Overcoming Temptation - Love vs. Fear

As I was preparing for confession recently, I was pondering why I struggle with particular sins. After all, as we heard in today’s Gospel reading (Jn 14:15-21), we show our love for our Lord by keeping His commandments. As Christians, whilst we certainly do love our Lord, we would all readily admit that we do not love Him nearly as much as we should.

So, if our love for Jesus leads to keeping His commandments; what is it that keeps us from obeying them? The obvious answer is “the opposite of love, of course”. But, what is the opposite of love? Our first inclination is to say that hate is the opposite of love, but this really isn’t true because our struggle with sin is not because we HATE the Lord.

Someone once said that the opposite of love is not hate; rather, it is fear. The all-encompassing message of our Lord Jesus Christ was “love”. His mission was driven by the love of the Father for the world (Jn 3:16), and by His own love for His friends (Jn 15:13). Yet in His preaching, Jesus often had to tell His disciples “Do not be afraid...”. That is why St. John says that perfect love casts out fear (1 Jn 4:18).

And this is what struck me during my preparation for confession. The times that I overcome my temptations to sin is when I completely entrust myself to God’s care. But, when I rely on my own strength that is when I fall. I also find that at times I fall because I am apprehensive to ask God for His help because I am afraid that I will still fall and thus make mockery of asking God for His help. This is when I realised that those times when I rely on my own strength, it is because I am practising the opposite of love. The times that I am afraid to lovingly and wholeheartedly trust the Lord are the times that I fall.

So, if we want to grow in our obedience to the Lord Jesus, we must let go of our fears, and entrust ourselves in full confidence to His love for us. He has promised that when we approach Him seeking help to overcome our temptations that He will give us the grace that we need (Heb 4:16).

And for those times that we still fail...well, thanks be to God, He is always ready to receive us with the words “Do not be afraid...”. That is one reason why I love the Sacrament of Reconciliation so much. When we confess our sins to the priest, it is the Lord Jesus Christ, acting through the priest, who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we have made a good confession, and have a firm purpose to amend our live, we can rest assured that in the absolution pronounced by the priest, our sins are most certainly forgiven (Jn 20:23; 1 Jn 1:9).

Why Practice Penance?

For some time now I have received the monthly CHNI newsletter (CHNI = Coming Home Network International). The newsletter generally follows the format of a conversion story by someone who has "come home" to the Catholic faith (hence the name of the newsletter); which is followed by a short theological article (usually on a topic that is distinctively Catholic for those who might be grappling with them).

Of all the newsletters I have received over the months I have never found even one that hasn't been beneficial in some shape or form. The newsletter for March 2011 has a very interesting article on the practice of penance, and I'd really encourage you to read it:

http://www.chnetwork.org/newsletters/mar11.pdf

The newsletter is only 12 pages long (in PDF format) and the article can be found on pg 10. Of course, if you have time and are interested, the conversion story is also quite interesting because it touches briefly on the character of the Protestant Reformers and the notions of sola fide and sola scriptura.

Enjoy! And God bless...

Leprosy and the Sacrament of Reconciliation

Last night, I was reading Matt 8:1-4 (which coincidentally happens to be the parallel passage for today’s Gospel reading in the Lectionary i.e. Mk 1:40-45).

In this account, our Lord heals a leper of his leprosy and tells him to go and show himself to the priest and offer the sacrifice commanded by Moses. The law that our Lord is referring to is found in Leviticus 13 – 14. Basically, if an Israelite had a blemish in his skin (or garments or home) it was necessary for him to show himself to the priest, who would then make a judgment based on God’s prescriptions, and if he was declared a leper he would be removed from the community and have to publically declare himself a leper. Then if his leprosy was subsequently healed, he would return to the priest who would make a judgment on whether he could be pronounced clean. After a pronouncement of being clean, he would then have to offer a sacrifice.

How does this tie in with the Sacrament of Reconciliation?

We are created in God’s image, but we are tainted with sin. This is pictured by the blemish of leprosy. We know that in the Sacrament of Reconciliation it is the Lord Jesus Christ who forgives us of our sins. But, we also know that the ministry of reconciliation and the authority to pronounce forgiveness has been delegated by Christ to His Church (Jn 20:23; 2 Cor 5:18).

And so, just as the leper had to “confess” his leprosy to the priest, it is necessary for us to confess our sins to the priest. Just as the priest would pronounce the leper “clean”, our priest will pronounce an absolution i.e. that our sins have been forgiven in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And just as the Israelite had to make a sacrifice, so we too make our penance for our sins as prescribed by the priest.

I can’t begin to tell you how excited I was when I saw this as I was reading last night. Initially I thought that perhaps I was reading too much into the passage so I decided to check if my reading was in line with Church teaching...and I got even more excited when I found that “my” interpretation was by no means novel. On the contrary, I found that St. Augustine, arguably the Church’s greatest theologian, advocated this very same position in his “Questions on the Gospels”.

This is just another of those wonderful occasions where the Lord has shown me the wonderful treasures in store for us when we allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read the Scriptures through the eyes of the Church.

Be reconciled and be holy

Our priest mentioned something in his homily last Sunday that has really stuck with me through the week – partly because it was so profound, but also because I have been struggling with a particular sin in my own life.

He said that the holiness of a parish is not measured by the length of the line for Holy Communion, but by the length of the line for Confession.

The more I think about it, the more I am convinced by the truthfulness of his statement. Whilst it is true that in Holy Communion our Lord makes us grow in holiness because He gives Himself to us, it is necessary that we receive Him worthily in order to receive this grace. Unfortunately, we can so easily grow complacent to our sins, and also become indifferent to our Lord in the Eucharist.

And this is just one way in which Confession can be so valuable to us Catholics. This is because a good confession requires us to honestly examine our conscience and accuse ourselves of our sins to the priest. Admitting our faults and sins to another person is an extremely humbling experience and it is never comfortable. But we must lift our hearts in faith past the person of the priest and always remember that he is hearing our confession as the ambassador of Christ. In other words, when we confess our sins to the priest, we must remember that we are really and truly accusing ourselves before our Lord Jesus Christ who is simply acting through the priest who then, vested with the authority of Christ, pronounces the absolution. And so, leaving the confessional, we can truly know that our sins are forgiven and go with a firm resolve to sin no more.

Oh, what a wonderful gift the Lord has given us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation! My own prayer is that I would be more faithful to make use of this Sacrament so that I may grow in holiness, and so grow more worthy to receive our Holy Lord in the Eucharist.