Have you ever had a penance in confession that you thought was unfair? Maybe not unfair but you might have thought it was a bit much. Or confessed a serious sin and got two Hail Mary’s and then next time you confessed to the same priest something you thought was venial and you got a Holy Hour or reading a whole book of the Bible. I heard someone tell me that for confessing for venial sins, they were given the penance to read the entire book of Psalms, 150 Psalms that is. It would take you a serious amount of time to read that. I was at a meeting of religious people and one lady there said she was Catholic and when she was in grade school a priest gave her such a long penance that she had to stay behind in the Church while her class went to school and they all thought she was some terrible sinner. She was so embarrassed that she never went again. For those who are not familiar with what Confession and penance are, when you go to a priest to confess your sins, he will give you a penance to help you avoid sins but also help you heal from them and the people that you hurt when you have sinned. There is no hard and fast rule to what a priest may assign. Doing your penance is not paying the price for your sins, Christ did that fully on the cross, but it is helping us avoid sins in the future and help heal the damage our sins caused. But often there is no rhyme or reason for the penance you get.
In today’s First Reading, we hear Jonah tell the people of Nineveh to repent and turn from their sins and Christ tells us the same in the Gospel. So why does it seem unfair to us, and specifically me, that I have gotten a few more challenging penances? I believe I think this way because I have some heretical inclinations. What is a heresy? Heresy is a rejection of one of the main matters of the faith when you are a baptized person. If you did not, for example, believe in the Trinity, you as a baptized person would be a heretic. So then, what heresy am I struggling with? The heresy of Neo Pelagianism. I know you all know what that is but in case you slept in that day when in your catechism class was studying Pelagianism, I will explain. Pelagianism is a heresy where a person believes they have the power on their own to go to Heaven. The early Pelagius lived their lives in challenging ways. They fasted and whipped themselves and believed that they could be good enough and make enough merit on their own to merit Heaven. The Neo Pelagianism, meaning new Pelagian, simply believes that because they have never done anything really bad, as Hitler for example, they will merit heaven. They have done sufficient good things and that is what God is looking for and so no worries, Heaven for sure. That is why I don’t like hard penances because I have come to believe, “I am not that bad so how dare you Father give me a hard penance.” This is a heresy because it does not look at Jesus as the Saviour of the world, because I have saved myself. This is also why we do not come here with great joy because we don’t believe Jesus has really done anything. We do not sing because what is there to sing about. Sure, Jesus loves us, but does it change our lives? Heresies are not happy things. They rob us of the true joy we are meant to have. We think that God has simply called us not to be as bad as Hitler, and we are therefore good and get heaven, not knowing if it is perhaps any good.
How many times do us priests hear in Confession, “Oh, Father, I haven’t really done anything bad.” Oh really? Have you been working daily on becomimg a saint? Have you been using your time proclaiming the Kingdom of God and mercy? Or have you been sitting there watching soap operas and reading romance novels? You are right – you haven’t really been doing anything and that is a sin, to waste time. We will be accountable for every wasted moment and idle word. We will be accountable to God for our lives and that we did not become saints and did not pursue holiness. We kicked back and said, “Behold I am good enough,” and believe that from there we would coast into heaven. Lie from the pit of hell I tell you. Christ was killed by the very sins you and I commit and if He would not have died in our place the sentence of death would be execution of the ones who committed the crime. Every mortal sin can send us to hell and we should be grateful to God for paying that price when we could not pay it. Heaven will not be, “Lord, look what I have done. Let me in.” Heaven will be, “Lord, look what you have done in my life. Thank you. I have chosen to cooperate with you. Thank you for wanting to do work and for the grace to accept your work.” I have started to pray for true sorrow for my sins and to hate them as God hates them and to see the reality of them. Not so it will scare the hell out of me, but so that I may be grateful for what God has done. I remember a convert to Catholicism who told me she was so happy she was able to go to Confession because her sins were forgiven that she was telling everyone about it, because it was such a gift.
I remember a story about a man who helped a fellow in a fancy car out of the ditch and went home to find that the fellow had paid off his mortgage. What joy for the man. But an even greater joy for us to have our sins forgiven and hell avoided and eternal bliss attained. So let us give up our Pelagius ways and repent and receive forgiveness with joy in our hearts. In today’s Gospel, the word immediately keeps jumping out. Let us turn back to God, immediately confess our sins and rejoice in the kindness of our God and follow Him.