Serious about God? Then get serious about confession!

From Bishop Robert Vasa:

BEND — Choosing as I have to focus some additional energies on the Sacrament of Penance, I could not help but be struck and attracted by the L’Osservatore Romano headline of Oct. 18: “Time spent in the confessional reveals the merciful Face of the Father.”

L’Osservatore Romano is the official weekly newspaper of the Vatican. The headline refers to the remarks of Pope Benedict XVI to the Bishops’ Conference of Canada who were in Rome for their ad limina visit.

After offering a brief reflection on the Parable of the Prodigal Son the Holy Father writes: “Dear Brothers, as you reflect upon the three characters in this parable — the Father in his abundant mercy, the younger son in his joy at being forgiven and the elder brother in his tragic isolation — be confirmed in your desire to address the loss of a sense of sin, to which you have referred in your reports.”

The Holy Father continues: “From this perspective, the bishop’s responsibility to indicate the destructive presence of sin is readily understood as a service to hope: it strengthens believers to avoid evil and to embrace the perfection of love and the plenitude of Christian life. I wish, therefore, to commend your promotion of the Sacrament of Penance.

“While the sacrament is often considered with indifference, what it effects is precisely the fullness of healing for which we long. A new-found appreciation of this sacrament will confirm that time spent in the confessional draws good from evil, restores life from death and reveals anew the merciful face of the Father.”

What a beautiful way to describe the ministry of the priest in the confessional: “Time spent in the confessional draws good from evil.”