Lent started on Ash Wednesday, 5 March and for Christians Lent is the time of preparation for Easter and it commemorates Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the desert before He began His public ministry. In the spirit of Lent, Bishop Donal McKeown, Bishop of Derry, published a reflection on the value of the Sacrament of Confession during this holy season.
In his reflection, Bishop McKeown stated, “One of the great blessings that accompanied the visit of the relics of Saint Bernadette to the Saint Eugene’s Cathedral, Derry, in October 2024, was the number of people who felt called to go to Confession. The call seemed unexpected to some – they had no intention of going to Confession. The readily available access to the Sacrament drew them. But, something invited them to go. Whatever the reason, the joy they received as a result was a liberating blessing in their lives.
“Maybe, that should not surprise any of us. So many people limp along in life, weighed down by secrets and bad decisions from their past. Some unburden themselves to trained counsellors. The Sacrament of Confession offers, not just a chance to talk honesty, but also an encounter with Jesus whom Pope Francis has called the ‘face of the Father’s mercy’.
“The Sacrament of Confession is one of the seven sacraments of the Church. It is as necessary and as vital as the other six sacraments. Yet the practice of the sacrament has slid even among many who avail of the other six. However, when we undermine, or don’t celebrate the sacrament, or don’t celebrate the sacrament in its fullness, we inhibit our openness to the sacramental way that God wants to communicate his mercy to us. The sacraments are God’s real and practical way of communicating his grace to us. In the Sacrament of Confession God communicates his love, his mercy and his forgiveness to our imperfect lives. We need to be there to hear it and to receive this sacramental grace.
“Some people today say that they talk to God themselves, and they don’t need a ‘middleman’ in the process. However, how does God talk to us? He has chosen to use intermediaries. In the Old Testament, God chose prophets to speak to his people. Jesus gathered round him Apostles, to spread the Gospel. The early Church very quickly had bishops, priests and deacons. Very few people have mystical experiences where God communicates with them directly. God uses water, oil, bread and wine in sacraments to communicate his love, his presence and his healing in our lives. He uses human words, said by priests, to communicate his sacramental forgiveness in our lives.
“We live in the material world. We are surrounded by what we can see and touch. We are people who communicate with speech. Sacraments reflect those human realities. An important part of the Sacrament of Confession, of encountering the sacramental grace of God’s forgiveness is that we name our sins, aloud. Naming sin is an integral part of the celebration of the sacrament. Even in the secular world today therapy involves acknowledging the reality of our lives. When we name the fact of the sins in our lives in the Sacrament of Confession, we make space for our encounter with the forgiveness of God. It takes humility, but that humility is the door that opens our lives to sacramental forgiveness.
“Sin exists, as is evident at every level, from individual human relationships to international wars. We all sin and,therefore, we all need forgiveness. We are not yet the saints that we are called to become through our Baptism. To ignore the reality of sin in our lives, or minimise it, can limit our ability to be in relationship with God. Servant of God, Archbishop Martinez, who was from Mexico, once said, ‘For all sin, grave or light, large or small, wounds God’s divine heart and, since we love Him, naturally we should feel great sorrow for having offended Him.’
“Saint Peter revealed the truth of this statement when he wept bitterly after denying Jesus. Saint Peter wept because he denied his friend and he was overcome with sorrow.
“When we confess and open ourselves to the love and forgiveness of God, we are renewed. We are freed from our sin. It is a moment of conversion and transformation. We cannot renew our lives on our own, without the grace of God, as it is a gift which belongs to God. The Church won’t be renewed, our diocese won’t be renewed, our parishes won’t be renewed if the Sacrament of Confession is not an integral part of it all, as God has entrusted to us the seven sacraments. These are God’s gifts to us.
“Pope Francis tells us frequently that the Confessional should not be a ‘torture chamber’. He tells priests, who are acting with the authority given to them by Christ, to forgive everything. The Pope says: ‘Everyone say to himself; When was the last time I went to Confession? And if it has been a long time, don’t lose another day! Go, the priest will be good. And Jesus, will be there and Jesus is better than the priests – Jesus receives you. He will receive you with so much love! Be courageous and go to Confession.’”
“This Lent I invite everybody to go to the Sacrament of Confession – allow God to speak his forgiveness and mercy to you. Accept his freedom. The Pope also says, speaking about going to Confession ‘When he finishes confessing, he leaves free, great, beautiful, forgiven, happy. And this is the beauty of Confession.’
“In this Jubilee Year 2025 Pope Francis invites us to focus on being Pilgrims of Hope in our world. The forgiveness of God is offered in Jesus to those who most hunger to be freed from the burden of their past. Confession is the Sacrament of new beginnings, of new hope, of Resurrection.”
Bishop McKeown concluded, “There is much need for healing. Without the grace of forgiveness, we remain trapped in our past. Until we deal with the past, there is little hope for the future. Therefore, I ask all the priests of the diocese to make the Sacrament of Confession widely and regularly available during all of Lent. I invite every parish, or groups of parishes, to make – as a pastoral priority throughout this Lent – access for all to the full Sacrament of Confession.
Confessions take place on each Saturday at 5.30p.m. in Kingscourt or by appointment. All are welcome.
