{"id":1902,"date":"2016-09-11T12:25:26","date_gmt":"2016-09-11T16:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2016-09-11T12:25:26","modified_gmt":"2016-09-11T16:25:26","slug":"24th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/24th-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

24th<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nExodus 32:7-11, 13-14
\nPsalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19
\n1 Timothy 1:12-17
\nLuke 15:1-32<\/p>\n

Some of you may be old enough to remember the days when people went to confession at least monthly if not weekly.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter if you were conscious of mortal sin.\u00a0 You must have done something wrong and you better go.<\/p>\n

This might fit with the image in our first reading.\u00a0 The people had committed a great sin by making a golden calf idol.\u00a0 They clearly broke the commandment against idolatry and they deserved to be punished.\u00a0 God was going to lay his wrath against them.\u00a0 This image here is of God as a punishing God.\u00a0 So, we better go to confession or else.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s gospel includes the story of the Prodigal Son.\u00a0 It is a favorite story to many.\u00a0 The image portrayed of the father is not a punishing father.\u00a0 His younger son has taken a share of the inheritance and left, leaving the father behind.\u00a0 In the culture of the time, the father had every right to disown his younger son for this but this father does not.\u00a0 He still loves his son.<\/p>\n

Even though his son has lived a bad life, the father is eager to welcome him back.\u00a0 So much so that as the son arrives, the father runs<\/em> out to greet him, throws a celebration, and restores the full status to his younger son.<\/p>\n

Which image do you prefer?\u00a0 Do the idea of a God who punishes inspire you in any way?\u00a0 Or would you rather God fit the image of the father who runs out to greet his son and forgive him?<\/p>\n

God does not want to punish us.\u00a0 Even though the Israelites have sinned by making the golden calf, God relents of punishment through Moses\u2019 intercession.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t take much effort on Moses\u2019 part because God wants to forgive us.<\/p>\n

What is your image of Confession?<\/p>\n

Do you fear going to confession?\u00a0 Are you afraid of God\u2019s wrath?<\/p>\n

When we see someone going to confession, do we \u201cspeculate\u201d about seeing them go into the confession?\u00a0 What did they do?\u00a0 Or do we celebrate that the person has repented?\u00a0 While sin is bad, when one repents, it is time to rejoice.<\/p>\n

Yet people do not rejoice.\u00a0 In fact, many don\u2019t go at all.\u00a0 The pendulum has swung from weekly or monthly confession to the other extreme.\u00a0 We think confession is outdated or we think we don\u2019t do anything that bad.<\/p>\n

There is no right length of time before we need to go to confession.\u00a0 If we commit mortal sin, then we should go.<\/p>\n

Confession may seem like something we want to avoid because we don\u2019t want others to know our sins.\u00a0 We should try to avoid needing<\/em> to go to confession, meaning we shouldn\u2019t sin but when we do sin, we should go to confession.<\/p>\n

We should not fear going to confession for it is God\u2019s gift to us.\u00a0 It is a gift we need.<\/p>\n

To understand it as a gift, we should take a look at the names we give it.<\/p>\n

Confession <\/em>is probably the most common name.\u00a0 The name does fit because we are confessing our sins.\u00a0 However, God already knows our sins.\u00a0 We confess them out loud to admit we have sinned and need God\u2019s help.\u00a0 While confession<\/em> is a necessary part of the sacrament, the act of confessing is one part of the sacrament.<\/p>\n

Another name for this sacrament is penance<\/em>.\u00a0 After we confess our sins, the priest answers us a penance to do.\u00a0 The penance is to show our remorse and our desire to sin no more with God\u2019s help.\u00a0 This represents a third part of the sacrament, contrition<\/em>, which is the sorrow in our hearts for our sin.<\/p>\n

Another name for this sacrament is reconciliation<\/em>.\u00a0 This is what we come for.\u00a0 Our mortal sins have separated us from God.\u00a0 Our venial sins have distanced us from God.\u00a0 We want to change that but we cannot make this happen on our own.\u00a0 We need the fourth part of the sacrament, absolution<\/em>, to reconcile us.<\/p>\n

Reconciliation is the name I like because it is the purpose of the sacrament.\u00a0 It is the gift we receive in the sacrament.\u00a0 We need to move from dreading confession to rejoicing that God makes reconciliation possible.<\/p>\n

I feel privileged to be able to be the priest as people come to the Sacrament of Reconciliation.\u00a0 I want you to experience God\u2019s mercy.\u00a0 It\u2019s why I sit in the \u201cbox\u201d for an hour on Saturday.\u00a0 If you can\u2019t make it on Saturday afternoon, you can make an appointment.\u00a0 If you want to remain anonymous you can call and make an appointment without giving your name and I will meet you in the church.<\/p>\n

God wants to forgive us but first we need to admit our faults and return to the Father like the prodigal son.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Exodus 32:7-11, 13-14 Psalm 51:3-4, 12-13, 17, 19 1 Timothy 1:12-17 Luke 15:1-32 Some of you may be old enough to remember the days when people went to confession at least monthly if not weekly.\u00a0 It didn\u2019t matter if you were conscious of mortal sin.\u00a0 You must have …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘24th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82,150],"tags":[58,70,165,60],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-uG","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1903,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions\/1903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}