David Quinn
Confession must be at the heart of the Year of Mercy, writes David Quinn
We are now into the second month of the Year of Mercy begun by Pope Francis before Christmas. It is a Jubilee Year and the Pope has urged Catholics to “live mercy”.
To this extent we have been urged to practice the 14 acts of corporal and spiritual mercy including feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, sheltering the homeless, instructing the ignorant, and praying for the living and the dead.
To “live mercy” means seeking forgiveness and in turn forgiving those who have wronged us. At the societal level it means groups who have wronged each other doing the same and seeking to reconcile.
A Year of Mercy makes most sense to those who think they are in need of mercy, that is, to those who know they have done wrong and want to make amends and to reconcile themselves to those they have wronged.
That is, it makes most sense to those who know they have sinned. It makes no sense whatsoever to those who don’t believe they have sinned and might not even believe in sin. If you don’t think you have sinned you will feel little need for mercy.
In the Gospels the great examples of mercy and forgiveness take place when a person knows why they need mercy and forgiveness.
There is the story of the Prodigal Son. He makes every mistake in his life before finally realising and accepting he is on the wrong path and needs to seek forgiveness and reconciliation with his father who gladly offers both in a great show of mercy.
Adultery
There is the story of the woman caught in adultery. She is about to be stoned to death but Jesus tells the crowd that only the person who is without sin has the right to cast a stone at her. None do so. She goes on her way but not before Jesus tells her to “go, sin no more”.
If the Prodigal Son had no sense of sin he wouldn’t have sought forgiveness. If the crowd about to stone the woman did not believe they had sinned they would have cast their stones and killed her.
If the woman did not believe in sin she might have resented Jesus’ instruction to her to “go, sin no more”.
Of course, it is also true that the crowd was about to stone her only because they believed in sin and because they believed she had committed a great sin. So perhaps it is in the belief in sin that caused the problem in the first place?
Pope Francis would say the problem was that the crowd was merciless. Jesus showed mercy without compromising on the sinfulness of what she had done. He did not pretend that she had not sinned.
The trouble with pretending there is no sin or that there are fewer sins than there are in reality, is that it creates an unjust world.
Imagine if we stopped believing that adultery was wrong? How many more families would thereby be ruined? In fact, despite all the other changes in sexual mores, opinion polls still consistently show that a big majority of people continue to believe that marital infidelity, and sexual infidelity in general, is wrong, and with good cause.
That said, the ideal of lifelong monogamy is under severe strain, hence the rise in divorce and remarriage.
Another reason is that we are far less inclined to believe in sin than was once the case, and therefore are less inclined to believe we need mercy, because we believe the concept of sin leads to judgementalism and threatens our freedom to live our lives as we choose.
If society in general believes that certain choices are sinful, that becomes much more difficult.
Abortion is an excellent example. The Church says it is a sin to kill a baby at any stage in its development. Society increasingly believes this is a perfectly valid thing for a woman to be able to do.
A woman will only think she needs forgiveness for having had an abortion if she believes abortion is wrong.
A further reason for the current diminished sense of sin is that in the past, the Church (by which I mean not just the Catholic Church) overdid preaching about sin and preached a harsh, punitive and often unforgiving morality. Instead of acting like Jesus did in the story of the woman caught in adultery, we acted like the crowd.
I think this is the morality Pope Francis has most in mind when he talks about mercy and it is what motivated him to call a Year of Mercy.
Mistake
It would be a big mistake to think that the Pope does not believe in sin, or has a diminished belief in it. On the contrary, he knows that sin is behind most of the world’s woes and that a clear recognition on our part that we have sinned and that we are in need of forgiveness and mercy is the solution to those woes.
This is why the Pope is very much emphasising the need for people to go to Confession.
When the German bishops paid their five-yearly visit to the Pope in November, Francis urged them to “rediscover the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist” during the Year of Mercy.
He said: “The Sacrament of Penance is often missing.”
He added: “In Confession is the beginning of the transformation of each individual Christian and the reform of the Church.”
What he said to the Germans could equally be said to the Irish. Far fewer people go to Confession than was once the case and there is little promotion of it. This is completely contrary to what the Pope wants. Any parish that is not promoting Confession as part of the Year of Mercy isn’t doing what Francis is asking of it.
One group of priests with the right idea was the one led by Fr Tom Ryan who decided to make Confession available in a shopping centre in Shannon, Co. Clare, to those who wanted it. The point here wasn’t even to be successful (although it was that), it was to try something different.
This is an initiative that would have the hearty approval of Pope Francis. It is a good example of the Church leaving the safety of the sacristy to bring the Gospel and the message of mercy and forgiveness to the wider world.
More of that and the Year of Mercy will prove to be a success.