Second Rite of Reconciliation at St Margaret Mary’s, Nth Brunswick

Homily Preached by Archbishop Denis Hart
at St Margaret Mary’s Church, North Brunswick,
on Tuesday, 20th December, 2005, at 7.30pm

Homily

My dear Brothers and Sisters,

Tonight is a remarkable opportunity for us to know and love the forgiving power of God in the personal life of each of us.  We are invited to enter into the realm of grace by responding to his invitation, “Know that he the Lord is God, he made us, we belong to him; we are his people, the sheep of his flock.”  (Psalm 99)

When he sent his Son into the world, God the Father showed us dramatically how nothing human, not even death could separate us from his love.  (See Romans 8:38.39)  When Jesus was born, the Father looked down from his throne with great joy and expectancy.  Finally, the reign of sin would come to an end!  Finally, his children could be released from the grip of death!  Finally, a way would be open for everyone to come back into his presence!

This Advent, particularly in the first year of a new millennium, we have a wonderful opportunity to experience more deeply this love of God that forgives and heals.  Jesus’ cry to his Father on the cross is the prayer of the Son who offers his life for the salvation of all of us.  “His eyes remained fixed on the Father.  Precisely because of the knowledge and experience of the Father, which he alone has, even at this moment of darkness he clearly sees the gravity of sin and suffers because of it.  He alone, who sees the Father and rejoices fully in him can understand completely what it means to resist the Father’s love by sin.”  (John Paul II, Novo Millennio Ineunte 26) 

The Lord makes us aware of how much he loves us and how powerful that love is day by day.  During this special season God invites us to examine our hearts and bring our sin before him for forgiveness and release.  He wants us to undertake this examination not so that we will feel guilty or hopeless, but so that longstanding obstacles to his presence might be removed and so that we will become freer to share his love with those he meets. 

The Holy Father writing of this beautiful Sacrament (Novo Millennio Ineunte, 37) says, “I was even more assisted in calling for a rediscovery of Christ as the one in whom God shows us his compassionate heart and reconciles us fully with himself.”  The new millennium is an opportunity for a new realisation of the wonder of God’s love; a time when we can leave aside the cares and burdens of everyday living and enter into his love and carry that love back into the world of everyday with new power and enthusiasm.

Tonight we are preparing for the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  As we pause let us ask the Holy Spirit to bring to light areas in our life that need forgiveness – attitudes, habits, relationships that keep us separated from God and cloud our relationship with his people. 

When you bring your needs to your heavenly Father in confession allow him not only to forgive you but also to change your heart.  Remember nothing at all can separate you from his love.  When you come to individual reconciliation remember the things that you do – confession and sorrow, receiving absolution and saying your penance – are something external.  When we mention our sins, we admit to God that we are sinners and he embraces us with his love.  Even though it is difficult to admit that we are wrong and in today’s world the concentration is so much on the individual that it becomes impossible. 

Nevertheless, the Lord wants us to look at this as the way he wants us to know we are forgiven.  The priest is there as his instrument.  The priest is saying, “I absolve you from your sins” and with faith-filled and loving hearts we come out with the joy that is depicted in the Gospel, “There is more joy in heaven over one repentant sinner than over ninety-nine just people who have no need of repentance.”

+ Denis J. Hart,
Archbishop of Melbourne.