The Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, has chosen as the theme of his Lenten Message to the Church, words taken from the Gospel of John, “They shall look on Him whom they have pierced”.   Standing by the cross of the crucified Christ, the Apostle John recognised the fulfilment of the words of the Prophet Zechariah: “I will pour out a spirit of kindness and prayer. They will look on the one whom they have pierced”.  It is in that spirit of kindness, of love, that we are invited to look at our crucifix and examine our hearts.

Lent is a time for repentance. During the six weeks of preparation for the great feast of Easter, the Church repeats the call of Jesus that marked the beginning of his saving mission to the world, “The Time has come and the Kingdom of God is close at hand. Repent and believe the Good News”.

Our pathway to repentance is through the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us that we carry the life of Christ that we received in baptism in “earthen vessels”. The new life of Christ can be weakened and even lost by sin.

Jesus gave witness of his mission to the world by the miracles of healing that He performed. He healed the sick and forgave the sinner. He healed body and soul. That healing ministry continues in the Church today through the Sacraments of Penance and the Anointing of the Sick.

The Law of the Church states that “all the faithful who have reached the age of discretion are bound to confess their grave sins at least once a year”. 

It is also the Law of the Church that “each of the faithful is obliged to receive Holy Communion at least once a year. This precept must be fulfilled during paschal time”.

This Sacrament of spiritual healing has different names. Sometimes it is called The Sacrament of Conversion. This is because it is seen as a sacramental response to that invitation of Jesus to change and to be open to the Good News that he brings to us. It echoes the meaning of the Parable of the Prodigal Son who returns home filled with remorse and is welcomed by his father. So God our Father awaits our return to him.

More commonly we call it the Sacrament of Penance and here the emphasis is on the sinner’s personal efforts towards conversion by availing of the ministry of the Church. It also implies an effort on the part of the penitent to make up, to some extent, for the harm caused by our sinfulness.

For most of us, it will always be the Sacrament of Confession because the disclosure of our sins to a priest is an essential element of the Sacrament. For many of us, confession means reciting the list of sins we were taught by our teacher when we were children.

However, confession is more than the recitation of a list of sins. It is also a confession of Faith. We confess our faith in a loving and forgiving God and Father. We confess our faith in the merits of the death and resurrection of Jesus. We confess our faith in the Church and in the ministry of the priest.

This is the Sacrament of Forgiveness. Through the ministry of the priest, by sacramental absolution God grants us “pardon and peace”. We unburden ourselves in this Sacrament and we should experience peace of heart and mind.

This is also the Sacrament of Reconciliation. St Paul reminds the Christians of Corinth that, “It was God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the work of handing on this reconciliation. In other words, God in Christ was reconciling the world to himself, not holding men’s faults against them”.  The he adds, “Be reconciled to God”.

This great Sacrament has become the most neglected n the Church today. We only need to ask ourselves when was the last time we went to confession. If we confess our sins less regularly that we once did it is probably not because we are now sinless saints! All of us need the healing, forgiving love of God purchased for us by the blood that Jesus shed for us on the cross.  Let us look upon the one whom WE have crucified and humbly confessing our guilt let us accept his forgiveness and healing.