He Does Not Condemn

Fr. Benedict Groeschel, CFR tells the story of his Psychology Professor from the old Soviet Union.  During class one of her students was criticizing the Sacrament of Confession, claiming it made people feel unwarranted guilt.  Although this professor claimed not to have faith, she defended the Church and berated the student for his impudence.  She noted, "I very much appreciate the Church for the Sacrament of Confession.  Non-Sacramental churches would do well to have it, because confession teaches one to trust God.  There are two types of religion; good religion and bad religion.  It's good religion if it makes you love God.  It's bad religion if it makes you afraid of Him".

What can make us love God more and not be so quick to fear Him than receiving His forgiveness?  Christ made it very clear in the Gospel today that He does not come into this world to condemn us; rather He comes to save and forgive us.  There is no sin we can commit that He won't forgive therefore, there is no reason to be afraid of Him.  Much of our suffering is the result such misplaced fear.

It is typically our own ego that causes the fear.  We falsely think we are not worthy enough or good enough to "earn" God's mercy.  We might be so ashamed of our sin we become "paralyzed" to do anything at all.  We just spend our time wallowing away in guilt.  Perhaps some of us have even had bad experiences with our own earthly fathers that causes us to project fear on God the Heavenly Father, thus we are afraid to approach Him for forgiveness.  Whatever the reason may be, we must drop these apprehensions and allow God to let us experience His true essence; loving, mercy and compassion. 

One way of doing this is to find a loving, merciful and compassionate Confessor, a priest we feel comfortable going to.  This may take some prayerful time, but it is well worth the effort, just as one might put time and effort into finding a good doctor. 

Another approach is through meditation and prayer.  Learn to spend some time each day sitting quietly and listening to God without reacting with the ego.  The more we learn to sit still and surrender, the more we realize that God is in control and peace will come into our lives.  More will be spoken on this in future posts. 

In the meantime the following links might be helpful to meditate:

Gregorian Chant

Traditional Choral