A Second Sunday of Lent Thought to Start the Week Off Right
It's the second Sunday of Lent. Last Sunday we tried to connect the fact that Lent is a penitential season with an exhortation to go to confession. Our focus was on the simple fact that we - all of us - are sinners. That's why we should to go to confession. This week, let's expand on this.
Confession, i.e. the Sacrament of Penance, does more than obtain for us forgiveness of our sins. It also helps to strengthen us for our daily battle with sin. As most of you likely understand, struggle against temptation is part of our lives in this vale of tears. Regular confession serves as our most important means of sustaining ourselves in that struggle. The Holy Season of Lent provides a special chunk of time for us to focus more intently on the reality of temptation, sin, seeking God's forgiveness, along with the grace to face our struggle against temptation and sin with renewed strength.
On this second Sunday of Lent, let's think about that renewed strength we get from the Sacrament of Penance. That strength comes to us in the graces we receive from the Sacrament. Of course, grace isn't some magic potion that instantly makes temptation dissapear. We must cooperate with the grace Our Lord give us. This requires an act of will. And we all know the will isn't always willing, so to speak. To understand this better, we'll enlist the help of Father John Zuhlsdorf. In a recent blogpost, he explains first why our will is weak and how Confession helps to strengthen it:
...our will is already weakened due to original and actual sin. We can become so mired in sin that we can’t rule ourselves.
The Sacrament of Penance is a great gift. It frees us from our self-inflicted chains.
We must strive to live without mortal sin.
But we fall. In mortal sin we divest ourselves, as it were, of our spiritual armor. We make ourselves prisoners.
We pray to God to protect us from the dire consequences of sin, including the attacks of the Enemy, which on our own without God’s help we cannot resist.
Among the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, along with being freed from the chains of sins, is a strengthening to resist sin in the future.
And so we see that going to Confession will help strengthen the will to cooperate with the graces imparted by the sacrament. It's a wonderful example of a "virtuous circle": You get grace from the sacrament, then that same grace helps you cooperate with the grace. It's also a powerful example of just why it's so important, really critical, that we go to Confession not only during Lent, but regularly throughout the year. Indeed, fully, even enthusiastically, embracing this wonderful sacrament, given to us directly by our Blessed Lord Himself, illustrates the fruits of the virtue of Hope. In the words of St. John Paul:
Man always has before him the spiritual horizon of hope, thanks to the help of divine grace and with the cooperation of human freedom. (Veritatis Splendor, 103.)
Continuing the words of that same encyclical, we find these, particularly appropriate to Lent, that can serve to inspire us to persist in the practice of our spiritual discipline:
It is in the saving Cross of Jesus, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the Sacraments which flow forth from the pierced side of the Redeemer (cf. Jn 19:34), that believers find the grace and the strength always to keep God’s holy law, even amid the gravest of hardships.
Enjoy your Sunday respite from the rigors of fasting to renew your strength and bolster your determination to practice your Lenten discipline with renewed vigor.
Confession, i.e. the Sacrament of Penance, does more than obtain for us forgiveness of our sins. It also helps to strengthen us for our daily battle with sin. As most of you likely understand, struggle against temptation is part of our lives in this vale of tears. Regular confession serves as our most important means of sustaining ourselves in that struggle. The Holy Season of Lent provides a special chunk of time for us to focus more intently on the reality of temptation, sin, seeking God's forgiveness, along with the grace to face our struggle against temptation and sin with renewed strength.
On this second Sunday of Lent, let's think about that renewed strength we get from the Sacrament of Penance. That strength comes to us in the graces we receive from the Sacrament. Of course, grace isn't some magic potion that instantly makes temptation dissapear. We must cooperate with the grace Our Lord give us. This requires an act of will. And we all know the will isn't always willing, so to speak. To understand this better, we'll enlist the help of Father John Zuhlsdorf. In a recent blogpost, he explains first why our will is weak and how Confession helps to strengthen it:
...our will is already weakened due to original and actual sin. We can become so mired in sin that we can’t rule ourselves.
The Sacrament of Penance is a great gift. It frees us from our self-inflicted chains.
We must strive to live without mortal sin.
But we fall. In mortal sin we divest ourselves, as it were, of our spiritual armor. We make ourselves prisoners.
We pray to God to protect us from the dire consequences of sin, including the attacks of the Enemy, which on our own without God’s help we cannot resist.
Among the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, along with being freed from the chains of sins, is a strengthening to resist sin in the future.
And so we see that going to Confession will help strengthen the will to cooperate with the graces imparted by the sacrament. It's a wonderful example of a "virtuous circle": You get grace from the sacrament, then that same grace helps you cooperate with the grace. It's also a powerful example of just why it's so important, really critical, that we go to Confession not only during Lent, but regularly throughout the year. Indeed, fully, even enthusiastically, embracing this wonderful sacrament, given to us directly by our Blessed Lord Himself, illustrates the fruits of the virtue of Hope. In the words of St. John Paul:
Man always has before him the spiritual horizon of hope, thanks to the help of divine grace and with the cooperation of human freedom. (Veritatis Splendor, 103.)
Continuing the words of that same encyclical, we find these, particularly appropriate to Lent, that can serve to inspire us to persist in the practice of our spiritual discipline:
It is in the saving Cross of Jesus, in the gift of the Holy Spirit, in the Sacraments which flow forth from the pierced side of the Redeemer (cf. Jn 19:34), that believers find the grace and the strength always to keep God’s holy law, even amid the gravest of hardships.
Enjoy your Sunday respite from the rigors of fasting to renew your strength and bolster your determination to practice your Lenten discipline with renewed vigor.
We adore Thee, O Christ, and we bless Thee.
Because by Thy holy Cross, Thou has redeemed the world.
Comments