“Your faith has saved you; go in peace”…….But don’t think for a second that you are something that you are not!

Today at Holy Mass we hear from the Gospel of St Luke…In this passage Jesus tells us a story about two people…The first person is deeply respected and esteemed by society…The other is rejected…Both people were flawed however both people were searching for God….The man who was esteemed was quick too point out the flaws of the one who was rejected…..The woman who was rejected by others instead of being critical of others focused on serving others…One would think the man who was respected by society would be the “hero” of this story but instead he is the “villain”….Why?….Because the rejected woman knew what she had done and also knew deep in her heart who forgave her…The man “thought” he was something he was not…He “thought” himself to be righteous and justified before God……God came for sinners…..And if we are honest with ourselves we know that we are far from perfect…Yet God loves us and if we go to him in the Sacrament of Reconciliation…He forgives us and gives us the needed grace to overcome our flaws…But don’t think for a second that you are something that you are not!

Our world today lives in denial….We rationalize bad behavior away in order to cope with it and the wounds caused by it….The key to our personal freedom is to face the fact that we have made mistakes…That there is a God…That we are not God…And that God makes the “rules”…Now there is a bad word…RULES….I can HEAR it now…”Don’t tell me what to do”…..Trust me, I won’t but the rules of God - Let’s call them for the purposes of this discussion the Natural Law…Apply to you whether you acknowledge them or not….They are written on each of our hearts….When we face this reality…And when we fail…Which we all fall short…And when we confess those failures to a Catholic Priest, who has been given authority (there is another bad word - Authority!) to forgive our sins by Christ himself…Not only do we become free but a very real and tangible burden is lifted from our shoulders…..Pretending that “burden” is not there does not make it go away…..And when we rationalize that “burden” away so we can cope….Like a metastatic cancer or a wound that develops gangrene, we rob our self of who we were born to be…We can not fake it!…And far too may people try - And sadly in many cases it shows…..We need to REMEMBER - God’s forgiveness is real!…So is his grace…And so is the fact that we are all sinners…All this is true…But in order to be forgiven we must avail ourselves to the Sacrament of Reconciliation…..Self-rationalizations and coping mechanisms do not cut it…Just like if one is hungry…Pretending to eat does not satisfy our hunger

Why do we not utilize this great gift given to us by Jesus?….You need to answer that question for yourself

The woman in St Luke’s gospel from Mass is said to have been a great sinner…She approached Jesus and confessed her many sins and she was set free and forgiven…And as a result lived a life of joy, gratitude and service…The man who did not “sin like that woman did”…At least not to the degree…Thought he was something he surely was not…And because of that did not live a life of gratitude.

If a person was ever very hungry in their life, for whatever reason and someone asks that person for something to eat…More times than not…Its the person who knows what its like to be very hungry who gives some of their food away to another…The man or woman who has never been hungry more times than not does not give or gives very little…They take for granted “the gifts” given to them - Forgetting “the Giver” of all gifts which is God……Mother Teresa once told a story of a Catholic family in the slum who had not eaten for three days….Mother Teresa heard about them and immediately went and gave the woman a bag of rice for her family...…Once she gave her the rice, the woman disappeared…When she returned Mother Teresa asked her where she went…The woman said a Muslim family down the street also had not eaten in three days…So I gave them half the bag of rice.

“So I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven; hence, she has shown great love. But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.”

Getting back to our gospel from Mass today…After pointing out the difference between the respected man and the disrespected woman….Jesus said something that deeply offended many…..”He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.” The others at table said to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”…Only Jesus has the authority to forgive sins and he gave that authority to the priests in the one Church he founded….“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”…..Self rationalizing away the reality that we are sinners, continue to sin and have flaws only leads to a life of coping as opposed to a life of living!…The “burden of sin is real”…And so is the cure

“Your faith has saved you; go in peace”…….But don’t think for a second that you are something that you are not!