I will never forget the last afternoon of my first vacation as a priest in San Francisco. I stopped at Old St. Mary’s Church in Chinatown and browsed through their bookstore before leaving the city to meet some friends east of Oakland for dinner. I had never driven on the Embarcadero before and I missed the onramp to the Bay Bridge, so I took the next exit and pulled over to study the map to find my way back when the big earthquake hit.
My guardian angel was certainly keeping an eye on me because if I hadn’t stopped at Old St. Mary’s or missed that exit, I would have been on the bay bridge at the wrong moment. By the way, the name of the book I purchased was Sin Reconsidered.
In this gospel, Jesus is challenging us to reconsider sin, especially if our motivation for being here in the first place is to someday be seated at the heavenly banquet. He warns his listeners that not everyone who eats and drinks in his company and hears him preach will be saved. Instead, he will say to some, “I do not know where you are from. Depart from me, all you evil doers!”
Those are blunt, terrible, frightening words that we must take seriously. Hell is a very real place and you and I could wind up there. That is the bad news Jesus is emphasizing in this gospel passage, but the good news is that none of us has to go to hell. Our destination in the next life is something we choose, but we are being warned that Jesus has certain criteria we have to meet if we want to avoid the fires of hell.He advises that we must not take salvation for granted:“Strive to enter through the narrow gate.” Not the popular one nor the easy one, but the one that leads to God. We are to pursue salvation with every ounce of our being. That takes discipline but then that is what being a disciple demands.
The Catechism notes that God predestines no one to go to hell. To go there requires a “willful turning away from God, that is, a mortal sin.” Furthermore, one must persist in that mortal sin until the end. Hell is the choice one makes to exclude oneself from God, by refusing to repent.
Before we smugly presume that we haven’t done that, Pope Francis is urging us to reconsider our notion of sin. On his return flight from World Youth Day in Brazil, he surprised the reporters onboard by holding an impromptu press conference. Surprised by his remark regarding gay priests,when he said, “Who am I to judge?” they missed a point the Pope then said, “This is important: a theology of sin.”
The Holy Father has often expressed the theme that we are all sinners who offend God, who need to examine our consciences daily, and amend our lives accordingly. He haseven referred to himself as a sinner, publicly asked forgiveness for his sins, and asked others to pray for him.
Pope Francis describes his theology of sin as a three part process. First, recognize the darkness of contemporary life and how it can and has easily led so many to justify their immorality with an “everybody is doing it mentality.” He notes, “Walking in darkness means being overly pleased with ourselves, believing that we do not need salvation. That is darkness! When we continue on this road of darkness, it is not easy to turn back. If we say we are without sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
The second stage is to realize that confession is not simply a way to remove stain of sin from our souls but also an encounter with Jesus Christ, who is always ready to forgive sins and transform lives. But in order to receive his healing grace, we have to first acknowledge our sins and our shame for violating his will. Pope Francis observes, “Shame is a true Christian virtue.” While the world mocks the notion of shame, he contends a healthy Christian concept of shame allows us to be humble before God.
The third stage is having absolute faith in God to renew us. The Holy Father concludes, “We must have trust, because when we sin we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ and he defends us in front of our weaknesses.”
Pope Francis’ view of sin stands in stark contrast to the secular world. For example, he takes it for granted that sex outside of marriage is gravely wrong but the world doesn’t. Unless we strive to really know Jesus, we can be easily duped into downsizing the gravity of our sins, which unfortunately many Catholics have done. They have grown accustomed to sin and see no need to repent.
The Pope maintains the urgency of confessing our sins to a priest for that is the normal way of being forgiven of serious sins, so when was the last time you did? Many Catholics presume that having received communion and listened to countless homilies, God will not reject them when their lives come to an end, but they forget, they have already rejected God by the choice they have made not to repent when they must by celebrating this healing sacrament.
Now, if you leave here, muttering that I tried to scare the hell out of you, you’re right. I did. I don’t want you to stand before the Lord someday and say that no one warned you that we should take our faith so seriously. And I don’t want to stand before our Lord and have him say to me, “You didn’t do a good job of telling people what they should have been hearing from the pulpit.” So, consider yourself warned. Strive to enter through the narrow gate before it is too late.
Ask for the grace of shame; the shame that comes from the constant dialogue of mercy with Him; the shame that makes us blush before Jesus Christ; the shame that puts us in tune with the heart of Christ who is made sin for me; the shame that harmonizes our heart in tears and accompanies us in the daily following of “my Lord”. And this always brings us, as individuals and as a Company, to humility, to living this great virtue. Humility that makes us understand, each day, that it is not for us to build the Kingdom of God, but it is always the grace of God working within us; humility that pushes us to put our whole being not at the service of ourselves and our own ideas, but at the service of Christ and of the Church, like clay pots, fragile, inadequate, insufficient, but having within them an immense treasure that we carry and that we communicate (2 Cor. 4:7).
If a person, or secular priest or a nun, has committed a sin and then that person experienced conversion, the Lord forgives and when the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is very important for our lives. When we go to confession and we truly say “I have sinned in this matter,” the Lord forgets and we do not have the right to not forget because we run the risk that the Lord will not forget our sins, eh? This is a danger. This is what is important: a theology of sin. So many times I think of St. Peter: he committed one of the worst sins denying Christ. And with this sin they made him Pope. We must think about fact often.
I see that so many times in the Church, outside of this case and also in this case, they go to look for the “sins of youth,” for example, no? And this is published. Not the crimes. Crimes are something else: the abuse of minors is a crime. No, the sins.
But if a person, lay or priest or Sister, has committed a sin and then has converted, the Lord forgives, and when the Lord forgives, the Lord forgets and this is important for our life. When we go to confession and truly say: “I have sinned in this,” the Lord forgets and we don’t have the right not to forget, because we run the risk that the Lord won’t forget our [sins]. That’s a danger.
This is important: a theology of sin. I think so many times of St. Peter: he committed one of the worst sins, which is to deny Christ, and with this sin he was made Pope. We must give it much thought.