Last Sunday, we focused on patient waiting. Today when the Baptist spoke of preparing for the Lord, he is leading us through an exercise of rethinking what it means to be penitent. And even as we set out to prepare ourselves for the coming of the Lord, we see in the person of John, a correlation between proposal (his words) and behaviour (his actions). Without pointing to himself, he was actually showing us how his preaching and his life were the same. John’s “posture” was poised and prepared to receive the Lord.
To prepare, let us delve into John’s counsel to repent. What is repentance? As stated earlier, it is related to re-thinking rather than to regret or remorse for “sinning”. Sin does not have to be a component in repentance as we observe this in God Himself. In sacred scriptures, God, who does not sin, repented. If God can repent, we can safely assume that penitence is first and foremost indicative of a change of heart.
So, how does preparation and re-thinking apply to our current situation?
We have been refrained or constrained by dissociative protocols, i.e., social distancing. Whilst it is stressful, nevertheless, it allows us to relook at a practice which is called the penitential service. We could not hold it before Easter this year when the focus of the MCO was “to flatten the curve”. Now that the cases are rising unabated, once again, we are prevented from conducting a penitential service before Christmas. In the past, some people have confessed their absence from penitential service as a sin. Non-attendance of such a service is not a sin which means theoretically, there was “nothing” to confess. In terms of Canon Law, a penitential service does provide the possibility of fulfilling the bare minimum which according to CIC#989 “each member of the faithful is obliged to confess faithfully his or her grave sins at least once a year”.
But, looking at this Canon from the perspective of “loving the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul”, we realise that this meagre undertaking scarcely covers what it means to love God superlatively. Only when Confession is not viewed as an obligation, that it will be easier to appreciate it as a reception of God’s love. Otherwise, it will become a dreaded chore to endure or worse, a punishment to undergo.
Both the Sacraments of Confession and Holy Communion are closely related in the sense that as soon as one is conscious of a serious sin, one ought to avail oneself of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. In fact, the Church strongly recommends “regular confession even of our venial sins because it helps us form our conscience, fight against evil tendencies and allow us to be healed by Christ as we progress in the life of the Spirit.” (CCC#1458). Plus, anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before going for Holy Communion. (CCC#1385).
This is where a serious rethinking is called for. Why?
Regrettably, the penitential service because it is organised according to the principle of convenience, breaks the connexion between the awareness of serious sin and the need for Confession before the reception of Holy Communion. On the one hand, it diminishes the seriousness of sin because it gives the impression that sin is not so sinful after all. On the other hand, what is there to prepare for if we lose the awareness of our sins?
Therefore, an opportunity has arisen from this great slowdown. It is like a pause for a reassessment; a space which is filled with the promise of a profound interior renewal. In general, we have stopped thinking of sin when we speak of our relationship with God. Instead, what we have is a sore disappointment that God has failed. If we feel short-changed, then it could be that we have a mistaken idea or notion of what a good God is. “This pandemic is lasting too long”. “Why is God silent?”. In this silence, the space for review has been colonised by images of a dismal and despairing future. Nowhere have we asked ourselves if we also need to change our ways. Furthermore, the categories of sins, grave or venial, run the danger ignoring that venial sins are indicative of where our hearts are at. If uncorrected, they can lead to bad habits and subsequent mortal sins. According to a quote attributed to St. Teresa of Avila, “Always fear when some fault you commit does not grieve you. For in regard to sin, even venial, you know that the soul must feel great sorrow…. For the love of God, take care never to grow careless about venial sin, however small…. There is nothing small if it goes against so great a Sovereign”.
In a way, I have come full circle. I mentioned right at the beginning that repentance is really an evaluative exercise, a rethinking rather than a focus on sin. Yet, I have elaborated at length the matter of sin because the examination of conscience that the Baptist called for is fundamental to the preparation for the coming of Our Saviour. But what is the point of waiting for the Saviour when we seem to have no sins or are not aware of them? For even Mary needed to be saved by her Son. He deigned to save her from sin through the mystery of the Immaculate Conception.
When sin is no longer a part of the equation of grace, then Holy Communion will have become “therapeutic” in the sense that it makes us feel good rather than it being a salvific act of Christ. He came to save sinners. He did not come to make us feel good[2] and this is going to sound insensitive. We do not attend Mass to feel good. We come to worship God and if we feel good about it, that is definitely a bonus. We are here because the worship of God is our salvation which is infinitely better than feeling good.
So, if we need a Saviour, then He must save us. Otherwise, how is He a Saviour if we were not sinners. In the desert, John urged those in search of redemption to have a change of heart. Concretely, it meant they had to repent and repair sinful behaviour. Without changing, we will never be able to appreciate the Gift that God is sending us. Preparation comes from a want—a need which recognises, is aware of and is longing for the Saviour. We are preparing for Him to come, not for Jingle Bells nor for Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. As such, repentance is a rethinking or revaluation of our relationship with God and the role sin plays in its disruption. That is why the prayers during Mass at Advent continually direct our attention to sins as in asking God to free us from them.
Finally, in an age of “sound-bites”, John leads the way. In preaching repentance, he became the message of a heart totally attuned to Jesus Christ—prioritising what or in this case, Who the sole mission of his life is. In preparing for Christmas or Christ to come, we too can follow his example by ensuring that our words live in our actions and that our actions speak louder than our words. That way, we will be able to echo John humbly that He may increase and so that we may decrease.
[1] Interestingly, the word “paranoia” suggests madness because one is thinking beyond the mind or colloquially, we say, “out of your mind”.
[2] The intent of a sacrament is salvation, not therapy. If the effect is therapeutic, it is definitely a bonus. Just like a visit to Lourdes to seek for a healing which is not necessarily the same as a cure.
