Friends in Christ, today in the gospel we see this proud Pharisee, who is compared with the contrite publican. The publican is sorry for his sins: ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.’

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During the season of Lent, we are given a number of gospel readings on this theme, in order to lead us also, to contrition for our sins. Yesterday we had a lot of confessions, today we have confessions again until noon, as part of this Day of Mercy. One of the requirements to make a good confession, is that the penitent have ‘contrition.’ He must be sorry for his sins.

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We could perhaps think of St. Peter – remember how he denied Christ? ‘I never knew the man,’ he said. And then he wept bitter tears. Were his tears contrition? Not necessarily. Contrition is on the inside, and may or may not show on the outside.

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Is Peter’s contrition perhaps because he feels ashamed, that he was so foolish as to deny Christ? no. People sometimes say they are ashamed that they committed some sin; this is understandable, but this is not contrition.

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Father Benedict Bauer says, ‘Contrition is sorrow for the sin that was committed, together with a decision not to do it again.’

Sin is a rebellion against the Good God. Contrition fills the Will with sorrow for revolting against God and treating him so badly, who loves us. We regret that we have done this to our Friend.

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Contrition need not be a feeling, or involve tears – it is rather, a genuine change in disposition. The Will, which previously held onto something evil, now casts the sin away and hates the sin. It wishes that the evil would be undone. Therefore, contrition includes the determination to turn away from sin.

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Sorrow is essential for the reception of Confession, without it, there is no forgiveness of sin. Some people who go to frequent confession find that they are not improving or changing their life. Of course this is human nature, we often fall into the same traps. But we should also ask, ‘am I really being contrite, am I really determined to change when I confess?

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Mother Church speaks of two types of Contrition: Perfect Contrition and Imperfect Contrition. Perfect Contrition is sorrow for sin out of love of God, the way that we would be sorry that we hurt someone we love. Imperfect Contrition is sorrow because of fear of hell or other horrors of the sin. (It still must contain a purpose of amendment)

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We have an Act of Contrition that we often use here at St. John’s, it is in the confessionals and on our guides, although you are free to use any one that you like. But in the one that we use here, Perfect and Imperfect contrition are in the prayer.

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We say, ‘Oh my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended thee, and I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell – there, that is ‘imperfect contrition’ – sorrow out of fear of losing God.

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then we go on:

I detest my sins, because I dread the loss of heaven and the pains of hell, ‘but MOST OF ALL, because they offend Thee my God, who art all good, and deserving of all my love’ – that is perfect contrition –

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Making firm and deliberate acts of contrition can really help us to change our life.

St. Friends in the Lord, today in the gospel, Our Lord predicts his passion to his apostles and also tells of his resurrection. Perhaps then, thinking that the kingdom of God was quite near, the Mother of James and John – whose name was Salome – she asks Jesus that her two sons will sit at his right and at his left in his kingdom. She had heard Jesus say that his disciples will judge nations and sit on thrones, so she asks for greatness for her sons.

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As St. John Chrysostom says, James and John no doubt realized that Peter was held as the leader of the apostles, and so they feared that Peter would get this honor before them.

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Now ordinary mothers only desire for their kids to make a lot of money, be successful, prosperous, important – but at least this mother wanted her children to be great in God’s kingdom, even though she did not understand it. Perhaps those boys sent their mother to ask the Lord this favor, because the Lord always listens to the pleas of a mother for her children. But neither this mother nor her sons understood what is the price of reigning in the kingdom of heaven.

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‘Can you drink the cup that I will drink?, Jesus asks them. In other words, can you suffer? Can you give up your life? ‘We can,’ they say. But they did not know what they were saying.

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When Our Lord is arrested and sent to crucifixion, the disciples ran away! They were not ready to be crucified with the Lord. Jesus knew this, that they were not ready yet. In the end however, James WOULD be martyred, and John thrown into a pot of boiling oil and banished to Patmos for being true to the Lord. So eventually, with the grace of Christ, they would be able to drink the cup of suffering and reign with him.

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But let us think of an interesting scene. Those boys wanted to be, ‘one at Christ’s right and one at his left’ in glory; and at the cross, there with Mary, was Salome, this mother of James and John. And if she looked up, she would see Jesus being crucified, and to her horror, she saw two others being crucified, one on his right and one on his left! Is that where she really wanted her sons to be? !

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When we pray, we ask the Lord for what we want; but then we should leave it up to him on how to answer the prayer, because he knows best how and when to answer it.

Friends in Christ, in the gospel today we see one way in which the Catholic Faith is totally different from others. Christ tells us to love our enemies, and pray for those who persecute us. This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.

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This is very different from other, non-Christian religions.

I knew a young woman who had grown up Hindu. In India, she sometimes went to Church with her Catholic friend. She was stunned when she heard that we are to pray for our enemies. She said, ‘In Hinduism we have a god that we pray to to hurt our enemies.’ It was this teaching that really drew her to the Faith.

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And Our Lord is not speaking so much about the Hitler’s and ISSIS’s and other enemies, as much as he means the person in our own household or at our own workplace who makes our life difficult.

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So Our Lord asks us to have this kind of Christian love. This being said, we must now ask WHY he said this. The reason is simple: it is such love that makes a person like God. Christ says that Our Father in heaven makes the sun rise on the bad and the good and causes rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

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God is constantly blessing all of his children, good and bad. He is sending constant blessings upon this earth to us and our enemies. William Barclay says, ‘for what purpose were we made in the first place?’ In Genesis, God says, ‘let us make man in our image and likeness.’ Man is created to be like God. We are to be sharing in God’s life, and conforming ourselves more and more to be in his image and likeness.

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So, one characteristic of God, is this universal concern and goodness to all, this unconquerable goodwill, the desire for the good of each person; and never giving up on anyone. No matter how people have wounded God and insulted him, God continues to desire the good of each person.

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Well, we become like God when we too love the good people as well as our enemies; when we desire good for everyone. And this is why Jesus concludes his words by saying, ‘Be therefore perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect.’

Friends in Christ, in the first reading today, God speaks through the prophet Ezekiel; the Lord says that if the wicked man turn away from his sins, none of his crimes will be remembered. This seems to imply that not only can sins be forgiven by God, but that he will forget them?

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The saints tell us, that on the day of judgment, for those who are destined for hell, God will make known even their most secret and shameful sins, of which they never repented or confessed. St. Basil teaches, that with a single glance, everyone will see all the sins of the damned.

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But according to St. Alphonsus and many holy men, for those destined for heaven, the sins they have confessed in confession will not be made known.

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It is common knowledge, that if a priest is going to attempt an exorcism, he will always beforehand make a thorough confession, why? Because the devil will often try to intimidate the priest, by speaking his sins out loud, to his face. Experience has shown however, by exorcists, that the devil is not capable of speaking the sins which have been confessed. They seem to be gone.

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When a child does something wrong, the child sometimes runs to his parents to openly admit his guilt. The parents are pleased by this admission, and usually punish very little. St. Augustine says that we should submit ourselves to judgment now, going to Confession, admitting our faults now, so that at the end of our life we will have already been judged.  

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At the Judgement, at the trial of our life, Satan is the accuser, showing the faults of a person’s life. But confessed sins, he is not able to use as evidence in the trial. What happened to those confessed sins? God says today that he forgets those sins, for it is written: ‘None of the crimes he committed shall be remembered.’ And through Isaiah, God says, ‘I will remember your sins no more.’

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If God forgets our sins, that means they don’t exist. St. Peter Damien taught, that God can actually erase parts of history if he wishes. Let us therefore, confess our sins, that the Lord will erase them from our history.

Friends in Christ, today in the gospel, Our Lord urges us to pray: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find.’

How many times in the gospels does Jesus, not only urge us to pray, but he himself, very often, prays. He prays alone, he prays with his disciples, he prays during the day and sometimes all night!

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Some people want to do many good things for God: help the poor – this is good. Teach children their religion – that is good. Visit the sick – very good. But we must know that none of our actions will be fruitful unless we pray.

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St. Joseph Cafasso says, that when a person is a person of work, or study, or of learning, but not a person of prayer – then of what use are those things? Regarding worldly tasks, how many times does a person say, ‘this task simply MUST get done,’ and then prayer is set aside, no time for it.

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Some people exercise each day: ‘I simply have to do this, my doctor told me, its for my health.’ And they never miss a day; there are no excuses which could change their mind – This is good, but this is to tend to the health of the body. But isn’t the soul more valuable than the body? The body will decay and rot. But the soul lives forever. If we can make time for our exercises, or other things that we deem important, how is it that we can’t find the time to pray for 20 minutes?

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Another question is, HOW do we pray? St. Augustine gives some advice on this: He says, place yourself at the foot of the cross with Mary, before that God who became Man and died for you, and then think about anything you wish – that will be prayer. Prayer is not just asking for things, children do that. Prayer is mostly talking – to the one we love, and listening. When we just sit or kneel with a spiritual book or the Holy Scriptures and think about the Lord – if we do this each day with our friend who is God, then we are praying well.

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In this way, everything we do will be for the glory of God; our work will be fruitful, and bring about a thousand unforeseen benefits and blessings.

Beloved in Christ, as we begin this season of Lent, We read of the Prophet Jonah going through Nineveh urging them to repent of their sins. The people of Nineveh were given a time limit – 40 days to repent, or their city would be destroyed. The King of Nineveh did not waste any time, he proclaimed a fast – to try to save the city from God’s wrath.

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We can learn an important lesson from this King: we have limited time in this life. Each of us is given a certain number of years and minutes, to please God. St. Francis was once asked, ‘if you knew today was your last day on earth, what would you do? ‘I would keep on doing just what I am doing,’ he said.

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Can we say that? That what we are doing today is exactly what God would want me to be doing at this moment? It might be a good idea to watch carefully, for one full day, whether and how much we waste time. Hours before the television, or speaking about useless things. If we listen to our conscience, it tells us each moment what the Lord would prefer us to do, now.

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St. Josemaria says: ‘don’t waste your time throwing stones at dogs that bark at you along the way’. We should ignore the useless distractions of life, and do God’s will.

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A good day is begun well: that means, getting up on the dot. The saints call this the heroic minute: rising at the prescribed time. Ok, we like the snooze button. Then use it only once, and get up immediately. This could be a Lenten resolution.

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Many tell me that if they lounge in bed for even ten minutes, there is a sense that it throws off the whole day, and there can be dangerous temptations in the morning. You may have noticed, that if the night goes well, we get to bed on time, the morning seems to be much better. But using our time well, getting to bed – these things require renunciation of self. Turning off the television or the computer, closing the book in mid-chapter, saying ‘no’ to our will, ‘yes’ to God’s will.

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When we face our Master on the day of judgment, we will realize: ‘I have no more time.’ I remember in school, if I was not so prepared for a test – taking the test, there are still 10 more questions to go, but the teacher suddenly says: ‘TIMES UP! HAND IN YOUR PAPER. -Aghh, a feeling of dread.

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On that day of Eternity, when the Judge says, ‘Your time is up,’ how will we see today, and tomorrow? How have I used my time in this short life?

Friends in the Lord,

St. Maria Goretti was a very young martyr, we had her traveling relics here not long back. When she was being attacked by that man Alessandro, she did not cry out as a typical child would; she was more worried about the danger to Alessandro’s soul:  ‘Alessandro, what are you doing?, she asked. ‘You’ll lose your soul!’  In fact, days later, as she neared death, she said to the priest: ‘I forgive Alessandro and I want him to be with me in paradise.’

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Friends, we see in the gospel today, that as Jesus teaches us to pray the Our Father, he particularly emphasizes one thing: forgiveness. In the prayer we say: ‘forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.’ Some translations: ‘forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’

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Then Our Lord reiterates this point again: “If you forgive men, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father forgive you.”  

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Our present world is not interested in forgiveness; the newspapers are all about ‘gotcha,’ trying to find faults or mistakes with people, and condemn them. This is the role of the devil, who is called ‘The Accuser.’

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Fr. Jacque Felipe says, when we refuse to forgiven someone, we are adding another wrong to the first. It solves nothing. We are increasing the quantity of evil in the world. St. Paul says ‘Don’t be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.’

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Forgiving someone does not mean we are pretending they have done nothing wrong. Forgiveness means, ‘this person has wronged me, but I don’t want to condemn him.’

Sometimes people say, ‘I just can’t forgive him.’ Well, can you at least pray for him, and say ‘Lord, have mercy on him, don’t let him go to hell.’ Forgiveness means, I don’t want to condemn him, I don’t want him in hell.

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When we forgive someone, we are canceling their debt, but we are also doing much good to ourselves. If we don’t forgive, if we keep stoking resentment, then we are binding ourself to the person we resent. It diminishes our freedom, we become dependent on the person we hate; when we have resentment, we can’t stop thinking about that person. We are enslaved by our passion.

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By keeping the resentment alive in our memory, it is like we are writing a bill, that they will owe us in due time, that person has a debt to us, and we will demand payment!

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Christ is telling us however, that to be free, and to bring healing into the world and in our lives, we need to cancel the debt.

Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.