Days of Future Confession
I am what is called a neophyte - a new Catholic. To be honest, it didn't take much to convince me that confession is a powerful sacrament, and that we all need it. I listened to an audio presentation, available for free on Youtube, called "The Healing Power of Confession," given by Dr. Scott Hahn. He gives the biblical roots and the covenantal background for this sacrament. It didn't take much to get me into the confessional. I had some pretty bad stuff in my past, stuff that people would not know by looking at how I am today. But folks, we serve a God of boundless love and mercy. He wants to use confession and penance to heal us, not to hurt us. He does not want to scare us away. He is our Heavenly Father, and we are His prodigal sons and daughters. When we return to Him and repent of our sins, He comes running full blast to meet us in the confessional. To embrace us. To kiss us. To put a robe on us, shoes on our feet, a ring on our hands. He wants to celebrate, and indeed does, whenever we come face to face with Him in the confessional.
I always watch movies and try to picture them as allegories of faith. I recently viewed "X-Men:Days of Future Past," where Wolverine is sent back in time to warn the past Professor X about the coming disaster, so that they can together change the future. The past Charles Xavier, through telepathy in Wolverine's mind, has a discussion with the future Charles. In that talk, the future Charles tells his past self, "We need you to hope again." Isn't that exactly what our future self would say to us? The post-confessional self? I know my future self would. "We...God, your family, your friends, your parish, your diocese, your nation, the Universal Church...we need you to hope again. To find true hope in God's unlimited, unbounded, infinite mercy and goodness. His bottomless abyss of love for you. Come to confession, and find hope again."
Friends, our Father in Heaven is waiting with arms wide open to receive us and erase all our wrongs. All we need to do is trust in Him. So come, your Savior awaits you. Feel His loving touch, and put your hands in the nail marks and in His side. Fall on Him and His mercy, and He will lift you up again and set your feet on solid ground.
