Penance: Keeping our Glasses Clean

ADVENT Penance Service

Wednesday December 18, 2013

One of the things I have a hard time with is keeping my reading glasses clean.  It’s usually not until my mother points out how ghastly they’ve become that I actually take the time to clean them.  Maybe you’re like me too, if you wear glasses.  It’s amazing how much dirt can be on them without us really taking time to notice.  Usually its someone else who points it out to us.  There could be a parallel here to the spiritual life.  We don’t know how funky our lives have become, how out of focus things have become because we so become used to our sins that we no longer notice them.  Then it falls to a penance service to help us regain a more realistic view, an opportunity to step back and examine more carefully our heart, our soul.  Sometimes we come internally kicking and screaming…we don’t want to be here, we’re skeptical, we’re uncomfortable, yet there is something which draws us – we’re not sure from quite what that something is and we’re not sure we like it.  Confession itself is something that takes a certain level of humility, and this is part of its primary blessing – to allow the penitent to speak the truth before God and before the representative of the Church, his priest.  It is a salve for the soul – its healing effects are not there just because your parents think it a good idea you be here, or your Catholic conscience which keeps pecking like a woodpecker at the back of your mind to come to the "sacred seal" – No, there is more going on here, and there is more at stake.  There is a battle we face with our human pride and a wrestling with inner demons that would prefer to be left alone – that we did not lay our burdens and sins at the feet of Christ in His confessional.  Or we struggle on the other end of the confessing spectrum, we feel despite our best recollection we don’t have any sins to confess and therefore find ourselves in the unenviable position of knowing inherently that we’re not saints yet but we cannot find much worthy of confession and this troubles our hearts.  Yet what a grace to do our best, in both these cases, to name our sins and to receive forgiveness – ahh, new life with the Father – the freedom for which we long, what a small price we are asked to pay for the beginning of all graces – being set right with God and His Church, knowing – or at least believing as we do that only in this way do we receive the forgiveness we seek.  I hope you will permit me a few more words, I pray they be not like the hot air that comes out of our mouths on a crisp day, words that serve only to fog up our glasses.  Let us strive to keep our inner eye, the eye of the heart, clear, by proving ourselves willing despite the battle within – willing to bring ourselves before God and his Church – not putting it off any longer!  Even baby steps and a small act of faith in moving towards the Eternal God is grounds for abundant blessings!

A word on sin.  From our first reading from the prophet Isaiah it is clear…sin offends God!  With one hand we shed blood and with the other we offer to God prayer offerings.  Think of our society.  We do indeed shed blood and yet think God does not see.  But God does see.  And this hypocrisy offends Him.  The ways in which we climb into bed with our secular culture and do not speak up when the opportunity presents itself.  How cloudy our glasses become…how quickly we fog up!  Yet Isaiah speaks rightly when he says, “though your sins be like scarlet, they shall become white as wool.”  Nothing stands in the way of God’s grace being poured out on the contrite person who confesses his or his sin…nothing overcomes God’s good news.  Sin offends God, repentance pleases Him – therefore let us do what is right and good and be blessed by the lightness of heart that comes to the reconciled – those who no longer listen to the lies of the enemy of our souls – those who escape from under his crude whip and walk again as sons and daughters of light.  With our blessed Mother Mary at our side we seek His face, to walk once again in light.  As Jesus proclaims in tonight’s gospel, “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”  We either live in that light or we live in the darkness – there is no middle ground.  Tonight we choose where we want to live.  We claim as our own one of two places.  Aren’t we blessed to have the best choice in front of us, sitting alongside us, a fellow journeyman along the rough paths of life, a priest.  An imperfect man, a man who lives with his own limitations and in need of the great mercy of God, yet chosen to bring this mercy to his brothers and sisters.  What a privilege.  What a responsibility!  And both of us priests wear glasses so we will not dwell too long on your sins, for we have our own to consider.  And yet, being from the outside, we may be able to offer some word of insight or consolation…perhaps a word on fire with the love of God – spoken quietly to you – in hushed tones, by a poor priest who stands in need of God.  Do not be afraid to approach him.  He is but a poor vessel and he knows it!  Be not afraid.  Open wide the doors of your heart to Christ!