Dear Parish Family,
John the Baptist confronted his peers like the prophets of old, with imagery drawn from the agricultural life around them—wind, fire, water, and the ax laid to the root. Nothing was more familiar than the sight of farmers winnowing their grain. First they would thresh the grain to break down the kernels into their components of wheat and chaff, which of course remained a mix in need of sorting. That step took place on a windy day, when they would heave forkfuls of grain into the air and the breeze would separate the good stuff from the useless. The lighter chaff would be blown off to the side, and the heavier wheat would drop back to the ground in a precious pile. Later, the chaff would be swept up and burned. Thus the grain harvest was a matter of gathering and sorting with the help of wind and fire. The fact that the same word, ruach, meant both wind and spirit made it easy to use that threshing and winnowing process as a powerful metaphor for the ultimate sorting of divine judgment. John then veers imagery into a decisive lane, “Repent!”
“You are as sick as your sickest secret!” That’s an axiom popular among people working in 12-step programs of AA or NA. They know the truth of that through personal experience. They also know that until one faces oneself, in searing honesty, before another human being and there acknowledges openly his or her sins, there will always be addictions, rationalization, and lack of real transparency. It has taken us a long time to understand the nature of addictive behavior and even longer to learn how to deal with it. One of the things we have learned, and this is a pivotal and non-negotiable step in every 12-step program, is that there has to be an open, honest, and searing admission of sin, face to face, before another human being. Without this, at a certain point, all real growth stops. The church has always had its own version of this. We called it confession, the sacrament of reconciliation.
Simply put, confession is the sacrament of the mature and one grows mature by confessing one’s sins. Mature people face themselves and apologize explicitly – and people grow mature by apologizing. John the Baptist tries to prepare the way for Jesus by calling people to repentance: “Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Whatever else that means, it includes the idea that one of the best ways we can prepare for Christmas is by making a good, honest, searing confession.
This notion of ‘confessing our sins’ has fallen out of favor. The idea of confession is very much challenged today. At a practical level, less and less people are in fact going to confession. Every rational argument or intelligent excuse against the sacrament of reconciliation stumbles at the step of human inadequacy. We need Divine help against our sin. In his immense love, God does not crush us into a pulp to make us well. He speaks directly to us when we hear those words, “I absolve you from your sins, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.” Thus private confession is one of the pillars of the spiritual life!
At a certain point in one’s growth, there is no progress without it. Repentance means change. And change is something we dislike. If you are driving to a destination and make a wrong turn, you can’t just say “oops” and continue on driving in a wrong direction. You have to turn around and get back on the right path. You have to make a change that makes a difference. Change has its demands, demands that go beyond mere words of regret. Change is hard on us all – on you and on me alike. It’s very difficult for everyone because who or what guarantees that things will be better as a result of change? A life lived close to God is the only real guarantee we have. This decision rests with us – we have the power to choose!
Fr. Tom Kunnel C.O.