Our Hearts Find Love in the Grace of God
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WRITTEN BY:
Samuel Harris
READ TIME:
4 mins
The seven sacraments are invitations to us average Catholic people to step into the life and light of God’s grace, which is simply, as philosopher Peter Kreeft puts it, “another name for love, undeserved love”. In the concrete realities of the sacrament rituals, the words, actions and physical elements which we experience in real and direct ways, we can trust that here, right now, God is acting in our lives. This is a great comfort to those of us - many of us - who tend to live either in the past in regrets or hurt, or in the future in fear or dreaminess, because the sacraments remind us gently (but firmly) to live in the present. Right here, right now, in scented oil, what was once bread and wine, candles, music and ancient gestures and words, Christ “communicates his Spirit and the grace of God” - undeserved love - to us in our need and in our joy, and we then “bear the fruits of the new life of the Spirit” (Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 146).
Sacraments require faith, and their potential fruits do depend on our own disposition (we need to be in a state of grace to receive communion), on where exactly our heart and our head are, and they ask for a bit of imagination and a willingness to be humble, but more than that they simply ask us to turn up. This is one of the great comforts of our faith: the Mass is the Mass, confession is confession, and they do what they do and are what they are even if we aren’t quite 100% into it. Even in those times when we turn up to Sunday Mass tired and frazzled, perhaps dragging reluctant kids, maybe weighed down by the fight we had with our spouse in the car on the way, or by financial or employment worries, or by a nagging doubt about this or that aspect of faith, but still wanting - or at least wanting to want - to be there to worship; even if we turn up to the confessional with a frown, unsure if we’re there simply out of a resentful fear that we must go “or else” rather than with a heartfelt and articulate repentance, but wanting to be there to be forgiven, to make things right; even if we feel like the worst Catholic ever, Christ meets us there in the sacraments - as he meets us in many different ways in our daily lives, but there in a distinct way. He sees us, he knows us, he loves us and he wants to draw us deeper into life.
A well-known phrase describing the Eucharist describes this sacrament as “the source and summit” (or fount and apex, as Vatican II document Lumen Gentium puts it) of our Christian life. With it as firm ground under our feet we see God, and the world and our lives, clearly, as if we were on a mountaintop on a clear spring day, and from it we drink the living water which gives us fullness of life. We are an Easter people, and every Sunday is a “little Easter” when we again say yes to Christ’s offer of friendship and mercy and to his challenge of ongoing conversion. We dip our fingers into the holy water stoup as we enter the building, in re-affirmation of our baptism, and we say “Amen” - or “I agree” - to this offer and challenge as we approach the altar to receive the Eucharist. We are average Catholics, and God knows this, and he still wants us to come - so that we can be changed into saints! We sit in the pews with our average neighbours and share the Eucharistic feast and encourage each other to continue in the adventure of faith, rising together to acclaim it and to pray for each other and for the world, and then we go out and live it.
The Sacrament of Penance goes by several names but they have a common theme: this sacrament is one of healing and mercy. Anyone who has made regular confession a habit will be able to tell you of the effect it has in their lives to slowly, gradually, change bad habits and foster good ones. Everyone has their own particular sins, and we can get discouraged when we seem to be “always saying the same thing in the confessional”, but returning to this sacrament again and again in spite of that feeling is always a good thing. Again, this is the great gift of the sacraments - they don’t rely on our feelings in order for Christ to do his work in us. I have walked out of the confessional feeling the same as I went in - discouraged, burdened, angry - yet I know with certainty that I am forgiven, that my feelings then are in fact irrelevant. I have also walked out crying healing tears, feeling a load lifted off my shoulders, my heart full of a sense of undeserved mercy and light, and this is a grace in itself but I was as much absolved those other, unemotional, times as I was those times full of feeling. Make a good examination of conscience - asking yourself honestly about the areas in your life where you hold part of your heart back from Christ - and just turn up. If it’s been a while since you went to the Sacrament of Penance, tell the priest that, and he’ll lead you through it. Look for the advertised confession times in your parish or another one, or make an appointment with your priest, and just turn up. Don’t be embarrassed: the priest has heard it all - and worse! - before. He is a sinner too, and goes to confession himself. Don’t worry that next time he sees you at Mass he’ll remember every detail of the sins you told him, and think badly of you. He won’t. Rather, he’ll only - if he remembers at all, and I’ve heard priests speak about how they simply don’t remember at all the details heard in confession - be impressed and encouraged by your desire to grow in faith.
Pope Francis has urged Catholics to ask ourselves, “When was the last time I went to confession?” In March he asked for prayers that the Sacrament of Reconciliation would be approached “with renewed depth, to taste the forgiveness and infinite mercy of God.” He went on to say, “When I go to confession, it is in order to be healed, to heal my soul. To leave with greater spiritual health. To pass from misery to mercy. The center of confession is not the sins we declare, but the divine love we receive, of which we are always in need. Remember this: in the heart of God, we come before our mistakes.”
The Sacraments of Eucharist and Reconciliation: as we move from Eastertide into Ordinary Time, let’s ask God for a renewed appreciation of these gifts, let’s seek out some good reading material to deepen our understanding of the Church’s teaching on the sacraments, and let’s do something concrete and active to participate with renewed hearts.
And let’s listen to our own Ven. Suzanne Aubert: “There is in the sacraments a world of things of which human intelligence can only catch a glimpse, but the humble mind finds in them knowledge, the soul finds there strength, the heart finds love.” Mother Mary Joseph, Suzanne Aubert, pray for us!
