Verses for the last two months say make straight the way of the Lord. Isaiah said in the desert, "Prepare the way of the Lord. Make straight in the wasteland a highway for our God. Every valley shall be filled in, every mountain and hill made low. The rugged land shall be made plain, the rough country a broad valley, then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. And all the people shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Isaiah’s not talking about geography, he’s talking about us. What he’s saying is we’ll be made straight; we’ll be cleaned up and made beautiful in God’s eyes. And St. Peter in the second reading talks about as we await the end, for we know the end is coming, the coming of Jesus Christ he said, "What sort of persons ought you to be?" Then he answers, "Conducting yourselves in holiness and devotion, and waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of the Lord. Therefore, beloved, since you await these things, be eager to be found without spot or blemish, before him. Be at peace. " In other words, fix up your life. John and Peter tell us what to do and Jesus himself tells us how to do it.

In the 20^th chapter of John’s gospel, the first thing Jesus tells his apostles when he rises from the dead is, "Receive the holy spirit, whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven and whose sins you shall hold bound, they are held bound." And here I go again, the apostles were his first priests, his first bishops, and his first instruction out of the grave, clearly important, was forgive sins in my name. There is no question but that Jesus personally instituted the sacrament of reconciliation or confession or penance. There is no question. And yet Catholics have fallen away from this sacrament, especially over the last 20 or 30 years. But there is a renewal of the sacrament going on worldwide. It began intensely in the Jubilee year 2000, and the Holy Father in May of this year has proclaimed the need for renewal of the sacrament of confession. He calls for a rigorous revitalization. He says, and I quote, "Individual and integral confession and absolution are the sole ordinary means for reconciliation, and that general absolution, except in extraordinary situations should be avoided." And so we are required, me and you, if you’re a catholic, to confess our sins before a priest to receive absolution, unless there is an emergency, like a war, when general absolution would be acceptable. And there is a renewal going on. In this parish I noticed several weeks ago I heard first confessions, and I heard lots of parents of the first confession children come to confession and then we had about 40 first confessions from 13-year-olds and 17-year-olds. By the way, 13-year-olds and 17-year-olds have a advanced degrees in sinning. They’re up to speed on that stuff out there. But I was delighted with our young people because in the past I’ve found that a lot of times there’s sinning going on but people are saying it’s ok. These young people, almost unanimously, realized they were sinning and that what they were doing was wrong, and they were genuinely sorry and they asked for God’s forgiveness and, of course, they received it. By the way, we’ve made confession easier. If you haven’t been in 30 years, you don’t have to know nothing. Sit down, or kneel down and say, "I’m here." And I’ll take care of the rest. Some people don’t go because we had this, what was it, "O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended Thee, and I detest all my sins because of Thy just punishments, but most of all because they offend Thee, my God, Who art all-good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Thy grace, to sin no more and to avoid the near occasions of sin. Amen." You know, who can remember that? Some people say, "Oh my God, I am hardly sorry." And I dread the "logs of heaven" instead of the "laws of heaven" You don’t have to remember anything, just come to confession. The great, I think, hindrance to confession is pride and fear. And I know, I mean, I’m the same way. And I remember one time I went to confession in Hong Kong, of all places. I knew I needed to go to confession, I wasn’t at ease with myself or my God, and so I think this will be a great place. So I found a church in Hong Kong that had one English mass so I figured the guy’s English probably wasn’t that good, and I’d talk quick and get in and out of there. So I went in there and he said, "Son, how long has it been since your last confession (with an Irish accent)." My luck, I run into some guy born in Dublin. So I gave him my confession and he gave me for penance he said, "Read the confessions of St. Augustus." I said, "What? That’s a book!" He said, "Read the confessions. You need to read the confessions." You ain't gonna get no more details on this either. And I said, "Before I receive Holy Communion I need to read the book?" He said, "No, no. Just get the book and read it. You’ll benefit from it." And I did. It was a wonderful book.

Another time I went to confession several years ago in Medjugorie, I went on a pilgrimage there, and some times it’s good to have a general confession, just to sit down in confession and make sure you’re all cleaned up. So I gave him my life’s confession, and the priest’s name is Fr. Svet, a wonderful man, a brilliant preacher, and a wonderful theologian. And I was really honored to be able to go to confession to him. Medjugorie is in Bosnia-Herzegovina, but it’s a Croatian village, and they wish they were in Croatia. The thing about Croatians is they are very strong in their Catholic faith, and they were very anti-communist. And as I was giving Fr. Svet my confession, you know I went through my whole life, as well as my military career, and I did serve two years in combat, and I was involved in fighting and killing and I wanted to make sure I had done that fairly and justly. Anyone who has no questions on the conscience about things sometimes has the greater problem. So as I was giving him my confession, he interrupted and said, "Wait a minute. You were twice in Vietnam. Yes?" I said, "Yes."

He said, "You are shooting communists, yes?" I said, "Yes." He said, "It is not sin. Never sin to shoot communists. Good job. Thank you very much." If he’s ever up for canonization I’m going to destroy any chance Fr. Svet has. True story. But as I moved out of that confession, I smelled the most incredible beauty of flowers. And I said, "Oh, my first miracle." God never appears to me, and I don’t see visions or anything. What it was is, by the chapel there, there were just rows and rows of honeysuckle, and it was that time of day and the humidity was such that it was overpowering. It was really beautiful. But I had been walking by that honeysuckle for weeks, for a week, and I had never smelled it before. But after that confession I smelled it, because I was clean. But here’s the point I want to make today. Confession is not about your sins and my sins; confession is about God’s mercy. That’s the key. And God not only forgives our sins, he forgets them. Boy, wouldn’t married life be a lot better if you guys could figure out how to do that. You remember that time 12 years ago. There is no record of your sin in heaven when God forgives your sin. That’s how perfect his sacrifice was, and is. Some people say, "Well, how about other Christians who aren’t Catholic; they don’t need to go to confession." They don’t have the sacrament, they don’t understand it, and it’s not in their church. So, no, they don’t need to go to confession, but if you happen to be Catholic, there is this sacrament that you need to use. And again, it’s about his mercy.

Several years ago there was a young girl, who was confessing her sins, and she had been sexually active, and she was really very disturbed about this and she felt dirty. She said, "You know, I want to be married one day, and I want to wear that white dress." And I told here, "You’re gonna leave here now a virgin as far as God is concerned, because there is no record of anything else but your beauty in heaven today." That’s confession. That’s God’s mercy. That’s what he offers us. Do you need to go to confession? You need to answer that question yourself. I’ll try to make as many hours during the week open to confession as possible. To help answer that question, let me tell you about a group of men who felt that they needed to go to confession. On 9/11/2001, within a flash, 343 firefighters with the New York City fire department were killed. 343. Virtually all within minutes of each other. Let me read to you an excerpt from the Wall Street Journal of November 2001, an article written by Peggy Noonan.

She writes:

They who were about to die as martyrs needed the sacraments. So do I, and so do you.