
of us would respond ‘yes’ with strong conviction. It’s been my
experience that most of us profess the Father’s great love for us, but
that we lack the conviction that the Father truly forgives us for our
faults. We somehow feel unworthy of His forgiveness, most likely
because we cannot forgive someone when we have been harmed.
The Father knows that it is difficult for us to forgive when we (or
someone we love) experience the pain from infidelity, abuse, or
emotional or physical harm. Yet, even when the pain is great, we are
called to forgive. In time, we will learn to forgive if we turn to
Jesus and His Father in prayer and ask to know the Father’s love and
mercy. We must ask for Jesus to enter our hearts to heal our pains so
that we will be able to forgive.
