By Father Rich Tomkosky
As we move into the final days of Lent, and then into the Sacred Triduum, it is a time of special graces.
We hear Isaiah say “Remember not the events of the past, the things of long ago consider not, see I am doing something new. Now it springs forth, do you perceive it?” What is being said by God through the Prophet Isaiah? He is reminding the Israelites and we his hearers that God wants to create us anew; the Lord doesn’t want us to be paralyzed in our sins, to let past wounds either caused by ourselves, or other people, or the circumstances of life, in this imperfect world to prevent us from getting a new start with Him.
The gift of the Sacrament of Reconciliation/Confession that Jesus will give to the Catholic Church later after His Resurrection is a fulfillment of this promise of God in a special Sacramental way, in which we are given the very Life of the Trinity by sanctifying grace as we receive forgiveness, healing, and spiritual strength in this Sacrament of Mercy to turn away from our sins now and hopefully into the future. Remember Confession often begins the process of change for the better over time. It’s not magic; but it’s a huge help in our journey of Catholic Christian discipleship.
Only by God’s grace can we come to see the sorrows and difficulties of life and dealing with difficult people as a golden opportunity to become more like Jesus. As the psalm says, “Those who sow in tears will reap rejoicing.”
Only in the light of the beauty of our Catholic faith can we truly see this reality. I’m dealing with this in a profound way right now as my mom just died last July and now one of my two best friends, Father John Mark, a priest in the US Virgin Islands, is in the process of suddenly dying in the last two weeks. He’s only 55. What a shock to the system. I’m in a daze right now! But I know God and Our Lady will get me though this and enable me to depend on them more profoundly.
If we want to be created anew in the Lord we must get pass these big obstacles of sin, weakness, and earthly death to see the beauty of the life of Jesus, of the Blessed Mother, and of the saints who all were pillars of God’s light and love shining in our often spiritually dark world.
Saint Paul is a beautiful example of someone created anew in God’s grace. As he says, “I consider everything as a loss because of the supreme good of knowing (not just knowing about) Christ Jesus our Lord; … Always depending on faith to know Him and the power of His Resurrection, and the sharing of His sufferings by being conformed to His death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.”
Is this our hope? Are we living in such a way that we are inviting the Holy Spirit to change us and take us through the Cross with Jesus to the glory of His Resurrection, the prize of God’s upward calling in Christ Jesus? That was the secret of the saints and why they had such a deep inner peace and joy in their life despite the great sufferings they, like us, must endure here on earth.
Jesus tries to win us over to His way by showing such incredible love and patience with us sinners. As we see in the Prodigal Son parable and in how He deals with the woman caught in the grave sin of adultery, the Lord has such incredible love for each person and wants us to know our dignity as a human being created in God’s image. Despite our sins, He loves us more than we can ever imagine!
The Lord always strikes the balance. He never justifies sin as a good thing on any level, but by His tender love and mercy tries to get us to turn away from sin and to see that His way of holiness is the better way to live. If we embrace His teaching made known to us through our Catholic faith, it is the path to peace and to everlasting joy.
Humans tend to be scandalized by how Jesus deals with sinners, wanting him to condemn the sinner and the sin, but NO, He never condemns the person but draws them to a better way of living. Jesus never says what the Prodigal son did was good, nor that the woman caught in adultery was doing a good thing. No sin is bad, especially mortal sin, but Jesus doesn’t define us by our sins but makes every attempt to love us into repenting and turning away from the sins that destroy who we are called to be in Him.
To love the sinner, but hate the sin is what we are all called to do in dealing with our own life and in dealing with others. Pray for that grace to have the holy balance of the Lord Jesus in patiently loving sinners into turning away from sin and to the path of holiness, whatever the sin(s) may be, especially mortal sins, and always take advantage of the gift of Confession which gives us the grace and strength to be more like Jesus going forth. God bless you.
Father Rich Tomkosky is the Pastor of Saint Thomas the Apostle Parish in Bedford and the Pastor of Seven Dolors of the Blessed Virgin Mary Parish in Beans Cove.
