A discussion of the sacrament of confession as Jesus' offer of forgiveness & healing. Also, confession is a source of the power of the Holy Spirit, and therefore contributes to our "divinization" - our sharing of the very nature and life of God - as we strive to become saints (fully alive).

1. CONFESSION
& THE CALL TO
HOLINESS
ST. LUKE’S
SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2018

2. CONFESSION?

3. CONFESSION!
“O Lord, be gracious to me;
heal me,
for I have sinned against
you.”
Psalm 41.4

4. HEALING & FORGIVENESS
« Lord, I am not worthy
that you should enter
under my roof; but only
say the word, and my
soul shall be healed. »
(cf. Gospel of St.
Matthew 8.8)

5. HEALING &
FORGIVENESS
“While [Jesus] was at table in [Levi’s] house,
many tax collectors and sinners sat with Jesus and
his disciples; for there were many who followed him.
Some scribes who were Pharisees saw that Jesus
was eating with sinners and tax collectors and said
to his disciples,
"Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?"
Jesus heard this and said to them,
"Those who are well do not need a physician, but
the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but
sinners.”
Gospel of St. Mark 2.13-17

6. HEALING &
FORGIVENESS
“The Church is a hospital for sinners.”
--St. Augustine (5th century)   
"I see clearly that what the Church needs today is the
ability to heal wounds… I see the Church as a field
hospital after a battle. It is useless to ask a seriously
injured person if he has high cholesterol …! You have
[first] to heal the wounds. Then you can talk about
everything else. Heal the wounds, heal the wounds...”
--Pope Francis (2013)

7. OUR PAST REALITY:
SPIRITUAL DEATH

8. OUR PAST REALITY:
SPIRITUAL DEATH
•“The doctrine of original sin is the only
empirically verifiable doctrine of the
Christian faith.”
• --Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971)

9. FROM DEATH TO LIFE…
St. Paul:
“You were dead through the …sins in which
you once lived…
But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the
great love with which he loved us even
when we were dead through our trespasses,
made us alive together with Christ …and
raised us up with him and seated us with
him in the heavenly places…”
(Ephesians 2.1-6)

10. FROM DEATH TO LIFE…
Jesus:
“Very truly, I tell you, anyone
who hears my word and
believes him who sent me has
eternal life, and does not come
under judgment, but has
passed from death to life.”
(Gospel of St. John 5.24)

11. OUR PRESENT REALITY:
WOUNDED & SICK WITH SIN
1. Pride
2. Envy
3. Wrath
4. Sloth
5. Greed
6. Gluttony
7. Lust

12. OUR DESTINY: TO BECOME FULLY ALIVE!
St. Peter:
“[God’s] divine power has given us
everything needed for life and
godliness …Thus he has given us
…his precious and very great
promises, so that through them
…may become participants of the
divine nature.”
2nd Letter of St. Peter 1.3-4

13. OUR DESTINY:
TO BECOME FULLY ALIVE!
–St. Irenaeus (2nd C.):
“The glory of God is a
human being fully alive”
–St. Athanasius (4th C.):
“God became human so
that humans could
become gods”
 

14. WHAT DO THE LIVING DEAD NEED?
If you get bitten by a
zombie, you become a
zombie. You’re still
alive… kind of, not
really… you’re actually
kind of dead… to once
again be fully alive, you
need an antidote.

15. THE ANTIDOTE: THE “HOLY SPIRIT”
God’s life,
love,
breath and energy;
that which
“animates” us and
all things.
(cf. Gn. 1.2; 2.7; Jn. 20.22; Ac. 17.28)

16. THE ANTIDOTE: THE HOLY SPIRIT
If you “get infected by” the Holy
Spirit – the antidote to the power
of “death” – you begin to become
fully alive. Without losing your
own unique personality, you begin
to become more and more like
Jesus, who is the only human
being who has – so far –
experienced the fullness of life,
the only one – so far – to be fully
“saturated with” the Spirit of God.

17. Has anyone ever become fully
alive?

18. The saints are those
who “caught” so much
of the Holy Spirit
that they were able to
become “fully alive”

19. ANY EVIDENCE OF THIS WORKING?
“if you want to know what the
face of the Holy Spirit looks like,
you should look at the faces of
the saints.”
–Vladimir Lossky (1903-58); quoted by Rowan Williams,
Holy Living: The Christian Tradition for Today (2017)

20. HOW DO WE ACCESS THE HEALING
POWER OF THE SPIRIT?

21. ACQUIRING THE « CHRIST-LIFE »
St. Paul:
“I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in
me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and
gave himself for me.”
Galatians 2.19-20
Jesus:
“Those who love me will keep my word, and
my Father will love them, and we will come to
them and make our home with them.”
John 14.23
• In the sacraments, Jesus –
through the priest and with
the power of his Spirit –
imparts his life to us; Jesus
brings us into a deeper
experience of life, a fuller
communion with the
Father.

22. JESUS IS WAITING…