One Thing You Must Do This Lent

I hope in the past weeks you've been able to experience a deepening of your faith through your sacrifices and extra prayers, and hopefully through our reflections together. Our goal of course is a deeper love for Christ and a more defined recognition of the areas in our lives we need to change.

Today's Gospel passage is from John 8: 1-11. It's the story of the woman caught in adultery. There are so many excellent points to take away from this passage and the first one I'd like to focus on is at the very end. Jesus told the crowd that whoever was without sin could cast the first stone. After they walked away, he said:

“Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She replied, “No one, sir.” Then Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you. Go, and from now on do not sin any more.”

In contemplating this passage, I've put myself in this woman's shoes many times and tried to think about what it would be like to be that close to death by stoning and have Jesus set me free. This is the kind of freedom we receive when we go to confession. Going to confession is such a liberating feeling! We experience humility, sorrow for our sins, and joy as the priest tells us our sins are forgiven. We get to shed all that guilt!

Even Pope Francis recently said, “Confession is not a court of condemnation, but an experience of forgiveness and mercy!”

So, we're just going to have one point of reflection for today, and that is when was the last time you made a really good confession? The kind of confession where you feel like you're walking a few inches above the ground as you leave church? The kind of confession where you can't wipe the smile off your face?

The sacrament of confession is such a wonderful thing—when was the last time you went? We've all done things we're embarrassed to talk about so if you've stayed away because of something like that, I encourage you to leave that aside and talk to the priest about what's been going on with you. Get rid of that heaviness you're carrying and give God the opportunity to show you how deep his love and his mercy is for you.

So, our resolution is to go to confession, and make it the most sincere and thorough confession possible. And if you've recently gone, why not go again?

I enjoy hearing from you and can be reached at asklisa@catholicmatch.com.