Face the Truth that Frees
By Bishop Carl F. Mengeling


The saving events of our redemption that can happen in us this Holy Week and Easter are near. Our dying to sin and death and our rising to new life in our Risen Lord is the very dynamic of our Christian life. With great pastoral intensity I invite all Catholics to take advantage of the mercy and forgiveness of God that is given us in the sacrament of reconciliation - known as confession to most Catholics. Allow yourself the blessing of a new beginning in God’s grace. The gift of God’s pardon and peace knows no bounds.

Jesus came and still comes to save sinners. When he was criticized for reaching out to and associating with sinners he responded: "I have not come for the healthy, but for the sick. It is not the healthy who need the physician, but the sick."

In his first Letter, John the Evangelist teaches: "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, God is faithful and just, so as to forgive our sins, and cleanse us from all inequity."

Jesus continues reconciling us to the Father, to our brothers and sisters and to ourselves in the ministry of the sacrament of penance.

An eminent English convert and prolific writers of the 20th Century, G.K. Chesterton (+1936) says in his autobiography: "When people ask me, ‘Why did you join the Church of Rome?,’ my first essential answer is, ‘To get rid of my sins.’ The sacrament of penance gives new life and reconciles a person to God and all living. The gift is at a price and is conditioned by a confession. The name of the price is truth, which may be called ‘reality.’ Confession is facing the reality about oneself."

Examination of conscience and confession are absolutely necessary, along with real sorrow. All three are true needs of the human heart.

Our Holy Father tells us: "Examination of conscience is a decisive moment in a person’s life. It places each individual before the truth of one’s life. Thus we discover the distance that separate our deeds from the ideal we set for ourselves."

Calling "a spade a spade" in this sacrament is a dam against hypocrisy and self-deception. Sin works in secret and in darkness. It’s somewhat like a virus or cancer. Sin loses its power when it is admitted and brought into the open - into the light.

We can foolishly think we don’t need confession. Our sins, like a virus or cancer won't simply go away. We hide our sins, but the bacteria will continue to work secretly and in the dark. Confession is liberating only when we tell the truth, bringing sin out of the darkness into the light - in full honestly. Confession is to ‘tell it like it is’. It’s the sacrament of honesty that protects us from self-deception.

Forgiveness in this sacrament is the power of grace to break the power of sin and free us from our past and overcome every evil.