The following first appeared in CREDO, June 14, 1999

" I don't need to go to a priest to confess my sins! " is a refrain heard all too many times. I used to feel this way myself. Over time, I have come to appreciate the fact that I do need to go to a priest. I now realize that Christ instituted this sacrament, because He understood that we have a deep need to unburden our sins to another human being. As Archbishop Jozef Tomko has said, " A person has an interior need to open his or her soul to another." In Reconciliation, this is one whom has been empowered to absolve people of their sins in the name of the Holy Trinity. This is divine forgiveness with a human touch.

Jesus became human to extend the merciful touch of the Father to all people. There are numerous examples in the Gospels, where we see sinners being forgiven by Jesus. For me, the most poignant is the story of the penitent woman. My purpose in citing her story is to illustrate the power of forgiveness when it is mediated through a person. Of course, for this woman, that person happened to be the Son of God!

The penitent woman appears in all four Gospels, and Scripture scholars debate her identity, but she was not Mary Magdalene, as is commonly believed. She was however, most probably a prostitute.
My favorite version is found in Luke(7:36-50). St. Luke paints the picture for us with vivid colors. This " sinful woman in the city,"(vs. 37) learns that Jesus is dining in the house of Simon the Pharisee. Bringing expensive perfume with her, the woman is determined to anoint Jesus. Implicit in the story, is that he has already touched her life in some significant way. For as she humbly approaches him, she begins weeping so profusely, that her tears fall on his feet. Immediately, she begins to dry his feet with her hair.

Have we ever felt such contrition for sin in our lives? If not, it is not because we are free of the sin that evokes such profound repentance, but because we are still unaware of the seriousness of our sin -how it blocks God's fatherly love and renders damage to ourselves and others.

The penitent woman had found in Jesus, a quality of love and wisdom that stirred her soul. No doubt she had heard his teaching or witnessed his miracles, and she knew that he was an extraordinary man. In his bright light, the darkness of her sinfulness was black indeed. And yet, she knew that from him, she could receive the forgiveness that would set her free.

When this prostitute went to the house of Simon, the self-righteous religious leader, she certainly knew that scorn would be heaped upon her. But she went anyway, carrying the precious perfume that had formerly served her in the practice of her "trade." She cared not what others might say or do to her, for she felt compelled to seek out Jesus in what would be an intimate encounter. In fact, drying the feet of Jesus with her hair was an act of intimacy that further served to anger Simon and the other Pharisees.

Yet, Jesus applauds the action of the woman at the same time that he criticizes his host, who had not even extended the most basic courtesy to him. He tells Simon, that she who has loved much, is forgiven much. Then he looks at this humbled woman at his feet and tells her, " Your faith has saved you. Go in peace."(vs.50)

This forgiveness of her sins was not some private matter, a kind of "abstract" and isolated absolution. No, she received the mercy of God in the context of her community. And as important, she received mercy through human touch, reassuring words and the mediated grace that flowed from the Savior himself.

Jesus is no longer visibly present to us, but he is sacramentally present. In Reconciliation, like the penitent woman, we have the opportunity to experience absolution through touch, and through the spoken words of the priest who represents Jesus to us.

To be sure, I have experienced the mercy of God outside of the sacrament. However, I can say unequivocally, that when absolved by a priest, I have far greater certitude of my soul's cleansing. I also experience the wondrous presence of the Lord Jesus. Like the pentinent woman, I begin the celebration humbled by my own sinfulness. I leave with a tangible sense of the tender mercy of our God and the freedom that He alone can give.

Just this past week, I was visiting a woman in the hospital named Carol. She started talking about Reconciliation, by asking me why more people don't take advantage of the sacrament. I offered some possible reasons, but Carol just shook her head. She started to describe the wonderful feeling that she has when she has been given absolution. " I feel as clean inside as a new snowfall, " she said, " And the next time I receive the Eucharist, it is a much deeper experience of the presence of Jesus."

The Pope assures us that Jubilee 2000 will be a "year of favor of the Lord." He also has exhorted us to ongoing conversion in order to be better disposed to receive the graces that God wants to pour out. I can think of no better way to be serious about conversion than a regular use of the sacrament of Reconciliation.

May we come to Jesus for the touch that sets us free.


Glenn Smith may be contacted at glennk54 at hotmail.com (replace "at" with @ and remove all spaces).