Advent Penance Service 2018
Colossians 1:12-13
Psalm 51
Luke 15:1-7
December 15, 2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We are here today to celebrate a\nSacrament. We begin with this Penance\nService as a way to pray together before we celebrate the Sacrament\nindividually. Some call this sacrament\nConfession. Others call it Penance. I\nlike the name Sacrament of Reconciliation for that is its purpose, to reconcile\nus with God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One might ask why now. There are two separate but overlapping\nreasons for this. First, we have our\nchildren who have been preparing to celebrate this sacrament for the first\ntime. During the Easter Season they will\nreceive their First Eucharist. They will\nbegin to prepare for that sacrament after the holidays but the first part of\npreparing for their First Eucharist is to seek forgiveness of their sins to\nworthily receive the Eucharist. That leads\nto this Sacrament of Reconciliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second reason applies to the children\nbut also to all of us. We come in this\nAdvent season, a time of preparing for the coming of Christ. That means reflecting on what we need to work\non in our lives. That often means\nrecognizing our sins and confessing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some might be fearful of coming here\ntoday. By some, perhaps some of the\nchildren might be nervous doing this for the first time, but I also think about\nthe adults who might be \u201cfearful\u201d about admitting their sins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We call this prayer service a \u201cPenance\nService.\u201d When we celebrate this\nsacrament individually, we will receive a \u201cpenance\u2019 for our sins. Some see the \u201cpenance\u201d as \u201cpunishment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can fear punishment. I recently read a story of a young girl named\nMegan. Dad was going to pick her up from\nschool. She decided she was big enough\nthat she didn\u2019t need to wait for him and began walking home on her own. It began to rain and lightning. With the storm came darkness. Megan became cold, wet, and lost. Then she had a car horn. It was her father. She was sure she would be punished for not\nwaiting for her dad. \u201cInstead her father\nswooped her up, saying, \u201cHere\u2019s my little girl, I thought I lost you. Let\u2019s go home and dry off.\u201d (\u201cHomily Helps: Dec. 16, 2018\u201d The Priest<\/em>. Our Sunday Visitor, November 2018, page 49.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Did she do something wrong? Yes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Could she have been punished? Yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, her father was not interested in\npunishing her. She had gotten lost and\nhe was just happy to find her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When we sin, we do something wrong. We break a rule God has given us. For that, we can expect to be punished. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another way of looking at sin is to\nrealize that when we have sinned, we have lost our way. We may have been trying to do what God tells\nus but were led astray. We got lost. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Our gospel reading today speaks of the\nshepherd who loses one sheep and goes looking for it. Jesus is our shepherd. When we are lost, Jesus will do anything\npossible to rescue us \u201cfrom the power of\ndarkness<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jesus\ndoes this because he loves us. There is\nan important Bible passage you can read in John 3:16. It says, \u201cFor\nGod so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes\nin him might not perish but might have eternal life<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n God sends us Jesus. Knowing that we sin, Jesus gave his life on\nthe Cross so our sins will be forgiven. \nJesus takes our punishment for us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So, rather than be afraid of confessing\nour sins, we can \u201cgive thanks to the\nFather<\/em>\u201d for sending Jesus to do this for us. Today is not about punishment. Yes, we do a \u201cpenance\u201d to show we are sorry but\nwe can rejoice that God is waiting to forgive us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Advent Penance Service 2018Colossians 1:12-13Psalm 51Luke 15:1-7December 15, 2018 We are here today to celebrate a Sacrament. We begin with this Penance Service as a way to pray together before we celebrate the Sacrament individually. Some call this sacrament Confession. Others call it Penance. I like the name Sacrament of Reconciliation for that is its …<\/p>\n