5 th Sunday of Lent – B 

As Jesus became increasingly aware that His death was imminent, He had the courage to say out loud, “I am troubled now. Yet what should I say? `Father, save me from this hour'? But it was for this purpose that I came to this hour.”

His words are words of anguish, fear, worry, and anxiety. But they are also words of courage because they accept the truth, they acknowledge the reality of fear, and they are said out loud.

Jesus' anticipation of His coming death is in many ways reminiscent of the way many of us approach the sacrament of Reconciliation.

The sacrament of Reconciliation is something some people dread and very often avoid, because it conjures up memories of anguish, fear, worry, anxiety, and also unfortunately for some anger, discouragement, humiliation, and rejection.

But for many people, the sacrament of Reconciliation is an opportunity to celebrate courage: the courage to accept the truth, to acknowledge fear, and to say what we have to say out loud.

We know that Jesus' suffering and death was surpassed by the glory of His resurrection. If we give God a chance, we will also learn that whatever struggle or fear or difficulty we associate with the sacrament of Reconciliation can also be surpassed by the glory of God's forgiveness, mercy, peace, and love.

The prophet Jeremiah speaks today of how God wants to establish a relationship with His people that is based on forgiveness and mercy. Our responsorial psalm offers the petition that God would create a clean heart in each of us. The letter to the Hebrews reminds us that Jesus, through the suffering and death He offered as a sacrifice for our sins, became the source of eternal salvation for all who believe in Him.

The Word of God encourages us on this 5 th Sunday of Lent to come to know our God, not only as the source of forgiveness for our sins and as one who shares the gift of mercy generously. It also reminds us once again that Jesus, the Son of God, the Word who became flesh, is one who knows our weakness, our fear, our troubles in His own heart and soul. And if Jesus knows our weaknesses, how much more do the priests who serve as confessors, who acknowledge their own sinfulness in Confession, share the burdens and the struggles of those who come to the Lord to receive His peace in the sacrament of Reconciliation?

Gone are the days when priests and pastors could threaten or cajole parishioners to go to Confession with threats of eternal and unimaginably miserable consequences. We are too sophisticated and too capable of rationalization to be motivated to celebrate a sacrament by these means.

But when Jesus our Savior and Lord, our brother and friend, offers us an invitation to come to Him when we are weary and find life burdensome because of our sins, so that He might refresh us, and when the Word of God tells us in so many ways that the Lord is kind and merciful, and when the message we hear in the sacrament of Reconciliation is “God loves you, God forgives you, go in peace,” then how can we say “no” to an invitation to celebrate in a unique way the love God has for each of us.

This Thursday night we will celebrate our parish penance service with a number of compassionate and kind priest-confessors here to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation with us. On at least nine other occasions after Thursday night there will be opportunities to celebrate the sacrament of Reconciliation in this parish during Holy Week.

As the season of Lent draws closer to its end, let us face the reality of sin in our lives as Jesus faced His own fear of the death He would endure: accepting the truth, acknowledging fear and speaking the truth out loud.

Let us also seek the Lord where He may be found in the sacrament of Reconciliation.

And as Jesus would be glorified by the Father after His dying and rising, may we too look forward to the glorious peace that awaits us who die to our own sins and rise in the glory of God's forgiving and merciful love in this beautiful sacrament of God's forgiveness and love.

Thomas P. Ferguson
April 2, 2006