The recently announced Settlement Agreement between First Nations People, the Federal Government and the Churches that were involved in Residential Schools, is meant to address the difficult and complex issues surrounding these schools and the former students.  The Churches have a specific role in the Agreement, namely to further the work of healing and reconciliation.  This will, I pray, go a long way in building new relationships between the First Nations and all Canadians.  It will take much good faith and many good efforts for all concerned.

Reflecting on this matter of reconciliation, I cannot help but bring to the fore, the whole question of the role of reconciliation in the Christian life. The importance of this question was recently discussed in our Children’s Catechesis Advisory Committee, especially with regard to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.

When Pope Saint Pius X, who died a few weeks after the start of World War I, was asked by a journalist what the basis of his policy was, the Pope responded by placing his hand over a crucifix and saying:  “This is my policy”.  I was not so succinct when I was asked a similar question before I was ordained Bishop of Victoria.  What I wanted to say to my questioner was:  “Please read Pope John Paul II’s Novo Millennio Inuente (At the Beginning of the Third Millennium)” but I thought that this might solicit a puzzled look! In fact this Apostolic Letter by the late Pope, certainly one of his best, contains a pastoral plan not only for the whole Church but for each diocese, parish and every baptized member of the Church.  A plan very much in keeping with the New Evangelization.

One of the dozen or so components of this pastoral plan deals with the rediscovery of Christ as the ‘mystery of mercy’, the one in whom God shows us his compassionate heart and reconciles us to himself.  This refers to a rediscovery of the face of Christ and a new appreciation of him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  Have we made such a discovery in recent years?  Have we grown to appreciate this source of God’s mercy more now than when we were younger?

Now before I go forward with this topic, I know that there are many people who will not want to read further.  The reasons for this are many, but perhaps a common one is the belief that the Sacrament of Reconciliation is simply not really relevant outside of the need for forgiveness of some great sin.  There are surely more important things to talk about in religion.  Don’t waste my time!  When you combine this way of thinking with the fact that, according to some statistics, between 10 to 15 percent of Catholics actually receive this Sacrament on a yearly or twice yearly basis and that large numbers of young people, even after 1^st Communion have never gone to Confession, then one would be tempted to say that there is a very real problem here in the practice of this sacrament. Perhaps it is simply not important to modern people.  What indeed is Christ’s policy in this regard anyways?

The reasons why people have stopped going to Confession, yet are receiving communion on a regular basis are, again, many and complex. Perhaps some were never taught about the sacrament or were taught poorly, others may have had a bad experience when they were younger or indeed were never shown a good example to follow.  There is, however, another reason which influences many people and that is an erroneous understanding of the theology of sainthood.  This too is seen as irrelevant and unreal to modern life.

When preaching, sometimes I ask the congregation if all the saints would please stand-up for a moment.  People will shift in their seats but nobody will take the challenge and stand. Perhaps one could say that this shows a healthy sense of humility!  As admirable as this may be, more than likely the reason for not standing up is that people do not believe that they really are, in fact, saints.  I do not mean the canonized version but rather the scriptural sense of the term, saint.

Well, what indeed are we called by God to be?  Are we to be just followers of a good moral code and have a decent respect for God, our neighbor and religion?  According to Scriptures and the Second Vatican Council, the answer to this is simply, no.  In fact God is calling us to holiness, or if you will, to sainthood.  In the New Testament the term Christian is used only three times but the word saint is used more than thirty times.  When Paul addresses the Churches at Philippi, or Colossae or at Thessalonica, he writes to the saints.  In the early Church, the Christians were known as the saints.  As if I were to write a letter to the good people of St. Patrick’s Parish or Christ the King Parish and were to call them saints:  “Dear saints of St. Patrick’s”.  This would be the same thing.

What does the word ‘saint’ mean?  This term, as well as the word ‘holy’, means to be separated, to be set aside or to be dedicated for a holy purpose.  So the Bible is a holy book, not just any worldly book, the Church building is consecrated, it is not just a big hall, the lamb of sacrifice during Jesus’ day was set aside, without blemish, as it was dedicated for sacrifice.  In the same way, the Christian is made a saint through faith leading to Baptism and he or she is different from the world.  Peter expressed it this way: “You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people he claims for his own…” Jesus said: “I have taken you out of the world.”  Or as I was taught in my catechism, we are in the world but not of the world.

Now unless we are prepared to recognize the incredible nature of this gift that we have received with our Baptism, we will have trouble seeing the relevancy of the Sacrament of Reconciliation as a privileged means of living in this relationship of holiness with our Lord.  This is why the Sacrament of Reconciliation is also called the Sacrament of Conversion because it assists us in becoming more and more like Christ and prepares us to receive him in the Holy Eucharist worthily.  Why do we need this assistance if we are already saints?  It is because, as St. Paul has said, “… we contain this treasure in earthen vessels…” – vessels which get damaged and wounded, in other words we do sin.  So, our Lord, who knows the human heart, gave us the gift of this Sacrament through his Apostles on Easter Sunday evening with the words:  “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Those whose sins you forgive they are forgiven them.”

Sometimes, when preparing children for their First Reconciliation, I use the phrase “becoming friends again”.  I explain that when something has gone wrong in a friendship, someone has to start the process of forgiving the wrong done and someone has to apologize.  There needs to be the opportunity to talk things over.  The concrete manifestation of this reconciliation is often a handshake when the friendship is reestablished.  This is a life giving and an energy filled experience.  Both parties offer a gift to one another - a gift that parents and educators need to teach their children about. Did we ever consider that in our Baptismal holiness, reconciliation is a gift?  A special gift for his family to live like him, in other words, to be holy!

The parable of the Prodigal Son is the perfect demonstration of this.  The Father, who represents our Heavenly Father, is all loving and it is God that starts the process by taking the initiative of forgiving.  The foolish but repentant young son accepts his father’s gift of forgiveness and gives himself to his father in conversion of heart.  But the son’s older brother cannot see, let alone accept the value of the father’s gift.  Furthermore, this older son totally misunderstands the nature of living with his father in this family.  He treats that special moment of reconciliation between father and son as irrelevant.  Do we misunderstand our status in the Body of Christ? Are we slow to see that our Father is constantly offering us a gift to help us live fully and completely in God’s family we call the Church?

In Novo Millennio Inuente, we hear that Jesus gave us the Sacraments because he knows well the human heart.  In the Eucharist Jesus comes to us as the Bread of Life, he comes to us in a sacramental way for our body and soul.  So too, our conversion and reconciliation is accomplished liturgically in a spiritual and physical way by the Sacrament of Reconciliation.  And this is just as life giving and energy filled, even more so, than a strictly human reconciliation.  In the new Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church a question is asked regarding less serious sins:  “Why can venial sins also be an object of sacramental confession?”  The answer being that it “…is strongly recommended by the Church … because it helps to form a correct conscience and to fight against evil tendencies.  It allows us to be healed by Christ and to progress in the life of the Spirit.”  Again, this can have meaning only if we recognize the privileged relationship we have with Jesus in holiness. As Paul would say: “For to me, living is Christ….” 

Finally, if we have the conviction that in our Baptism we have received a true entry into the holiness of God through incorporation into Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, it would be a  contradiction to settle for a life of mediocrity and a shallow and empty religious life.  It is for this reason that the Baptized Christian (saint), starting from the age of reason, has a right, not only to receive the Eucharist but also to receive Reconciliation.  Jesus’ policy, if you will, is for us to “…be perfect as the Heavenly Father is perfect”.

I will always remember a little girl in grade two who came to me for her First Confession in preparation for her First Eucharist. After she said: “Bless me father for I have sinned”, there was an awkward pause, then I said: “And your sins are?”  And she looked at me with a bright smile and said:  “Forgiven!”  She understood the Lord’s policy perfectly!