Many of us either service or have the vehicles we drive serviced on a regular basis. By doing this, we greatly reduce the likelihood of our vehicle breaking down on us somewhere out there where we are miles and miles from a service station. By caring for our vehicles on a regular basis, we enhance and maximize their performance for us. In many cases, vehicles that are properly cared for last longer.
Our life in the Lord can be likened to a vehicle that calls for on-going regular maintenance. Preparing for and celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation is offered to us as an on-going opportunity to allow the Lord to service the vehicle of our spiritual life.
It’s heartening to note the significant number of persons who celebrate this Sacrament shortly before Christmas and shortly before and after Easter. Apart from these special times, its easy for many of us to slack off in terms of the frequency with which we celebrate this Sacrament. Sad to say, the inclination to hurt relationships, which is what sin is, is not seasonal. Every day of the year for as long as we live, we are tempted to hurt ourselves, others, the environment and the Lord in our attitudes, words, actions and omissions. From time to time, we give in to temptations that confront us.
Even though as a result of Original Sin, we are inclined to act in ways that hurt relationships, we are offered in the Sacrament of Reconciliation the strength to live in such a way that sin in its various forms does not master us. Apart from allowing the Lord to service our spiritual lives on a regular basis, we can become dominated by sin as it comes to expression in an unwholesome attachment to any of the blessings that the Lord has entrusted to us. The vehicle of our life in the Lord breaks down whenever sin in any of its ugly forms masters us. A significant way of preventing this from happening is to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular frequent basis.
Having our vehicles serviced on a regular basis enables them to operate at a level of peak performance. This illustrates what can happen to our life in the Lord if we adopt the practice of going to the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular frequent basis. Are we not at our best as persons as we live in the spirit of generosity in regard to all that has been entrusted to us? It is not coincidental that many of us are especially generous around Christmas and Easter, a fruit of having celebrated the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Receiving this Sacrament frees us to see and to embrace the bigger setting within which we live. As we do our part to make this happen, we open ourselves to experience the motivation to share of ourselves and of our resources of time, energy and material resources in a generous manner.
Why limit the spirit of generosity to certain times of the year? As we resolve to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation on a regular frequent basis, we can drive the spiritual vehicle of our life in Christ toward the goal of operating at peak performance. We will thus grow in the ability to receive and to extend something of the Lord’s generosity in the ways that we are equipped to do this at all times during the year.
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Fr. Nelson Beaver – Pastor