Their Sins and Their Evildoing I Will Remember No More

Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Memorial of Saint Thomas Aquinas, priest and doctor of the Church

By Melanie Rigney

The Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying: “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord: ‘I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them upon their minds,’ “he also says: “Their sins and their evildoing I will remember no more.” Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer offering for sin. (Hebrews 10:15-18)

The Lord says to you, my lord, “Take your throne at my right hand, while I make your enemies your footstool.” (Psalms 110:1)

(When Jesus was questioned by the Apostles and others about the parables,) he answered them, “The mystery of the kingdom of God has been granted to you. But to those outside everything comes in parables, so that ‘they may look and see but not perceive, and hear and listen but not understand, in order that they may not be converted and be forgiven.” (Mark 4:11-12)

Piety
Lord, help me to accept the forgiveness You so generously provide. Light within me the wisdom to let You judge the sins of others, and to sincerely forgive those who wrong me.

Study

Catholic guilt.

It’s reared its pointy little head in us all.

Some of us feel guilty about things that aren’t really sins in the eyes of the Church, such as divorce. (It’s the remarrying part that gets a little tricky). Others feel guilty about sins we blow out of proportion, such as missing an occasional Mass. Others use it as a self-deprecating phrase to explain why we do good works.

But while we may think we know all about Catholic guilt, we don’t seem to believe much anymore in the sacrament God gave us to take care of it. In 2008, 87 percent of Catholics said they participated in the Sacrament of Reconciliation or Confession once a year or less, according to Center for the Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University. More than half of that 87 percent said they never receive the sacrament.

Why don’t we afford ourselves of what St. Thomas Aquinas called “a spiritual cure”? Undoubtedly, for many, there’s a discomfort in sharing our lesser selves with a human being we may or may not know, even when we understand he is in a priestly role, even if the confession is made behind a screen. For many, however, the issue is more profound: a deep fear that what they have done can’t be forgiven. And so the sin and the guilt fester and grow. We don’t trust what we’re told in today’s first reading that we need not atone further for our sins and evildoing once they are forgiven. We don’t comprehend that the word when sowed in us and brought to flowering leads to forgiveness. We don’t believe that God can want flawed beings like us by His side.

Trust. Comprehend. Believe. Kick Catholic guilt to the curb, and delight in the spiritual cure.

Action
Don’t wait for Holy Week. Go to confession this week, and believe in the forgiveness received.