Oboedire "Year of Mercy: Good Confessors" by J. Steven Harper] for Wednesday, 27 April 2016

Oboedire   "Year of Mercy: Good Confessors" by J. Steven Harper] for Wednesday, 27 April 2016
(17) Had we begun the reading of Pope Francis' document when he officially began The Year of Jubilee, we would have found this segment to be more timelyfor Lent. But reading it now makes it no less important, given his emphasis upon the crucial connection between the ministry of mercy and the role of confessors.
Simply put, Pope Francis recognizes that good confessors are necessary if the ministry of mercy is to exist. This is probably obvious to Roman Catholics, who go to Confession regularly. For those of us in other Christian traditions, we need to read the Pope's words recognizing their truth in a less formal, but equally significant way.
In the broader sense (but within the Roman sense too) good confessors are first and foremost those who live in the love of God as ones who have themselves received God's mercy. We are more likely to give what we have received--and all the more if what we have received has had a profound effect upon us. When confessors have themselves received mercy, they are "safe places" where we do not need to be afraid of how they will receive us when we go to them in our need.
This means that good confessors are disposed (before we ever show up) to emphasize reconciliation. Because of grace, good confessors are restorative, not retributive. Their defining word is "Welcome!" not "Warning!" In the Roman Church this is expressed through the Sacrament of Reconciliation, and Pope Francis urges that it be used lavishly. For the rest of us, we must see that reconciliation is sacramental in its nature and propensity to forgive even when we are "a long way from home" (e.g. Luke 15:20).
In being good confessors, we become signs of God, revealing God, as we say in the liturgy, "Whose property is always to have mercy."
[Note: the numbers at the beginning of each meditation correspond to the section of the Pope's document on which it is based][J. Steven Harper]
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17. The season of Lent during this Jubilee Year should also be lived more intensely as a privileged moment to celebrate and experience God’s mercy. How many pages of Sacred Scripture are appropriate for meditation during the weeks of Lent to help us rediscover the merciful face of the Father! We can repeat the words of the prophet Micah and make them our own: You, O Lord, are a God who takes away iniquity and pardons sin, who does not hold your anger forever, but are pleased to show mercy. You, Lord, will return to us and have pity on your people. You will trample down our sins and toss them into the depths of the sea (cf. 7:18-19).

The pages of the prophet Isaiah can also be meditated upon concretely during this season of prayer, fasting, and works of charity: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then shall your light break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up speedily; your righteousness shall go before you, the glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard. Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry, and he will say, here I am. If you take away from the midst of you the yoke, the pointing of the finger, and speaking wickedness, if you pour yourself out for the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then shall your light rise in the darkness and your gloom be as the noonday. And the Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your desire with good things, and make your bones strong; and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters fail not” (58:6-11).

The initiative of “24 Hours for the Lord,” to be celebrated on the Friday and Saturday preceding the Fourth Week of Lent, should be implemented in every diocese. So many people, including young people, are returning to the Sacrament of Reconciliation; through this experience they are rediscovering a path back to the Lord, living a moment of intense prayer and finding meaning in their lives. Let us place the Sacrament of Reconciliation at the centre once more in such a way that it will enable people to touch the grandeur of God’s mercy with their own hands. For every penitent, it will be a source of true interior peace.

I will never tire of insisting that confessors be authentic signs of the Father’s mercy. We do not become good confessors automatically. We become good confessors when, above all, we allow ourselves to be penitents in search of his mercy. Let us never forget that to be confessors means to participate in the very mission of Jesus to be a concrete sign of the constancy of divine love that pardons and saves. We priests have received the gift of the Holy Spirit for the forgiveness of sins, and we are responsible for this. None of us wields power over this Sacrament; rather, we are faithful servants of God’s mercy through it. Every confessor must accept the faithful as the father in the parable of the prodigal son: a father who runs out to meet his son despite the fact that he has squandered away his inheritance. Confessors are called to embrace the repentant son who comes back home and to express the joy of having him back again. Let us never tire of also going out to the other son who stands outside, incapable of rejoicing, in order to explain to him that his judgement is severe and unjust and meaningless in light of the father’s boundless mercy. May confessors not ask useless questions, but like the father in the parable, interrupt the speech prepared ahead of time by the prodigal son, so that confessors will learn to accept the plea for help and mercy pouring from the heart of every penitent. In short, confessors are called to be a sign of the primacy of mercy always, everywhere, and in every situation, no matter what.

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