DAILY HOMILIES #confession

Ordinarily, you should assume that when something good happens to you, people should be happy for you. Isn’t it? The bitter truth is that there will always be scribes and Pharisees around us - people who take offence knowing we are happy. They pretend to be our friends, but the moment our status changes (when things improve for us), they show their true colours.

You might ask: “Why can’t I sit in my room and beg for God’s forgiveness?” If we want to deal with sin, we must be willing to talk about it to others. The people of Nineveh did not sit in their rooms to ask for God’s forgiveness. They publicly humiliated themselves and proclaimed a fast from the greatest to the least.

As we say in the Stations of the Cross, “no matter what my past has been, I can begin anew.” God is inviting us today to rise from where we have fallen, to pick up our Cross again, to say with the Prodigal Son, “I will arise and go to my Father.” Perhaps you haven’t been to the sacrament of confession for a very long time, today is another opportunity. Examine your heart, make a firm purpose of amendment, and return to God.

It would be shameful if after preaching to you to live your best life today and be prepared for death (which can come at any time), I fail to prepare for my own death. The sad truth today is that a lot of us, preachers, know the bible but we do not know God.

The more I repent and leave my sins behind, the brighter my future will be. Who knows what calamities I could have attracted to myself due to my sins?

Even the very act of narrating your own sins forces you to look inwards. Healing begins by admitting your faults and recognizing there are areas you need to work on to become a better person.

Jesus had the chance to totally squash to pieces all those who treated him badly yet, He did not even wait to rise from the dead before He began his campaign of forgiveness. Right on the cross, Jesus said: “Forgive them Father for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34). As if this was not enough, eight days after Easter Sunday, Jesus appeared to his disciples saying: “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

The prophet Isaiah says: “Every valley shall be lifted up and every mountain and hill shall be made low, the uneven ground shall become level and the rough places shall be made plain.” The valleys to be lifted up represent the good things we ought to do that we have failed to do. The mountains and hills to be made low are those bad habits of ours, our sinful inclinations and evil deeds that must be removed to allow the baby Jesus to enter our lives.