Pope: What Happens in Heaven When a Sinner Enters a Confessional?... from ZENIT in Roswell, Georgia, United States for Sunday, 11 September 2016Like
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Pope: What Happens in Heaven When a Sinner Enters a Confessional? by Kathleen Naab
Confessionals are generally quiet, darkened places. But what does heaven look and sound like when a soul enters a confessional?Pope Francis today invited the faithful to think about the rejoicing and celebrating in heaven when a sinner repents.
He made this invitation before praying the midday Angelus with those in St. Peter’s Square today, as he reflected on the heart of God as revealed in the three parables from Luke 18 recounted in today’s liturgy.
“A common element in these parables is expressed in the verbs that mean rejoice together, make a celebration,” the Pope noted. “Mourning is not spoken of; there is rejoicing, there is celebrating. The shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep’ (v 6). The woman calls her friends and neighbors, saying, ‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost’ (v. 9). And the father says to his other son: ‘now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found’ (v. 32).
“In the first two parables, the focus is on the joy that is so uncontainable that it must be shared with ‘friends and neighbors.’ In the third parable, the focus is on the celebration that springs from the heart of the merciful father and expands to the whole household.”
The Pope said that with these parables Jesus is presenting us with “the true face of God, a God with his arms always open, a God who deals with sinners with tenderness and compassion.”
God is waiting for us to get back up again, to rise up out of sin, the Pope explained. And “he awaits us with patience, he sees us when we are still a long way off, he runs to meet us, he embraces us, he kisses us, he forgives us. That is how God is. That is how our Father is.”
“And,” the Pope continued, “his forgiveness cancels the past and regenerates us in love. To forget the past — this is the weakness of God. When he embraces us, he forgives us, and he loses his memory. He doesn’t have memory. He forgets the past. When we sinners convert and bring ourselves to be re-encountered by God, reproaches and sternness do not await us, because God saves, he welcomes us home again with joy and makes a celebration.”
Beautiful
Jesus himself speaks of the rejoicing in Heaven, the Pontiff noted. It is Jesus who says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
In this light, the Pope proposed a question: “Have you ever thought about how each time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven?” he asked. “Have you ever thought of this? It’s beautiful.”
Francis said that we can be filled with great hope, since “there is no sin in which we may have fallen, from which, with the grace of God, we cannot rise up again.”
No one is so far gone they can’t be recovered, he assured, “because God never stops wanting our good — even when we sin!”
The Pope concluded with a prayer to Our Lady, under the title of Refuge of Sinners, asking that though her intercession, the confidence of the prodigal son might well up in our hearts: “I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you,” the prodigal son said.
“On this path,” the Pope affirmed, “we can give glory to God, and his glory can become his celebration, and ours.”
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On ZENIT’s Web page:
Full text: https://zenit.org/articles/angelus-address-on-gods-celebrations-over-repentant-sinners/
Angelus Address: On God’s Celebrations Over Repentant Sinners by ZENIT Staff
Here is a ZENIT translation of the address Pope Francis gave today before praying the midday Angelus with those gathered in St. Peter’s Square.__
Dear brothers and sisters, good morning!
Today’s liturgy brings us to Chapter 15 of the Gospel of Luke, considered the chapter of mercy. It collects three parables with which Jesus responds to the grumbling of the scribes and the Pharisees, who are criticizing his actions, saying, “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them” (v. 2).
With these three stories, Jesus wants to make us understand that God the Father is the first one to have a welcoming and merciful attitude toward sinners. God has this attitude.
In the first parable, God is presented as a shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to go look for the one that is lost. In the second, he is compared to a woman who has lost a coin and searches until she’s found it. In the third parable, God is imagined as a father who welcomes the son who had distanced himself; the figure of the father reveals the heart of a merciful God, manifested in Jesus.
A common element in these parables is expressed in the verbs that mean rejoice together, make a celebration. Mourning is not spoken of; there is rejoicing, there is celebrating. The shepherd calls his friends and neighbors and says, “Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep” (v 6). The woman calls her friends and neighbors, saying, “Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost” (v. 9). And the father says to his other son: “now we must celebrate and rejoice, because your brother was dead and has come to life again; he was lost and has been found” (v. 32).
In the first two parables, the focus is on the joy that is so uncontainable that it must be shared with “friends and neighbors.” In the third parable, the focus is on the celebration that springs from the heart of the merciful father and expands to the whole household. God’s celebration over those who return to Him repentant is intoned as never before in this Jubilee Year that we are living, as the term itself expresses: “jubilee,” that is, jubilation.
With these three parables, Jesus presents us the true face of God, a God with his arms always open, a God who deals with sinners with tenderness and compassion. The parable that is most moving for everyone — because it manifests the infinite love of God — is that of the father who clings to and embraces the child who’s been found. That is, what is moving is not so much the sad story of a youth who rushes into degradation, but rather his decisive words, “I shall get up and go to my father” (v 18).
The path to return home is the path of hope and new life. God awaits our returning to the journey, he awaits us with patience, he sees us when we are still a long way off, he runs to meet us, he embraces us, he kisses us, he forgives us. That is how God is. That is how our Father is. And his forgiveness cancels the past and regenerates us in love. To forget the past — this is the weakness of God. When he embraces us, he forgives us, and he loses his memory. He doesn’t have memory. He forgets the past. When we sinners convert and bring ourselves to be re-encountered by God, reproaches and sternness do not await us, because God saves, he welcomes us home again with joy and makes a celebration.
Jesus himself in today’s Gospel says, “there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who have no need of repentance.”
Let me ask you a question: Have you ever thought about how each time we go to the confessional, there is joy and celebration in heaven? Have you ever thought of this? It’s beautiful.
This fills us with a great hope because there is no sin in which we may have fallen, from which, with the grace of God, we cannot rise up again. There is never a person who can’t be recovered; no one is unrecoverable, because God never stops wanting our good — even when we sin!
May the Virgin Mary, Refuge of Sinners, make rise in our hearts the confidence that was lit in the heart of the prodigal son: “I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you’” (v 18). On this path, we can give glory to God, and his glory can become his celebration, and ours.[Translation by ZENIT]
Pope Prays for Peace in Gabon by Kathleen Naab
After praying the midday Angelus with pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square today, Pope Francis offered a special prayer for Gabon, which is going through a time of political crisis following a contested Aug. 27 election.Defeated presidential candidate Jean Ping has complained of fraud, after losing the election to incumbent Ali Bong by less than 6,000 votes.
The opposition candidate has mounted a legal challenge, while the country has taken to the streets in protest.
The opposition says as many as 100 people have died in the protests, though the government has the toll at three.
“I entrust to the Lord the victims of the clashes and their families,” Pope Francis said today. “I join the Bishops of that dear African country to invite the parties to reject all violence and to always aim for the common good. I encourage everyone, particularly Catholics, to be builders of peace within the law, in dialogue and fraternity.”
Beatification in Kazakhstan
The Holy Father, also remembered Fr Ladislaus Bukowinski who was persecuted for his faith and was beatified Sunday in Karaganda in Kazakhstan. Pope Francis said that “in his life he always showed great love for the weakest and neediest and his testimony appears as a distillation of the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.
Gospel for Sunday, Sept. 11 by ZENIT Staff
Tax collectors and sinners were all drawing near to listen to Jesus,but the Pharisees and scribes began to complain, saying,
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.”
So to them he addressed this parable.
“What man among you having a hundred sheep and losing one of them
would not leave the ninety-nine in the desert
and go after the lost one until he finds it?
And when he does find it,
he sets it on his shoulders with great joy
and, upon his arrival home,
he calls together his friends and neighbors and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost sheep.’
I tell you, in just the same way
there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents
than over ninety-nine righteous people
who have no need of repentance.
“Or what woman having ten coins and losing one
would not light a lamp and sweep the house,
searching carefully until she finds it?
And when she does find it,
she calls together her friends and neighbors
and says to them,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found the coin that I lost.’
In just the same way, I tell you,
there will be rejoicing among the angels of God
over one sinner who repents.”
Then he said,
“A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father,
‘Father give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’
So the father divided the property between them.
After a few days, the younger son collected all his belongings
and set off to a distant country
where he squandered his inheritance on a life of dissipation.
When he had freely spent everything,
a severe famine struck that country,
and he found himself in dire need.
So he hired himself out to one of the local citizens
who sent him to his farm to tend the swine.
And he longed to eat his fill of the pods on which the swine fed,
but nobody gave him any.
Coming to his senses he thought,
‘How many of my father’s hired workers
have more than enough food to eat,
but here am I, dying from hunger.
I shall get up and go to my father and I shall say to him,
“Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you.
I no longer deserve to be called your son;
treat me as you would treat one of your hired workers.”’
So he got up and went back to his father.
While he was still a long way off,
his father caught sight of him,
and was filled with compassion.
He ran to his son, embraced him and kissed him.
His son said to him,
‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you;
I no longer deserve to be called your son.’
But his father ordered his servants,
‘Quickly bring the finest robe and put it on him;
put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet.
Take the fattened calf and slaughter it.
Then let us celebrate with a feast,
because this son of mine was dead, and has come to life again;
he was lost, and has been found.’
Then the celebration began.
Now the older son had been out in the field
and, on his way back, as he neared the house,
he heard the sound of music and dancing.
He called one of the servants and asked what this might mean.
The servant said to him,
‘Your brother has returned
and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf
because he has him back safe and sound.’
He became angry,
and when he refused to enter the house,
his father came out and pleaded with him.
He said to his father in reply,
‘Look, all these years I served you
and not once did I disobey your orders;
yet you never gave me even a young goat to feast on with my friends. But when your son returns,
who swallowed up your property with prostitutes,
for him you slaughter the fattened calf.’
He said to him,
‘My son, you are here with me always;
everything I have is yours.
But now we must celebrate and rejoice,
because your brother was dead and has come to life again;
he was lost and has been found.’”
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