We Need To Renew Our Genuine Sorrow For Sin

 

12/15/2006 Bishop Robert Vasa

BEND — The second week of Advent. One of the beautiful traditions of the Catholic Church is the weekly lighting of the Advent wreath. To be honest, I do not know the origin of this custom, but as I grow older I appreciate the custom more and more.

I have my own particular “interpretation” for the candles on the wreath which has to do with “the dawn from on high which will break upon us” to bring light “to those who walk in darkness” and hope “to those who dwell in the shadow of death.”

We certainly anticipate the coming of Christ at Christmas, but His coming is not preceded by a blindingly searing burst of light. The dawn comes rather gently and gradually. Thus, throughout the time of the Old Testament, there was an ever increasing, but very gradually increasing, light of knowledge, understanding, hope and expectation.

By lighting the Advent wreath in the progressive fashion to which we are accustomed, we are invited into that same gradual enlightening. It is like watching for the dawn. The sun does not just appear, full and radiant, on the eastern horizon. There is an inkling of light, a gradual illumination, and then the rim of the sun overcomes the rim of the horizon, and it begins to appear.

Throughout this process, though we are perhaps more inclined to sit and watch sunsets, there are many wonderful things happening in the clouds, on the mountains, over the fields. Splashes of color and heart-uplifting displays of grandeur are often a part of this gradual awakening of the sun for a new day.

The dawning of Christ anew in our lives at Christmas is likewise gradual. Christmas is not only the anticipation and celebration of the coming of Christ as the Redeemer. He is especially the Redeemer who comes to and for me and you as individuals awaiting that Savior whom the people of the Old Testament looked for with eager longing.

Candle 1 is that light which touches my heart and asks me to look at the darkness in my own life. It is the light that asks me to acknowledge my need for God, to recognize His great love, mercy and compassion. It is, at the same time, the light that challenges me to see my rejection of Church teaching or authority, to see and recognize my pride, arrogance, hardheartedness and hardheadedness.

It is often easy, by whose light is certainly debatable, to see the flaws and faults of others, but seeing our own need for conversion is often quite another matter. The Church tradition gives us a week to consider our need for conversion.

Candle 2 is that light that helps me recognize more clearly that how I live, what I say and what I do has a direct impact on my relationship with God. It helps me recognize that God is all good and merciful and loving and that it is Him whom my sins offend. If we had any clue about the wondrous purity of God’s love for us, then our contrition for sin would be much more genuine. Our sorrow would, almost of necessity, bring us to tears. Seeing our sins and the goodness of God we come to contrition.

Candle 3, the pink candle, the candle of rejoicing. I like to see this candle as that joyful, hopeful candle of the sinner who arrives at a decision. It is the light that goes on in the heart of the Prodigal Son as he sits eating the husks set out for the pigs.

He “wakes up” and says, “I will get up and go to my Father and I will seek reconciliation.” He is still separated from his Father, but he is nonetheless jubilant because he knows what he needs to do and he commits to return. For me this is the light that says, “ need again to seek the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”

Candle 4 is the reunion of the Prodigal Son with his Father. He goes to confession and says, “Father, I have sinned against you and against God and am no longer worthy to be called your son.” Then he receives from his Father that welcome embrace of a new cloak, and sandals and a ring of reunion. And it is Christmas. For us this is confession, the Sacrament of Reconciliation, returning again to our Father and to that full communion of faith and love.

The four candles of Advent need to be repeated in our lives every month. For every month we stray somewhat from the true path and into a bit of darkness. Every month we are in need of seeing again that we have sinned in thought and in word, in what we have done and in what we have failed to do.

We need to renew our genuine sorrow for sin, not out of misguided pride, but a sorrow born of love for the God who comes to us and consents to lie in a manger and die on a cross. We need each month to come to the Prodigal’s solution and make his solution our own.

We need to return to the Father by way of the Sacrament of Reconciliation so that we might find Christ anew in a manger and have a Christmas within once more. You see, Christ does not only come at Christmas, He comes at Confession as well.

The week and particularly the weekend were a bit busy but very good. Final touches are being put on the book of Revised Diocesan Statues and Guidelines, we listed the Chancery in Bend for sale, I traveled to Pendleton and Pilot Rock for Masses and Confirmation and to Milton-Freewater for the Fiesta designado para honrar a Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe and then back to Pendleton for a FaithWorks presentation on the new Legacy of Faith Catholic Community Foundation and then a nighttime drive back to Bend.

The matter of the offering of the chancery for sale needs fuller explanation, and I will do that in due time but I did want to give this cryptic little glimmer of “light” so that no one will be unduly surprised when additional informational lights are provided.

The highlight of each parish visit is the young people at Confirmation. Pendleton was no exception. Nervous, perhaps nearly petrified about the questions, they did very well. The line of questions focused on the “outward signs” that point to the grace of the sacraments.

Since promotion of the sacrament of reconciliation is my stated goal for the year, my hope is that there will be an increased awareness that we need the sign of verbal absolution in order to know outside that we are forgiven inside.

As Pope Benedict XVI wrote in his encyclical, Deus Caritas Est: “The real novelty of the New Testament lies not so much in new ideas as in the figure of Christ himself, who gives flesh and blood to those concepts — an unprecedented realism.” Confession gives an unprecedented realism to the concept of forgiveness.