If you were chosen to have Pope Benedict XVI as your confessor during World Youth Day, how would you prepare?
Benedict will become the first Pope to hear confessions at the triennial gathering of young people from around the world.
This year’s celebration, in Madrid, Spain, is dedicated to Blessed Pope John Paul II, who began the tradition of World Youth Day in 1985. The Polish pontiff, who was beatified this spring, has been called the “Great Mercy Pope” for his promotion of the Divine Mercy devotion. Reconciliation is the sacrament of God’s great mercy. Blessed John Paul for many years heard confessions in St. Peter’s Basilica during Holy Week. He was said to have frequented the sacrament himself on a weekly basis.
So, how would you prepare to go to confession with a pope? Would you hold back certain information so as not to offend him? Try to think of the least embarrassing way to report something?
Whether it is the Pope or your parish priest, it is Christ you approach. Every confession should be made as if it were your last. In preparing for confession, we need to be brutally honest with God — and with ourselves — about ourselves. The first step is to recognize that we’ve done wrong and that we’ve failed to live up to the Gospel in our lives.
And then we need to express sorrow. But sorrow is not simply a feeling; it’s a decision to fix what is wrong. If we should make reparation for damages done, we look for ways to do so; if we need to make a firm resolution not to repeat our sinful patterns of behavior, we make that resolution and strive, with the help of God’s grace, to act differently next time.
In an address to the Apostolic Penitentiary earlier this year, Pope Benedict spoke of the “pedagogical value” of the examination of conscience. “It teaches us how to look squarely at our life, to compare it with the truth of the Gospel and to evaluate it with parameters that are not only human but are also borrowed from divine Revelation,” he said. “Comparison with the commandments, with the beatitudes and, especially, with the precept of love, constitutes the first great ‘school of penance.’”
The absolution dispensed by the priest, whether he is the Pope, a bishop or an ordinary pastor, is a gift of God. But it’s up to us to receive it. Those who prepare well for confession, who go to the sacrament with a humble and contrite heart, will be forgiven. And grow in grace.
The Holy Father is setting a great example for the young people streaming into Madrid this month. Let us, young and not so young, be moved by that example.
Benjamin Wiker: Benedict XVI: Doctor of the Church
Comments
Post a Comment
This is one more reason to love Pope Benedict XVI, who teaches by example. St. John Marie Vianney must be smiling even more broadly as he looks down from Heaven upon the scene.
Whatever happened to the proposal to have a “Year of Confession” similar to the “Year of the Priest”? I thought the USCCB (or Vatican - I forget which) was about to introduce the idea. I also remember the Register, in anticipation of the initiative, developed a marvelous booklet to help one examine their conscience. Perhaps this was all postponed by the introduction of the new Missal? It’d be good to reinvigorate the idea to help break through the mistaken notion prevalent in some circles that sin is passe.
Will the confessors be anonymous, frequently swapping booths in order to confound the crowds? One can imagine a WYD participant going into the booth, thinking that he recognizes the voice, and spending the rest of his life wondering whether it actually was the Holy Father.
How would I prepare to make Confession before the Holy Father??? Is there a different way really to make Confession whether to the Priest, the Bishop, Archbishop or to my Cardinal, as I had the opportunity to do last Saturday?. In all honesty, and I believe the Respondents will agree with me, we are tempted from time to time, to think of the least embarrassing way to accuse ourselves during Confession. However, with the Grace of God, when one is examining their Conscience, the Holy Spirit gives us the Grace and courage to just kneel before Jesus, lay our souls bare at His Feet and state our Sins, humbly, sincerely, truthfully and with genuinely contrite hearts. The sorrow is not so much because we have sinned but, rather, that we have offended our Loving Merciful God. And with that heartfelt repentance, Jesus is ready to forgive our sins, absolve us and bestow His Graces upon us to enable us to resist temptations, grow in our Faith and progress in Conversion.
Post a Comment
By submitting this form, you give The National Catholic Register permission to publish this comment. Comments will be published at our discretion, and may be edited for clarity and length. For best formatting, please limit your response to one paragraph and don't hit "enter" to force line breaks.