Pope Francis and Confession

 

Pope Francis
1936-2025

(Second Sunday of Easter (Divine Mercy Sunday, Year B): This homily was given on April 28, 2025, at St. Clare’s Church, Misquamicut, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Acts 4:32-35; Psalm 118:2-4, 13-15, 22-24; 1 John 5:1-6; John 20:19-31.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Divine Mercy Sunday 2025]

 

On this Divine Mercy Sunday, the preacher at a Catholic Mass faces a formidable challenge: he has to connect at least 3 subjects or themes.  He first of all needs to focus on the feast day itself and its meaning.  The second Sunday of Easter has been known as Divine Mercy Sunday since the year 2000.  It was established by Pope John Paul II.  Most of us know the origin of the Divine Mercy Devotion: Back in 1931, a young Polish nun, Sr. Faustina Kowalska, saw a vision of Jesus with two rays of light coming out of his heart.  Jesus told her to have a painting produced replicating the vision, and to have it signed, “Jesus, I trust in you!”

Over the next 7 years, the Lord gave Faustina numerous private revelations concerning his merciful love.  These she recorded in a diary, as Jesus had instructed her to do.  Fr. George Kosicki—who was an authority on the Divine Mercy devotion—once said that through these revelations, “Jesus taught the young nun that his mercy is unlimited and available even to the greatest sinners.  He revealed special ways for people to respond to his mercy in their lives, and he gave her several promises for those who would trust his mercy and show mercy to others.”

The second thing the Catholic preacher needs to deal with in his homily this weekend is, obviously, the gospel reading we just heard from John 20, where Jesus appears to his 11 apostles in the Upper Room on Easter Sunday and gives them the power and authority to forgive sins in his name.  By the way, this is the text you should take somebody to if they challenge you about the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).  If they say to you, “Confession is not in the Bible”, you should respond immediately, “Oh yes, it is!  Jesus instituted that sacrament on Easter Sunday night in the Upper Room, when he said to Peter, James, John and the rest, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”

That brings us to the third subject matter that the Catholic preacher needs to deal with this weekend—which is, of course, the life and teaching of our recently deceased Holy Father, Pope Francis, who went home to the Lord this past Monday.  His funeral Mass, which I’m sure many of you saw on TV, was yesterday.  Obviously, the Holy Father spoke about many things during his 12-year pontificate, but one of the topics he spoke about most frequently was God’s mercy, and how that mercy is extended to us in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confession).

So I decided that I would look up some of those remarks and share them with you in this homily.  These, I think, will tie together all 3 themes for this weekend: Divine Mercy, the gospel reading, and Pope Francis himself.  So here they are:

“The Sacrament of Reconciliation is a Sacrament of healing. When I go to confession, it is in order to be healed, to heal my soul, to heal my heart and to be healed of some wrongdoing.” (General Audience Feb. 2014)  He’s saying there that forgiveness is really the greatest healing of all—the greatest healing we can experience in this life.

“Each time we go to confession, God embraces us. God rejoices!” (General Audience Feb. 2014)

“God never ever tires of forgiving us! … the problem is that we ourselves tire, we do not want to ask, we grow weary of asking for forgiveness. He never tires of forgiving, but at times we get tired of asking for forgiveness.”  (Angelus, March 17, 2013)

“The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation flows directly from the Paschal Mystery. In fact, on the evening of Easter the Lord appeared to the disciples, who were locked in the Upper Room, and after addressing them with the greeting, ‘Peace be with you!’, he breathed on them and said: ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven’ (Jn 20:21-23). This passage reveals to us the most profound dynamic contained in this Sacrament.”

“Forgiveness is not the fruit of our own efforts but rather a gift, it is a gift of the Holy Spirit who fills us with the wellspring of mercy and of grace that flows unceasingly from the open heart of the Crucified and Risen Christ.” (General Audience Feb. 2014)

“It is necessary humbly and trustingly to confess one’s sins to a minister of the Church. In the celebration of this Sacrament, the priest represents not only God but also the whole community.”

The Holy Father understood that going to Confession isn’t easy, especially if we have serious sin on our soul.  We can feel anxious or fearful.  He said, “When one is in line to go to Confession, one feels all these things, even shame, but then when one finishes Confession one leaves free, grand, beautiful, forgiven, candid, happy. This is the beauty of Confession!”

And finally there’s this simple mandate from Francis: “Be courageous and go to Confession!”

Wise words, from the man who, from March 23, 2013 until last Monday, was the spiritual father of more than 1.3 billion people in the world.  It’s my prayer today that we will heed his prophetic words, and make Confession a regular and important part of our spiritual lives.

Direct—and Indirect—Evangelization

(Palm Sunday 2025 (C): This homily was given on April 13, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23:56.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Palm Sunday 2025]

 

We just heard St. Luke’s account of the Passion of our Lord.  Next year St. Matthew’s version will be read on Palm Sunday, and the following year we will hear St. Mark’s account.  (St. John’s Passion narrative, of course, is read every year on Good Friday.) 

There are certain details about the suffering and death of Jesus that all the gospel writers mention; there are some details that two or three of them mention; but there are others aspects of the story that only one of them mentions.  (And that’s one of the reasons we should thank God there are 4 gospels!  If there weren’t, we would know a lot less about Jesus’ suffering and death—as well as a lot less about his ministry and earthly life.)

One of the aspects of the story that’s peculiar to St. Luke’s version of the Passion is the conversion of the so-called ‘Good Thief.’  Tradition has given him the name “Dismas”—although that name is not found in the Bible.

St. John mentions that Jesus was crucified between two men; he says nothing else about them.  St. Mark and St. Matthew do identify the two men as criminals of some sort, but they tell us that both of them verbally attacked Jesus as they hung alongside him on Mt. Calvary.

Only St. Luke mentions the fact that one of two thieves rebuked the other, acknowledged his guilt, repented, and then asked Jesus to remember him when our Lord came into his kingdom.

Does that mean that at least one of the gospel writers got it wrong?  Is St. Luke correct?  If he is, then how can Matthew and Mark also be right?  Did one of the thieves repent and defend our Lord, or did both insult him?

Well, as a Catholic I believe that all 4 gospels are historically accurate on this matter, and that Matthew, Mark and Luke can be easily harmonized here.

Here’s how I believe it happened.  I think that immediately after these two thieves were crucified on Good Friday, both of them did verbally attack our Lord!  They heard the insults the chief priests and Pharisees were hurling at Jesus, and in their anger and frustration they joined right in!

But at some point during the time that these two men hung there with Jesus, one of them had a change of heart.

Which leads to the obvious question: Why?  In other words, what led him to change?  What melted his heart and led him to conversion?

Well, we don’t know for sure, but I would say that it must have had something to do with how our Lord handled his suffering!

Personally, I think the Good Thief was moved by the love and mercy he sensed in Jesus, which motivated our Lord to forgive his murderers—as he was in the process of being murdered!

“Father, forgive them.  They know not what they do.”

Our Lord suffered in love.  That had to have a powerful impact on this thief, who initially was suffering in anger and bitterness.

The way in which Jesus suffered evangelized this hardened criminal, melted his hard heart—and ultimately brought him to heaven!  We know he’s there because Jesus said to him, “Today, you will be with me in paradise.”

I mention all this because when we think of evangelization, we normally think of the direct type: speaking about Jesus with our friends and family members; inviting people to come with us to Mass—or a mission—or Confession.

But today’s lesson is that evangelization can also be indirect: THE WAY WE ACT IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS, THE WAY WE TREAT OTHER PEOPLE—ESPECIALLY OUR ENEMIES; AND THE WAY WE PATIENTLY ENDURE OUR TRIALS AND SUFFERINGS CAN HAVE A POWERFUL IMPACT ON OTHER PEOPLE AND LEAD THEM TO CHRIST.

Indirect evangelization can be every bit as effective as the direct kind.

And if you don’t believe me, when you get to heaven ask the Good Thief, because that’s precisely how Jesus Christ evangelized him on Good Friday!

 

The Difference between ‘Convicting’ and ‘Condemning’

(Fifth Sunday of Lent (C):  This homily was given on March 6, 2025 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani.  Read John 8:1-11.)

[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Fifth Sunday of Lent 2025]

 

One is good; the other is bad.

One is temporary; the other is final.

One can lead to life; the other does lead to death.

I’m talking here about conviction versus condemnation.  Those are two words that people often use interchangeably in casual conversation, but theologically they mean very different things.

To convict someone is to make them aware of a sin in their life; to condemn someone is to set yourself up in judgment of that person and to say, in effect, that they’re going to hell.

To convict someone of their sin, in a loving way, is a good thing.  It’s what St. Paul is getting at in Colossians 3:16 when he tells us to “admonish one another.”

All of us need to be convicted at times, because we’re sinners.  That’s why I said at the very beginning that it’s good to be convicted!  Notice I didn’t say that it’s pleasant to be convicted!  I didn’t say that it’s pleasant because that would be a lie—and my mother taught me never to lie.

The fact is—getting convicted is normally a very unpleasant experience.  No one, after all, likes to be told they are wrong!  Nobody likes to be told that they need to change. 

But sometimes even the best among us are wrong, and sometimes even the best among us do need to change.

Now the good news is, if we respond to the unpleasant experience of being convicted by repenting of our sin and by making the effort to change our life for the better, then the unpleasantness will only be temporary (as I indicated earlier).   And it will lead us one step closer to the life—the eternal life—and the eternal happiness—that God has waiting for us in his heavenly kingdom.

That’s conviction: it’s good; it’s temporary; and it can lead to life.

The sad and tragic thing, of course, is when people get convicted, but feel like they’re being condemned.  They misinterpret the experience.  For example, when a man who’s been unfaithful to his wife hears a homily in which the priest condemns the sin of adultery, he can feel like he’s being condemned along with the sin—even though he’s only being convicted.  The same can happen to a post-abortive woman who hears a talk condemning abortion; or to a tax cheat who hears a homily condemning thievery.

In cases like these, men and women are being convicted of a sin they’ve committed; they’re NOT being condemned (even though it might seem to them that they are)!

One man who understood the difference between conviction and condemnation was the great St. Augustine, who lived back in the 4^th century.  As most of us know, Augustine lived a very hedonistic lifestyle for most of his first 31 years on planet earth—which kept his saintly mother on her knees most of the time, praying for his conversion.  Well eventually his sinful habits took their toll on him (as sinful habits always do!), and he ended up confused and on the verge of despair.  Then one day when he was in the city of Milan with a friend, trying to make sense of his life, he heard a child off in the distance singing a song that he had never heard before.  One of the lines in the song really struck him: “Pick it up and read it.  Pick it up and read it.”  He thought that maybe God was trying to speak to him at that moment, and so he found a copy of the Bible and picked it up, making the decision to read the very first passage his eyes fell upon.  That turned out to be the text from Romans 13 where St. Paul says, “Not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual excess and lust, not in quarreling and jealousy.  Rather, put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the desires of the flesh.”

That was the moment when his mother Monica’s prayers were finally answered.  That was the moment of his conversion to Christianity.  And that was the event that put him on the road to becoming Saint Augustine!

But all of that never would have happened if Augustine had interpreted this event in the wrong way.  Augustine realized that God, through these 2 verses of the Bible, was convicting him not condemning him!  If he had thought God was condemning him he would have thrown in the towel and given up hope.  But he knew better.  He knew that the Lord was convicting him of his past sins—his many past sins!—and inviting him to repent.

And he did.  Thank God!

Which brings us, at last, to the gospel story we just heard from John 8—this story of the woman caught in adultery.  The scribes and the Pharisees, unfortunately, responded to the woman with condemnation.  In their minds she was a hopeless sinner who needed to be disposed of.

And they were ready to do that by stoning her to death—until Jesus began writing on the ground.

Now the mystery of the story is: What was he writing?  What exactly was our Lord scribbling there in the dirt?

Sadly, we don’t know for sure.  But one theory is that he was writing the sins of the people in the crowd, the sins of the people who were getting ready to stone the woman.  And if that was the case, he obviously worked his way from the “top down”, because the text says they left one by one “beginning with the elders.”

Obviously Jesus convicted them.  He convicted them all!

But he also convicted the woman!

Recognizing the bad attitude—the condemnatory attitude—of the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus said to the woman after they all had left, “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one, sir.”  Jesus responded, “Nor do I condemn you.”  [One of the reasons, by the way, why Jesus did not condemn her is that the condemnation of people is NOT for this life.  Condemnation, strictly speaking, only comes after death: it comes after death for those who die in the state of mortal sin.  Now it’s true that you can condemn someone in your heart in this life—which is what the scribes and the Pharisees did with respect to this woman—but true condemnation only comes for people after they take their final breath, not before.]

The last line of the story ties everything together.  Jesus says to the woman, “Go, and from now on do not sin anymore.”

Obviously our Lord had read her heart (he could do that, since he was God!) and he knew she was sorry.  But that did not lead him to excuse her adultery!  Not at all!  Quite to the contrary, he explicitly called what she had done a “sin”.  And yet, at the very same time and in the very same instant, he extended to her his mercy and forgiveness.

I find it very interesting (and rather ironic) that the “religious” scribes and Pharisees responded to the experience of being convicted by closing their hearts and walking away—with their sins still on their souls; while this supposedly evil woman responded to her conviction by opening her heart and staying with Jesus—and having her sin taken away!

Which means that it’s her example—and not theirs—that God wants us to follow.

Let me conclude now by saying that we should all pray at this Mass for the grace to remember.  We should pray for the grace to remember this gospel story every time the Lord convicts us of an unrepented sin in the future: a sin that we’ve either ignored or denied or tried to rationalize away in the past. 

Because if we do always remember this gospel story, and then respond to our conviction like this woman responded to hers, then we will also be forgiven, and, most important of all, we will never be condemned.