Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent Dec. 19th

Tuesday of the Third Week of Advent
December 19, 2006


“He (John the Baptist) will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God.”
Luke 1:16

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A few days ago I once again invited my whole congregation to come to our Advent Reconciliation Service. It is a time for us as a community to receive the infinite mercy of Jesus in the sacrament of confession/Reconciliation and be set free in love. I told everyone who is coming that I have a special going for that day. I said, “Boy, have I got a deal for you. For only five dollars you can have all you sins taken away! Isn’t that great? How could you beat that? Just five dollars to get rid of all your shame and guilt and be set free!” The people just laughed because we all know that salvation from our sins is a gift, it is free! What an exchange- we give Jesus our sins and he gives us eternal life.

I want to share with you two different stories to highlight what we are faced with in the human condition. As I always say, it is all about HOW we are going through life. Are we going through life confident and free in God’s love or are we being crushed under the weight of our own offence?

I few years back I was hearing reconciliations at a Catholic high school. It was awesome as I spent two days solid hearing kids confess and seeing them literally transformed before my eyes in the freedom of God’s love. At the end of a person’s confession I offer the absolution of Jesus. Absolution means absolute, total forgiveness is found in Jesus. Well, one girl I prayed over for this had a few tears in her eyes when I was done offering absolution. She said, “Thank you,”, and then walked out of the chapel. She went to the campus minister who asked her how her experience was and she replied, “That was the most loving experience in my life!” Wow!

The second story. Through the Legion of Mary, our parish has begun to reach out to every house in our parish boundary. Our goal is to share the Good News of Jesus Christ with every household that is under our geographical limits. We figure we have about 12,000 doors to knock on. Well, on the first day we came across a woman who felt she was going to go to hell because her past was just too bad and sinful. She was living in the tyranny and slavery of a life without Jesus and his forgiveness. So many go through life in this way. Mind you, this was just the first day of our outreach efforts. How many more people are there?

Our scripture today says that John the Baptist will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. Well, I am another John, Fr. John, some 2,000 years later asking you to turn to the Lord. HOW are you going through life? Are you living in the tyranny and slavery of sin or are you free in the mercy of Christ?

We all have the chance and choice to make our lives the “most loving experience.” There will probably be about 250 people that come to our Advent reconciliation service which is around 20% of our weekend mass attendance. It seems like 100% of us would want to know “the most loving experience.”

So, what about you? Christ waits for you in the priest. He waits to give you, “the most loving experience.”

Love is spelled T-I-M-E,
Fr. John