If there were a health clinic with physicians on hand capable of curing any disease without fail, there would be no need for advertising to make it the most popular in the world. Undoubtedly, the demand would necessitate the establishment of rules to avoid disorder and to allow the greatest possible number of patients to be treated. No effort would be spared in getting an appointment, and the simple fact of having a guaranteed place on the waiting list, however long the delay, would be a sure cause of tranquillity and peace for those who think perfect happiness can be found in bodily health…
“Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace!” (Lk 19:42). This loving complaint of Our Lord can be applied to those who are concerned only with physical well-being and neglect their own soul! In earthly life it is more important to remain in God’s grace than to preserve any passing good. It is true that Jesus can cure us of bodily infirmities, as the countless cures He performs in the Gospels attest; but let us not forget that, in addition to restoring health, the Redeemer invited us to sin no more (cf. Jn 5:14).
Sin, the worst of ills
How mystified we are when we contemplate the Divine One covered with wounds in His Passion! He who went through the world doing good was betrayed by one of His disciples, disfigured by unspeakable torments and put to death on the Cross. Perhaps one of those who scourged Him had been cured of paralysis; one of those who cried out for His death had formerly been mute, or even, having died, had been brought to life once again… Nevertheless, they all cried out: “Crucify Him, crucify Him,” preferring to save a murderer rather than the Son of God. It is in the Passion that sin manifests the supreme degree of its violence and its multiplicity.1
“Delicta, quis intelligit?” (Ps 18:13); who can understand sin? Without doubt it is the worst of the ills to which we are all subject as a result of our fallen nature. Such is the Divine Redeemer’s desire to restore health to our souls rather than to our bodies that He did not leave to the Church “something in the form of an automated teller to cure diseases, at which the sick kneel and arise healed. But He did institute the Sacrament of Penance,”2 an inestimable gift which our intelligence cannot entirely grasp.
The sublimity of Confession
In the Old Law, it was useless to accuse oneself before the priest and it was not possible to obtain the certainty of forgiveness. The most diverse sacrifices for sins were prescribed, but not even the totality of these “summed up and multiplied exponentially would be capable of pardoning just one venial sin. Not even Our Lady, with all her merits, can do this!”3
After the Passion, however, when the Apostles were gathered together behind closed doors, Jesus appeared to them for the first time, breathed on them and gave them this divine power: that of forgiving or retaining sins (cf. Jn 20:23). And in Confession, when the priest, making the Sign of the Cross, pronounces the words “I absolve you of your sins…”, “it is a continuation of the breath of Jesus Christ that restores to the soul the divine life lost by mortal sin.”4
If mortal sin makes us enemies of God, a good Confession, in contrast, produces a true resurrection: it restores sanctifying grace and divine sonship to the soul, it erases the fault, pardons the eternal penalty, reinstates virtues and merits, confers specific sacramental grace and reconciles the penitent with the Church.5 This is why Dr. Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira said: “It would be difficult to conceive of our existence in this vale of tears if we could not confess our sins and have the certainty of God’s forgiveness through the absolution of the priest in the confessional.”6
Unfortunately, the lines allotted for the present article do not allow us to expound on each of the wonders of the Sacrament of Penance, but it is worth emphasizing that not only those who have incurred mortal sin should seek Confession. Even souls who have fallen into only minor faults can always benefit from this Sacrament, for it imparts strength and specific graces that help the penitent to triumph over the sins committed and diminish evil inclinations.7 This is why Dr. Plinio commented: “Each person who leaves the confessional is a hero who rises with sufficient strength not to sin again, able to engage in the battle, even if the moral battles he has to fight are prodigious.”8
The devil’s hatred of the miracle of mercy
The wealth of this font of mercy is largely ignored! What the devil conquers by sin, he loses in the Sacrament of Penance, and for this reason he tries in every way to dissuade us from Confession. In some he instils fear; in others, the impression that the priest will be horrified by their faults…
We must always be vigilant, because the enemy of our salvation acts in this way even with very virtuous souls, as St. Faustina Kowalska recounts in her Diary: “When I began to prepare for Confession, strong temptations against confessors assaulted me. I did not see Satan, but I could sense him, his terrible anger. […] I felt that I was struggling against the powers and I cried out: ‘O Christ! You and the priest are one; I will approach Confession as if I were approaching, not a man, but You.’ When I entered the confessional, I began disclosing my difficulties. […] After the Confession they took flight, and my soul is enjoying peace.”9
And Our Lord requested the following from this same Saint: “Tell souls where they are to look for solace, that is, in the tribunal of mercy. There the greatest miracles take place and are incessantly repeated. To avail oneself of this miracle, it is not necessary to go on a great pilgrimage […]; it suffices to come with faith to the feet of my representative and to reveal to him one’s misery. […] Were a soul like a decaying corpse, so that from a human standpoint, there would be no hope of restoration and everything would already be lost, it is not with God. The miracle of God’s mercy restores that soul in full. Oh, how miserable are those who do not take advantage of the miracle of God’s mercy! You will call out in vain, but it will be too late.”10
Lent, an opportune time for Confession
Those who have never experienced the consolation of soul that comes from the confessional, with the certainty of having been forgiven by Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, does not know one of the greatest joys possible in this life! Special graces are reserved for us in every liturgical season, and the season of Lent, which we are now beginning, invites us in a special way to penance and repentance.
Let us ask Our Lady, Advocate of Sinners, to help us make the most of these graces, for the Divine Prisoner, ever waiting for us in the Sacred Host, awaits us in a different way in the Sacrament of Penance, eager to forgive us and to cover us with His caresses! ◊
Notes
1 Cf. CCC 1851.
2 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. “Just have faith”. In: New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano; Nobleton: LEV; Heralds of the Gospel, 2014, v.IV, p.204.
3 CLÁ DIAS, EP, João Scognamiglio. Believe in Order to Love. In: New Insights on the Gospels. Città del Vaticano-Nobleton: LEV; Heralds of the Gospel, 2014, v.III, p.289.
4 Idem, ibidem.
5 Cf. SADA FERNÁNDEZ, Ricardo; MONROY, Alfonso. Manual de los Sacramentos. 2.ed. Madrid: Palabra, 1989, p.121.
6 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. A Santa Igreja, espelho das virtudes de Maria [The Holy Church, Mirror of Mary’s Virtues]. In: Dr. Plinio. São Paulo. Year XI. No.121 (April, 2008); p.25.
7 Cf. SADA FERNÁNDEZ, Ricardo; MONROY, Alfonso, op. cit., p.133.
8 CORRÊA DE OLIVEIRA, Plinio. Conference. São Paulo, Feb. 18, 1984.
9 ST. MARY FAUSTINA KOWALSKA. Diary: Divine Mercy in My Soul. 3.ed. Stockbridge, MA: Marian Press, 2002, p.657.
10 Idem, p.562.
