By Msgr. Josefino S. Ramirez
The gospel reading of today is about the parable of the prodigal son. He was a young man who, after getting his inheritance in advance (he couldn’t even wait until his father died), squandered all his money in loose living and ended up in the direst poverty. But at a point of time, he realized his mistake, humbled himself and went back contritely to the father he abandoned.
The father, on his part, never stopped waiting for the return of his son. And when the son finally returned, the father was ready to forgive and overlook all those offenses, just to have his son back.
We are all familiar with similar situations. Parents are all too happy to forgive their children. That is why Jesus used this parable to teach us about the mercy of God.
The prodigal son is ourselves. We are all sinners who have somehow offended God, who is our Father, because of all the allurements of this world.
Our Father, God, is ready to forgive us, but He respects our freedom and He expects us to go back, humble and contrite. We must trust in the love and mercy of God, who is ready to forgive us, provided we are sorry for our sins and have the sincere desire to go back to Him.
The fact that Jesus Christ instituted the sacrament of confession is a sign of God’s mercy. In confession, as a Pope John Paul II said, man has “a more personal encounter with the crucified forgiving Christ, with Christ saying, through the minister of the sacrament of Reconciliation: ‘Your sins are forgiven.’” (Redemptor Hominis, 20).
Because of confession, we have a tangible and effective sign that God has forgiven us. Without it, as when people confess only “directly to God,” we can never really know if we are forgiven; we can never really know if we are truly sorry.
The prodigal son was ready to acknowledge his fault. If we are not ready to acknowledge our sin to a minister of God, who will keep it in the strictest confidence by virtue of the seal of confession, and who can give us the appropriate advice to help us avoid sin in the future, then our contrition can be seriously put in doubt.
This Lenten season is a very good time to be reconciled with God, our Father, through a good confession. If we are afraid or confused because it has been a long time since we confessed and we don’t know what to do, be like the prodigal son.
In all simplicity, go to God’s representative and tell him our difficulty. They will surely help us to make a good confession, and we shall leave the confessional with the same joy and peace as the prodigal son.