Cardinal Lamberto:Would you like, to make your confession? Michael Corleone:[laughs]Your Eminence, I’m uh – I’m uh — it’s been so long, I wouldn’t – wouldn’t – wouldn’t know where to uh, it’s been thirty years, I’d – I’d – I’d use up too much of your time, I think. Cardinal Lamberto: I always have time to save souls. Michael Corleone:Well, I’m — I’m beyond redemption. Cardinal Lamberto: [speaking in Italian to the priest looking after Dom Tommasino] Give us a couple of minutes alone please – thanks… [Turning back to Michael once they leave in English] I hear the confessions of my young priests here. Sometimes the desire to confess is overwhelming. And we must seize the moment.
Michael Corleone:What is the point of confessing, if I don’t repent? Cardinal Lamberto: I hear you are a practical man. What have you got to lose, eh?
The Godfather Part 3 1990
Today is Divine Mercy Sunday the premier time for repentance. Yesterday I led with a quote from Godfather 2 and note that like Michael Corleone trying to convince Hyman Roth that there was nothing to fear the Devil tries to convince us that our soul is not in danger or in need of confession.
But if we are far along the path of sin there is another tack that is used, the idea that we are beyond redemption.
This is actually the standard MO for the enemy, first to minimize sin when it is happening and then to maximize it to keep you from confession.
For ten days now I’ve been arguing for doing the Divine Mercy chaplet and praying the novena and yesterday I argued for going to a Divine Mercy event today and getting confession and absolution. If none of those argument have flown with you I want to give you one final one, the same one that Cardinal Lamberto gave to Michael Corleone: What have you got to lose?
Closing thought; Here is the scene of Michael confession. Note how it ends:
The Cardinal notes that
Michael’s sins are terrible
It’s just that he suffers for them
Michael won’t change because he [Michael] doesn’t believe he can be redeemed.
YET HE ABSOLVES HIM ANYWAYS.
Despite it all he gives Michael Corleone the clean slate and the CHANCE to choose another path. The Cardinal does his part to save Michael’s soul and give him a fresh start.. It’s on Michael to decide what to do with it.
Michael Corleone:It was Hyman Roth that tried to have me killed. I know it was him. Frankie Pentangeli: Now — Jesus Christ, Mike, Jesus Christ. Look, let’s get ’em all — let’s get ’em all now, while we got the muscle. Michael Corleone: This used to be my father’s old study — it’s changed. I remember there used to be a big desk, right here. I remember when I was a kid, Frankie, we had to be very quiet when we played near here. I was very happy that this house never went to strangers — first Clemenza took it over, now you. My father taught me many things here — he taught me in this room. He taught me — keep your friends close but your enemies closer. Now, if Hyman Roth sees that I interceded in this thing, and the Rosato brothers failed him, he’s gonna think his relationship with me is still good. Capide? Frankie Pentangeli:Capide. Michael Corleone: That’s what I want him to think. I want him completely relaxed, and confident, in our friendship. Then I’ll be able to find out who the traitor in my family was.
The Godfather Part 2 1974
Tomorrow is Divine Mercy Sunday and for the first time in a lot of years I won’t be around for the many Divine Mercy events that are taking place in churches around the world as part of this day.
But I CAN complete the Divine Mercy Novena with this prayer that really is critical:
Today bring to Me SOULS WHO HAVE BECOME LUKEWARM,* and immerse them in the abyss of My mercy. These souls wound My Heart most painfully. My soul suffered the most dreadful loathing in the Garden of Olives because of lukewarm souls. They were the reason I cried out: ‘Father, take this cup away from Me, if it be Your will.’ For them, the last hope of salvation is to run to My mercy.
Most compassionate Jesus, You are Compassion Itself. I bring lukewarm souls into the abode of Your Most Compassionate Heart. In this fire of Your pure love, let these tepid souls, who, like corpses, filled You with such deep loathing, be once again set aflame. O Most Compassionate Jesus, exercise the omnipotence of Your mercy and draw them into the very ardor of Your love, and bestow upon them the gift of holy love, for nothing is beyond Your power.
Eternal Father, turn Your merciful gaze upon lukewarm souls who are nonetheless enfolded in the Most Compassionate Heart of Jesus. Father of Mercy, I beg You by the bitter Passion of Your Son and by His three-hour agony on the Cross: Let them, too, glorify the abyss of Your mercy. Amen.
At the conclusion of the prayers pray the chaplet. Instructions are here.
The site for the National Shrine of Divine Mercy is here.
Let me close with three things about lukewarm souls:
First in Scripture Christ specifically admonishes being Lukewarm
“To the angel of the church in Laodicea, write this: ” ‘The Amen, the faithful and true witness, the source of God’s creation, says this:
“I know your works; I know that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm, neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of my mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich and affluent and have no need of anything,’ and yet do not realize that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.
I advise you to buy from me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white garments to put on so that your shameful nakedness may not be exposed, and buy ointment to smear on your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise. Be earnest, therefore, and repent.”
‘”Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, (then) I will enter his house and dine with him, and he with me. I will give the victor the right to sit with me on my throne, as I myself first won the victory and sit with my Father on his throne.”
‘”Whoever has ears ought to hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”‘”
Revelation 3:14-22
Second in the Screwtape letters C. S. Lewis talks specifically about how easy the lukewarm follow the gentle path to damnation.
You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,
Finally it is the lukewarm that need this mercy the most because they don’t realize or are in denial of the danger they are in. The best explanation of how this works comes from the end of a sermon from St. Leonard of Port Maurice which was on the subject of if most Catholics are damned or saved:
As for the rest, compare these two opinions: the first one states that the greater number of Catholics are condemned; the second one, on the contrary, pretends that the greater number of Catholics are saved. Imagine an Angel sent by God to confirm the first opinion, coming to tell you that not only are most Catholics damned, but that of all this assembly present here, one alone will be saved. If you obey the Commandments of God, if you detest the corruption of this world, if you embrace the Cross of Jesus Christ in a spirit of penance, you will be that one alone who is saved.
Now imagine the same Angel returning to you and confirming the second opinion. He tells you that not only are the greater portion of Catholics saved, but that out of all this gathering, one alone will be damned and all the others saved. If after that, you continue your usuries, your vengeances, your criminal deeds, your impurities, then you will be that one alone who is damned.
That’s why being lukewarm is of the greatest danger. When you feel completely safe is the time of greatest peril. There is a reason why I led this post with Michael Corleone’s instructions to Frank Pentangeli. The Devil wants you to feel safe, to feel secure, to decide that your sins are not a big deal. To decide you don’t need confession, that your sins are trivial, that you don’t need Divine Mercy. He wants you completely relaxed and confident so that when the day of your death comes you will not be prepared and it will not only be too late but he will take great pleasure in reminding you of all the chances to had to take advantage of the mercy of God, but passed them up.
So do not fail to take advantage of this great feast of Divine Mercy. Wash yourself clean via the blood of Christ and get yourself going in the right direction.
Because you are not promised tomorrow, cripes you aren’t even promised the rest of today.
Cardinal Lamberto: Would you like, to make your confession?
Michael Corleone:Your Eminence, I’m uh – I’m uh — it’s been so long, I wouldn’t – wouldn’t – wouldn’t know where to uh, it’s been thirty years, I’d – I’d – I’d use up too much of your time, I think.
Cardinal Lamberto: I always have time to save souls.
Michael Corleone:Well, I’m — I’m beyond redemption.
Cardinal Lamberto: [in italian to an approaching priest] Give us a couple of minutes alone please – thanks… [To Michael when the other priest leaves] I hear the confessions of my young priests here. Sometimes the desire to confess is overwhelming. And we must seize the moment.
Michael Corleone:What is the point of confessing if I don’t repent?
Cardinal Lamberto:I hear you are a practical man. What have you got to lose?
In my opinion if you had to name both the most and the least popular sacrament of the Catholic Church the answer would be the same.
Confession.
The Godfather Part 3 1990
There are people who rush to the confessional and go there regularly sometimes multiple times a week. There are others who avoid it like the plague itself. The source of both of these impulses are the same.
Seeing oneself in the light of truth.
To the person who sees himself in the light of truth and accepts that reality. The confessional is a place of cleansing. Like a shower after heavy work. Such a person understands the state of their soul and wishes to be made clean. The irony among such people is it’s my experience that the holier a person is the greater the tendency for confession because like a skilled carpenter who can tell the difference between a beam off 1/32 of an inch and one that is not, a person of deep faith and devotion sees the small imperfections in themselves that others might miss and confess to get themselves completely right with God.
Ironically to those who avoid confession it is many times the same but are in denial. It’s one thing to know in the back of your head who and what you are, but it’s quite another to have that reality brought before God to be acknowledged even in the privacy of the confessional becuase at that moment you have to bear the sight of yourself in the light of truth.
That more than anything else I suspect is what hell is all about, the denial and self loathing of what a person is in the light of truth which is God. It’s why so many choose hell, and believe me it’s a choice because to them the acknowledgement of what they are is beyond what they can bear. I recall a priest telling me a story of a saint who had been allowed to visit heaven asking about a friend who had died. When told the friend was in hell, the saint pleaded with God to the point where God allowed the soul in his presence. Rather than sharing the joy of the saint at deliverance the soul was angry and said to God “Tell this fool that all this brings me is pain.” To the damned the sufferings of hell, horrible as they are, are more bearable than the presence of God and the truth of themselves.
Maybe that is you. Maybe your sins are so great that the very idea of confessing them is abborant, or maybe like Michael Corleone you believe the sins are so great they can’t be forgiven. You have given into despair.
But that need not be for as Christ told St. Faustina:
I desire that the Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls, and especially for poor sinners. On that day the very depths of My tender mercy are open. I pour out a whole ocean of graces upon those souls who approach the fount of My mercy. The soul that will go to Confession and receive Holy Communion shall obtain complete forgiveness of sins and punishment. On that day all the divine floodgates through which grace flow are opened. Let no soul fear to draw near to Me, even though its sins be as scarlet.”
St. Faustina Diary 699
All over the world in parishes near and far priests are gathering for extra confession, extra masses and extra adoration to help the faithful and the lost take advantages of these mercies offered by Christ so that they may be wiped clear and get on that narrow path that leads to life. Again in the Lord’s words related to St. Faustina:
[Let] the greatest sinners place their trust in My mercy. They have the right before others to trust in the abyss of My mercy. My daughter, write about My mercy towards tormented souls. Souls that make an appeal to My mercy delight Me. To such souls I grant even more graces than they ask. I cannot punish even the greatest sinner if he makes an appeal to My compassion, but on the contrary, I justify him in My unfathomable and inscrutable mercy.
Diary 1146
Those who take advantage of this feast to obtain the mercy of God not only get that mercy, but discover something that so many people don’t realize. That Christ offers this mercy every single day of their lives thorough the sacrament of confession. It’s they’re for the taking if people will only grab it.
Take advantage of this mercy while you can, seize the moment because as Christ warns…
He who refuses to pass through the door of My mercy must pass through the door of My justice
(Jesus) said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.”
John 20-21-23
This week at mass the first two signs of a healthy parish were in evidence.
As people went up for communion there were some who approached with crossed arms receiving a blessing instead showing respect for the presence of Christ by publicly admitting that they were not properly disposed to receive as per the 1st sign of a healthy parish.
Furthermore not only large families were in evidence but during the responsorial psalm (which this week for Gaudete Sunday was the Mary’s prayer of praise the Magnificat ) the young child who had so loudly prayed the Our Father two weeks ago was praying this. Clearly his parents had taught him his prayers well. All of this is in line with the 2nd sign of a healthy parish.
But the 3rd sign of a healthy parish was also present as we left as the father of that boy held back to ask our priest if he had time to hear his confession.
I and others have often done the same both after a Sunday mass and in the gap between the two daily masses (offered at 7 AM & 8 AM Mon-Thurs). Invariably (although once in a while when there is a family waiting for a baptism the confession has been quick) our pastor has agreed which can be a handy thing because the only thing more reliable than his agreement is that if you turn up for confession at the usual time (3:15 or so on Saturday before the 4:15 mass) you will find a line.
This is very much in line with the sermon that was preached today where Father noted that all people need to be saved from their sins by God and the sacrifice of Christ. As he put it:
Go to a convent and the oldest and most devout nun you there will be in need of the saving power of God.
If such as John needed the Baptism of Christ for the forgiveness of his sins how much more you and me?
Furthermore a good priest who regularly hears your confession is in a good position to be a life coach steering you away from thing that are a danger to your soul.
I have known parishes where the priest will go the entire hour confessions are offered without a person coming or with maybe one or two regular penitents. This is always a sign of danger. Pride is the 1st of the deadly sins for a reason.
Find a parish with a line for confession and a priest always ready to hear one and you will find a parish that will be around for many years to come.
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