Of a Saturday Afternoon

A little noticed sacramental celebration happens each Saturday afternoon from 4:00 until 5:00 PM here at Christ the Redeemer Parish. Late each Saturday afternoon, two priests are available to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation. A small community of people avail themselves of this opportunity in either Spanish or English.

There is no secret about this celebration each Saturday afternoon in the Guadalupe Chapel, where there are two reconciliation rooms. In each of these rooms, the penitent can confess anonymously behind a screen or seated face to face with the confessor.

As most of us have read in Catholic newspapers and magazines, the practice of Reconciliation has experienced a decline in the number of believers celebrating. We might ask ourselves why that is and how penitential practice has changed in the last thirty or forty years.

Those of us formed in a previous era of Church life remember the usual Saturday routine in Catholic parishes. We can recall how priests were available both Saturday afternoon and evening, when large numbers of people in long lines waited their turn to enter the confessional. There they confessed their sins (both in kind and number), sometimes received a bit of advice and a penance, said their act of contrition, and were absolved of their sins by the priest.

Beyond the Confessional
One of the more obvious changes in penitential practice has been the design of so-called Reconciliation Rooms as a replacement of the confessionals. Is there more to the changes than the spatial arrangement of furniture and lighting? In all kinds of designs and lay-outs, these rooms allow for either so-called anonymous, behind the screen, or seated, face-to-face, confession. The Rite of Penance in any case is celebrated in the same way, but how the mystery of it all unfolds is far less clear. It really is about us and how God is with us in the Church, the community of believers.

One of the liturgical difficulties is that the Rite of Penance is not really a “rite,” in that with its many options the order of service is not in a standardized format. Rites are repeated actions and words which allow sacramental participants to experience Christ. The “new” Rite of Penance has various actions and words, which are more or less recommended.

A look at the Rite provides a good instruction of what the Sacrament of Reconciliation is. The Rite shows us friendly, dialogic, interactive ways to experience the love and forgiveness of God in our lives. The Rite in outline follows:

• The priest greets the penitent in a friendly manner.
• Together priest and penitent sign themselves with the Sign of the Cross. (“Bless me Father…” is not in the text.)
• A Scripture may be read, chosen either by the priest or penitent.
• The penitent confesses his/her sins.
• The priest may offer advice to the penitent.

• An Act of Contrition may be said or afterwards as part of the penance. There are many suggested prayers of contrition or the penitents may pray in their own words.
• The priest imposes a penance to be performed.
• The priest then gives the absolution and dismisses the penitent with the words: Let us bless the Lord.
• The penitent responds: And give him thanks.

The Word of Forgiveness
Central to the Rite of Reconciliation is God’s forgiving Word. The Word invites us to conversion and forgiveness. It is the context for examining our lives and our moral response to God’s invitation to discipleship. Confessional preparation begins with prayer and meditation on God’s Word. Then one moves to the examination of conscience. God’s action is primary throughout the Rite.

The Word is dialogic. God speaks to us in his scriptural Word. The Word is shared in a very incarnational setting between the priest and penitent. The manner of receiving the Word is the “friendly” greeting of the penitent by the priest.

Only then are sins confessed. One of the original meanings of “confession” was to confess or bless God publicly. Only later was it restricted to the confession of sin. As the penitent encounters God’s forgiveness in the Word, conversion happens and sin is forgiven.

Reconciliation is an “ecclesial” act as all the sacraments are. It is an act of the Church, the believing community. Absolution is a statement of the forgiveness of sin by God and a reinstatement within the Body of Christ. Reconciliation brings us to joyful thanksgiving.

Eucharist as Reconciliation
In the long history of the Church, Eucharist is the primary experience of reconciliation. St. Augustine, in writing of the Eucharist, tells us that “The peace and communion of the Church forgives sin.” The very coming together of the Church and the fellowship found among the believers allow us to discover Christ and his pardon.

There are many penitential references within the rites of the Eucharist. The Liturgy of the Word is, however, a primary experience of the Father’s pardon and peace in Christ for us. For this reason in all Rites, except the Roman Rite, the Greeting of Peace is placed immediately after the Liturgy of the Word.

The most intense expression of Reconciliation is as the Lord invites us to the Eucharistic Table. There we become one with Christ in the breaking of the bread and the pouring out of the cup. We come to communion of mind and heart in Christ Jesus, as Eucharist brings us to thankful praise.

The Rite of Reconciliation can be seen as bringing and preparing us for a share in the Lord’s Table. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, likewise, celebrates the forgiveness and pardon which is part of our Eucharistic life as believers.

CDH